Why your business needs an up-to-date anti-malware solution

Why your business needs an up-to-date anti-malware solution

When it comes to information security, much of the attention is on human error, which makes sense given how most data breaches occur at the hands of social engineering scams designed to exploit human ignorance and unpreparedness. Some even question whether traditional antivirus solutions are even still relevant in an age when phishing scammers can circumvent them with ease.

That way of thinking is a mistake, since most attacks still include malicious code or programs, whether they’re spread by social engineering scams or exploiting vulnerabilities. To make matters worse, cybercriminals continue to develop increasingly sophisticated malware designed to exploit the latest vulnerabilities.

How can anti-malware help protect your business?

Not even the best anti-malware solutions are completely foolproof, but they’re still a vital part of any information security strategy. They can scan emails for malicious attachments, block downloads containing malicious code, and even filter out spam and potentially fraudulent emails. They can do this at a scale that is impossible for even the largest human-powered teams to achieve.
Anti-malware automates a lot of the work involved with protecting information-bearing assets. This doesn’t just help your business protect against common threats; it also frees up time for your employees so they can focus on their core competencies.

Modern anti-malware solutions use heuristic scanning methods to detect suspicious activities (like unusual file transfers) and lines of code, rather than relying only on a list of predefined malware signatures. This means they can often identify new threats that haven’t been added to security intelligence databases yet.

Why staying on top of updates is so important

The cyberthreat landscape is evolving all the time, with cybersecurity experts and vendors all trying tirelessly to keep ahead of criminals. Whenever a new vulnerability is discovered, there’s always a chance of a cyberattack exploiting it in the same day. This is known as a zero-day exploit, in which vulnerabilities are exploited before a fix becomes available.

By keeping your anti-malware up to date, there’s a chance it will be able to detect such threats and, even if it can’t fix them by itself, it might be able to find a temporary workaround.

Your anti-malware program isn’t the only software you need to keep up to date. It’s imperative that you install all security updates for the operating systems and applications you use, and that those products are still supported by their vendors. For example, if you’re using Windows 7, time is running out, as Microsoft will no longer release critical security updates for it from January 2020.

Don’t neglect security awareness training

Anti-malware should be considered a way to automate routine cybersecurity tasks, therefore reducing your employees' workload. But that doesn’t make it a substitute for employee training. A phishing scam, for example, might deliberately target your anti-malware platform to try to get you to deactivate it.

As such, the human element is critically important at every stage of the cybersecurity process. Training your employees to recognize the threats, particularly those that exploit human ignorance rather than vulnerabilities in technology, is essential for turning them into a highly effective line of defense between your business and the hackers who would do it harm.

Complete Document Solutions provides powerful cybersecurity measures for your network to keep your company safer and more productive. If you need proactive patch management and state-of-the-art anti-malware solutions, call us today.

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