How effective is your current anti-virus software? If you’re using legacy options, you could actually be putting your organization at risk without knowing it. Next generation anti-virus (NGAV) solutions are necessary if you want to keep threats at bay and keep moving forward. Here’s what you need to know about next generation anti-virus tools, why it’s a better option over traditional solutions, and how your organization can benefit.
What Is Next Generation Anti-virus?
Next generation anti-virus is technology that locates not only known malware files but also finds any signs and symptoms of malware. This endpoint security option is able to detect malicious code simply by looking at file behavior. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and more are able to quickly detect known as well as unknown threats. As a result, you can have software that is much more responsive to malware, increasing your protection.
Next gen anti-virus can close the door on zero-day vulnerabilities and ransomware, making it an absolute must for businesses and nonprofits. Cybersecurity is so much more than anti-virus, but there’s no denying that next generation anti-virus plays a big role. Is it time to schedule a consultation and look for proper protection for your organization?
Traditional Anti-virus vs. Next Generation Anti-virus
In the past, traditional anti-virus options, also known as legacy anti-virus, would only be able to look for and identify “signatures” of malware. If the signature was unknown or the anti-virus software hadn’t been updated, the traditional anti-virus would not be able to find it. This would allow malicious code, viruses, and more to slip through the cracks.
Next gen anti-virus, instead, looks at the actions of the code, rather than simply signatures. If applications or files are acting in a malicious way, NGAV is able to detect it. As a result, NGAV solutions are better able to identify ransomware, fileless attacks, viruses, and other malicious code. It’s also much more proactive and reactive compared to traditional AV.
What Are the Benefits of Next Gen Anti-virus?
NGAV solutions bring a whole host of benefits to businesses, including:
Increased Cybersecurity
Thanks to the way next gen anti-virus works, an organization’s cybersecurity is significantly increased. Viruses and malware can be better detected and responded to in a timely matter. And because information is regularly gathered from new malicious attacks, more preventative solutions can be presented in the future. NGAV software can better understand exactly how malware works, meaning endpoint security only gets better as time goes on.
Less Downtime and Lower Operational Costs
Malware, viruses, and ransomware can all do considerable damage to companies and nonprofits. They can shut down work for weeks at a time and, in serious cases, cause the organization to close their doors for good.
By implementing NGAV, organizations can lower the risk of downtime in the event of an attack and the costs associated with those attacks, even if they were successful. Having new anti-virus solutions means you can react faster, reducing the effect an attack has on your organization. The faster the reaction time, the less effect it will have on your finances.
Less Maintenance Required
Traditional anti-virus solutions require manual updates and patches in order to be able to identify malware signatures. Since no manual updates are required for cloud-based next gen anti-virus, your IT team has less to worry about. Protection is always there, thanks to automatic patches.
Improved Productivity
Scans for malware also take less time and resources when you’re using next gen anti-virus. Since NGAV is on the cloud, scheduled scans won’t affect computers’ processing speeds or bandwidth. Traditional options can take a long time to scan an entire computer and can definitely slow computers down significantly. With NGAV, your employees can continue to work unaffected, even if a malware scan is running in the background.
Level up Your Cybersecurity Strength With EIS
Going without anti-virus solutions has always been a big no-no. Legacy anti-virus is a good start for cybersecurity, but you could unknowingly be holding the door open to threats by using these older options. Next-generation anti-virus solutions from a trusted cybersecurity provider like EIS can absolutely make the difference when it comes to keeping your organization productive, secure, and moving forward.
Discover if NGAV is right for you by downloading our 2022 IT Buyer’s Guide.