With the advancement of sophisticated technology in use by cyber criminals, it is no surprise why medium and large-sized enterprises are choosing to use state-of-the-art tools to protect themselves against cyber attacks.
Although it is common practice to have some sort of cyber protection on all work and personal equipment, small businesses are still failing to apply the necessary steps and continue to settle for traditional antivirus software, which just doesn’t cut it anymore.
Small business owners tend to think that due to the size of their corporation, they would not be valuable targets for cyber criminals. Unfortunately, it is precisely small businesses who suffer up to 43% of all cyber attacks in Australia. Out of all businesses in Australia, only 14% of them believe that their cybersecurity implementations are highly effective.
It is precisely this idea that small businesses have of being unlikely targets, that cyber criminals precisely take advantage of. Thinking you could cheat a cyber criminal’s path by using a traditional antivirus software could just be your doom. This false sense of security provided by antivirus software could cripple you and make you think you have enough protection, when in fact these types of traditional software only provide a small fraction of security.
Traditional Antivirus Software: How does it work?
In order to understand why your everyday antivirus just doesn’t cut it for a small to medium-sized business anymore, we need to understand the mechanics of how antivirus software works.
Antivirus software detects a virus by using patterns that match the sequence of an existing virus. By matching the sequence, a virus is found. When a virus has been detected, all of the alerts go off and the virus is eliminated from a system. It’s really pretty straight forward how it all works, but that’s exactly the problem.
Viruses are extremely complex nowadays. In order for your antivirus to work, it needs to already know and understand a virus’ behaviour. If there are any changes in virus behaviour, then the antivirus will not identify it until the new signatures that identify the virus are released. When a virus is new, it takes days or weeks to develop a new signature, which is why antivirus updates are so important. Virus signatures are updated once to twice a week, which gives a lot of room for an attack.
Next Generation Endpoint Protection
Also known as NGEP, Next Generation Endpoint Protection offers the most current protection against malware and hackers. Why is it better than antivirus software? Because unlike an antivirus, NGEP offers continuous analysis and solutions for your device, checking every file whether it has been detected as good or bad. Nothing escapes this system.
Furthermore, NGEP uses a vigilant approach towards all files in a way that traditional antivirus software simply cannot deliver, because it doesn’t need a previously catalogued signature to identify a suspicious file. Endpoint Protection also uses multiple preventative engines that use cloud-based threat intelligence in order for your device to not have to store any unnecessary data.
Are You Protected?
Now that you know how antivirus and NGEP both work, think about your cybersecurity strategy. Are you confident with your current protection against cyber attack?
Hopefully this has put into perspective that when it comes to your business and protecting your data, your free antivirus downloaded from the net will not suffice any more. For more strategies regarding the implementation of NGEP in your workplace, give Kaesim Cybersecurity a call!
