You Get What You Pay For with Cheap Antivirus

So, you’ve added an antivirus to your business’ cybersecurity protections. That’s great—it’s an essential element of the comprehensive defenses that a modern business needs. However, it is important that the antivirus you’re relying on is, in fact, reliable.

Let’s go over how not all antivirus tools are the same, and what makes it so important to implement one that meets your business’ needs and protects against the threats you would otherwise have to deal with.

First, We Need to Understand How an Antivirus Works

The way antivirus software works is relatively simple: everything is scanned before it can access your network, and if something has the same signature as a known threat, it is blocked. 

Elegance in its simplicity, but there’s one critical issue with this approach: hackers are busy. Hundreds of thousands of malware variants are created each and every day, which means your firewall’s list of known threats is swiftly rendered obsolete.

Second, We Need to Acknowledge How Modern Attacks Work

Nowadays, hackers aren’t using obvious means to attack businesses. Much more often, they’re manipulating a business’ employees into acting against their own interests through phishing, often leading the hapless employee down a path that harms the organization with its own tools.

Here’s the problem: your antivirus isn’t looking for problematic user behaviors. All it has is its list to reference as it works to catch malicious files. It won’t catch a user entering code provided by an attacker into PowerShell—it simply isn’t built to do so. Your firewall will trust your user and PowerShell because they are both legitimate parts of your business.

Meanwhile, your network is being ransacked, and there’s nothing your antivirus can do.

Fortunately, There’s a More Secure Option: EDR

EDR—Endpoint Detection and Response—is an additional security tool that addresses the shortcomings of antivirus software by monitoring network activity regardless of whether a code is on a list. Instead, behaviors are examined in real time so that burgeoning threats can be caught, stopped, and identified.

Let’s say you downloaded a file from an email attachment. If that file suddenly tries to encrypt the others on your server, the EDR tool stops the process and isolates the computer from the network. We are then alerted so we can investigate and resolve the problem, proactively catching issues before they manifest.

Don’t Let Thriftiness Undermine Your Business’ Security

As the saying goes, you get what you pay for… and if you skimp on your cybersecurity protections, you’re effectively paying for a cyberattack to happen.

Give your business the protection it needs. Reach out to us at 708-781-7110 for more information on how to do so.