Why You Need to Ditch Your Antivirus (And Switch to Endpoint Protection)

Why is now the time to ditch your antivirus and switch to endpoint protection? 

In the golden youth of cybersecurity, it all came down to antivirus. Given the primitiveness of the threat landscape, this usually worked. Additionally, enterprises could easily keep track of all the computers connecting to their network; most commonly, all the desktop endpoints operated from a single room, where IT professionals could keep a close eye on them. 

Unfortunately, malware evolved. The hackers behind them learned how to circumvent typical signature-based detection by using signatureless malware. Even as signatureless antivirus and next-generation antivirus developed, hackers developed new methods of avoiding detection. 

Here are a few reasons to ditch antivirus and choose endpoint protection instead. 

Why You Need to Ditch Your Antivirus

Fileless Malware Is Growing

Fileless malware operates in a manner so remarkably different from typical malware it bears comment. Typical malware downloads a file onto an endpoint, from which it can perform its nefarious operations. Antivirus tracks down these files and (hopefully) removes them. 

However, fileless malware doesn’t download any file at all (hence the name). Instead, it uses a native process of the endpoint to run its nefarious code, basically infecting the computer from within its own programming. Due to how it operates, antivirus solutions can’t detect fileless malware; there’s no signature to trace and no file to find.. As a result, hackers’ use of fileless malware continues to grow exponentially. 

So what can you do? How does endpoint protection stop fileless malware in a way antivirus can’t? 

EDR As the Key to a Better Cybersecurity

Due to problems like fileless malware and the overall eventual success rate of hackers (which nears 100 percent over time), detection-based cybersecurity no longer makes sense. Instead, enterprises must switch to a detection and response model which best suits the evolving threat landscape. 

Nowhere is that more evident than in endpoint detection and response (EDR). EDR operates in a manner reminiscent of SIEM, but from a more endpoint-oriented standpoint. It searches out for threats that have penetrated the digital perimeter by analyzing data from firewalls, databases, and applications. 

If EDR detects a potential security event, it can send an alert to your IT security team. These alerts give a direction for teams to investigate, a means to facilitate and speed their investigations. The faster an investigation goes, the faster the potential remediation can occur and the faster your business can resume normal operations.

Cybersecurity Extends Beyond Malware

Of course, the main reason to ditch antivirus and switch to endpoint protection isn’t about malware. In fact, malware represents only one aspect of what endpoint protection can offer as a cybersecurity protection offering. Two of the major capabilities that help protect businesses include data loss protection (DLP) and application control. 

The former prevents employees and even privileged access users from moving data without the right permissions. This can involve preventing data from moving outside the network such as to public cloud databases and inside the network via unsecured connections; together, DLP prevents data from being in the wrong place at the wrong time, thus preventing leaks. 

Meanwhile, application control maintains control over the movement and permissions of applications, whether created by the business or by a third party. Without proper monitoring, applications could become hijacked by external threat actors and used to fulfill attacks. 

Why do you need to ditch antivirus? Because focusing just on malware alone can leave your business more vulnerable than ever before. You can learn more in our Endpoint Security Buyer’s Guide.