If you depend on an antivirus, please be aware that it is more than likely to let you down. More importantly, some threatening cyber threats are well-known to get past antivirus and cause major problems.
This is How Your Antivirus is Letting You Down
The best way to avoid a computer virus is by using common sense, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be safe from attack. Even the most careful user can find themselves infected in an instant and spreading the virus faster than a sneeze during the flu season (or the coronavirus!). The common thought is that your antivirus will help you. However, we recommend a next-generation antivirus that can prevent malware from executing.
First of all, let’s discuss how your traditional antivirus is letting you down:
Advertising: Much like a free app making its fortune with in-app purchases, the free antivirus software will push for payment. Expect popup boxes pestering you to sign up for the paid version at least daily. Some free options will also try to change your browser home page and default search engine, an inconvenience you may be stuck with. Even paid will find ways to upgrade your service or protect something new.
Effectiveness: It’s fair to expect your antivirus to detect malware, and testing showed that in a head-to-head battle free and paid are about equal at catching known infections. And therein lies the kicker: generally speaking, an antivirus needs to have recorded a virus to its library before it can detect it. Next-gen antivirus uses AI and machine learning for deeper security analysis. It essentially bases the detection on suspicious behavior, source, and attributes, a far more effective method of detection.
Features: Free antivirus options are usually created from the paid version, taking out everything except the bare minimum. Some paid antivirus may form more secure protection against attacks. However, hackers have advanced beyond simple tactics and it’s not just about avoiding email attachments anymore.
Support: Free antivirus options are the most popular choice because they’re… free. Obviously. This also means there’s generally no support available. If there’s a problem or conflict with another program, you may find yourself without protection until it can be resolved. When coupled with our MDR service, next-gen antivirus offers 24/7 around-the-clock monitoring.
Cyber Threats That Will Make it Through Your Antivirus
You understand by now that your antivirus is letting you down. But, did you know that by relying on antivirus alone, you could potentially allow these common cyber threats onto your network, putting your corporate data at risk?
Advanced Threats. Legacy antivirus depends on prior knowledge to detect threats. Adversaries have access to nation-grade hacking tools which means that new threats are detected daily. AI- and computer learning give us the ability to detect and validate suspicious activity.
Polymorphic Malware. Attackers can easily defeat signature-based antivirus tools that rely on checking a file’s hash against a known hash database.
Malicious Documents. Sometimes a maliciously-formatted document is used to exploit vulnerabilities in the opening application to achieve code execution, and legacy AV cannot detect such by reputation.
Fileless Malware. Attackers have realized that traditional AV solutions have a gaping blindspot: malicious processes can be executed in-memory without dropping telltale files for AV scanners to find.
Encrypted Traffic. Malicious actors can hide their activities from inspection by ensuring that traffic between the victim and attackers’ command-and-control (C2) server is protected by end-to-end encryption.
Related: The Case for Cyber Threat Hunting
Consider Cybriant MDR
Our team of security experts will help stop advanced threats at the endpoint with Cybriant MDR. We utilize AI-based next-gen antivirus that will help you:
PREVENT: Our expert security analysts monitor and record all the events that occur on your endpoints. Our team focuses on relevant threats that attempt data exfiltration or modification. When files attempt to execute these suspicious processes an alert is triggered and the attack is halted in real-time.
DETECT: When a credible threat is detected, our system will retrieve the process history, and our team will analyze the chain of events in real-time and determine the validity of the threat. You’ll receive the alerts when threats are detected along with advice and insight from our cybersecurity team to help you mitigate and respond to the threat.
REMEDIATE: Once identified, the malicious activity is immediately stopped in its tracks, and our team guides you through the remediation. This remediation process provides astonishing insight into the data of the threat. You’ll be able to help your organization reduce its attack surface by learning how you’ve been compromised.
Consider Cybriant MDR to help you detect threats that antivirus will certainly miss. Learn more here: cybriant.com/mdr.
