A Full Body Scan: Protect Your Organization with Endpoint Antivirus Software

With cyberattacks still on the rise, you can never be too careful when it comes to securing your company’s data and the systems that house it. The problem is, without advanced endpoint protection it can be hard to discover the malware, viruses, and worms that may be lurking not only on user workstations, but also in server environments.

Eye-opening fact: 68 percent of breaches take several months or longer to discover

A recent survey showed 68 percent of breaches took several months or longer to discover, giving malicious agents plenty of time to propagate and access sensitive information.

Did you know that everything needed to infect your critical servers is easily obtained by professionals and non-professionals alike? It’s estimated that 30 percent of system breaches were initiated by insiders last year alone.

It’s time to schedule a full-body scan for your IT infrastructure, and endpoint antivirus is the tool for the job. 

Protect ALL Your Infrastructure—Not Just Workstations

Most organizations do a solid job of applying antivirus software to PCs and other user workstations. This is because they feel most threats are spread via email coming in through an individual user’s account. Yet, this isn’t always the case.

Viruses, malware, and other intrusive entities can just as easily target your servers, whether they’re on-premises, in the cloud, or in a hybrid environment. Threats can even be introduced to servers via poorly protected FTP and VPN connections. However, not every organization does a great job of monitoring tools and equipment, particularly when it comes to their growing Linux infrastructures.
 

Go Beyond Windows Scanning

The popularity of Windows environments is well known. Because of this, most antivirus solutions are geared specifically toward this platform. IT teams even use Windows scanning tools to monitor Linux, AIX, and IBM i environments, often with ineffective results such as scan failures or even security events that are completely missed.

Relying on a program that’s built for Windows and not your server’s OS can lead to failures that trigger pop-up alerts. This results in a scanning process that’s highly manual and requires someone to constantly monitor the workstation to silence these alerts. Automation is key to efficient and effective scanning, and finding viruses in all the spots they hide means leveraging an endpoint antivirus tool that gets this done thoroughly, every time.

Advanced Endpoint Protection

Although it’s always disheartening to read about cyberattacks in the news, there are solid defense mechanisms available to cover all your bases. Most notably, endpoint antivirus solutions such as Powertech Antivirus feature native virus scanning that supports the specific features of servers running Linux, PowerLinux, AIX, and IBM i. This is possible with the most up-to-date information about the latest viruses, zero-day threats, worms, and malware. Using a comprehensive solution is critical as many organizations have a variety of operating systems running on their servers and need multi-pronged scanning capabilities.

The Rise of Linux Malware

In the past, many system admins chose to ignore the threat of Linux malware. That all changed after WikiLeaks released the details of the CIA’s Outlaw Country and Gyrfalcon Linux hacking tool kits.

Multiple industry reports now show Linux is one of the fastest-growing malware types with instances of Linux malware variants tripling since 2015. One research firm noted a 300 percent increase year-over-year. Today, Linux accounts for more than 35 percent of all discovered malware.

Linux systems can be directly infected by ransomware, crypto-lockers, scripts, trojans, worms, and many other types of malware. And even well-patched Linux and UNIX servers can host and spread Windows viruses. Samba-based CIFS file shares can pass along files that are infected with non-Linux malware without becoming infected themselves.

Using Windows-based scanners on permanently mounted shares creates its own set of problems and does nothing about the Linux-based malware on the CIFS host system. These malware infections then spread throughout the network.

Ongoing Virus Scanning Is Key for Compliance

Whether your organization must demonstrate compliance with PCI DSS, HIPAA, GLBA, or other regulations, advanced endpoint protection is critical to meeting the latest requirements. Many of these laws contain specific wording about implementing safeguards that reduce risk and maintain data integrity.

They also require server-level malware protection and the ability to generate audit reports based on the results of scan activity. These reports need to cover any infections detected and what was removed or quarantined. Having all malware scanning activity recorded in the system audit journal and your syslog archive gives you the complete audit trail needed to simplify compliance tasks.

Avoid Business Disruption

Your business can’t tolerate any downtime, much less the major disruption a data breach or ransomware attack can cause. The time is right for you to re-evaluate how you protect your infrastructure and data so you can achieve peace of mind in the face of a challenging security environment.