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As the cybercrime landscape evolves, you may wonder if the old Antivirus solution that you have installed on your organization’s endpoints still does the job.
Traditional antivirus software initially offered sufficient defense against the majority of viruses before they evolved into other types of malware. A better type of endpoint security is required because traditional antivirus couldn’t keep up with the evolution of assaults.
As the name implies, the Next-Generation Antivirus (NGAV) is the next step in antivirus software. This article will explain how this solution differs from traditional AV or EDR, how it works, and how it could benefit you.
What Is NGAV?
Next-Generation Antivirus (NGAV) solutions identify and mitigate known and unknown threats using a mix of artificial intelligence, behavioral detection, and machine learning algorithms. As cloud-based solutions, NGAV can be easily deployed and kept up-to-date. The continuous background updates make them efficient in facing the continuously evolving landscape of cybercrime.
Compared with signature-based security tools, Next-Generation Antivirus solutions focus on tracking all signs of malicious behavior, not only a list of known malware. This way, it stops threat actors before they have the chance to do any harm.
How NGAV Works?
NGAV is significantly different from legacy software in the manner it protects endpoints through the deployment of innovative technologies.
How it works:
Single Agent
It deploys a unique, lightweight agent on all the endpoints that does not impact day-to-day operations and performances.
Prevention Capabilities
A Next-Generation Antivirus uses sophisticated and innovative prevention tools that stop malware regardless of the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) used by cybercriminals. Some of these methods include machine learning, exploit blocking, custom whitelisting and blacklisting, behavioral indicators of attack (IOAs), attack attribution, and adware blocking.
No Signature Updates
No need for a signature database that you have to update regularly. To assess whether a file is malicious or not, algorithms can instantly examine millions of file properties.
Online & Offline Protection
This keeps the endpoint safe both online and offline and enables highly accurate detection and protection.
Instant Deployment
With no additional hardware, software, tuning, or configuration required, NGAV solutions should be deployed and operational in a matter of hours.
Integration
These products are made to easily fit into security environments without adding complexity.
NGAV vs Legacy AV
Legacy Antivirus solutions use a list of signatures linked to specific types of malware to identify threats. This makes them powerless in the face of more sophisticated, fileless malware or zero-day attacks. Besides being a reactive method, this leaves a time gap between the creation of malicious software and the time when the AV gets upgraded to recognize it.
NGAV addresses these problems by using machine learning, behavioral detection, and artificial intelligence to block known and unknown threats. This offers organizations wider and faster protection as it takes into consideration all kinds of detection parameters, not only signatures.
Legacy software can be heavy on your systems and require a lot of tuning and regular updates from your IT team, as staff shortage continues to be a problem in this domain. NGAV, on the other hand, as a cloud-based solution, requires minimal maintenance. Moreover, Next-Gen solutions work in the background of your company’s endpoints, without consuming resources and impacting devices’ performance
NGAV vs EDR
NGAV focuses on preventing cyberattacks as it is the first line of defense in a security environment. But no cybersecurity solution is bulletproof, so any threat that bypasses the Next-Generation Antivirus solution is detected by the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) software.
EDR acts as a safety net and enables security teams to contain the malware before it can move laterally in the network. Once the assault has been stopped, the EDR tool will assist the team in learning more about how it started and spread so that it can be stopped again in the future.
Organizations should use both an NGAV and EDR solution to bolster their defenses given the more sophisticated adversaries and their consistently improving and shifting TTPs. To improve the overall security posture of your business, these tools should be utilized in tandem with one another.
What to Look for in an NGAV Solution?
To make sure that you choose an effective Next-Generation Antivirus for your company, there are a few parameters you should look at:
- Offers protection against signatureless malware by using machine-learning algorithms to assess whether a file is likely malicious. This can eliminate ransomware, enabling quicker discovery of attack indications, and closing the gaps left by conventional AV.
- Prevents malware-free attacks by doing a faster and more effective Indicators of Attack (IOAs)
- Blocks macros, execution, in-memory, and other fileless techniques and stops exploitation as it occurs. Algorithms can process endpoint activity in real time, rapidly exposing harmful files and suspicious activities without affecting the performance of the endpoint.
- Threat intelligence enables the quick evaluation of the sources, effects, and seriousness of threats and also offers recommendations for the best responses and corrective actions.
- Cloud-native NGAV solutions can be fully functional in a matter of hours. Without needing to reboot, update signatures, configure, or buy infrastructure.
Benefits of Using NGAV
There are some major benefits of using a Next-Generation Antivirus solution:
- Replacing your legacy technology with a more effective one reduces overall operational costs.
- Boosts protection by blocking mode advanced attacks.
- Saves time by detecting malicious files a lot faster.
- Replaces multiple tools/ agents with just one unified agent deployed on every endpoint.
- Easy to use by your in-house staff.
- Triages alerts so your IT team will save time.
- Faster post-breach recovery time due to the context provided by the NGAV on the vulnerability that you need to address.
How Can Heimdal® Help?
Advanced persistent attacks can actually be defeated by Heimdal’s Next-Gen Endpoint Antivirus, a cutting-edge AV engine with Firewall integration, Brute-Force Attack blocking, and AI-powered detection. This application offers code-based detection and mitigation by utilizing real-time low-impact in-memory file and signature scanning coupled with active registry change scanning.
We will send any suspicious files and potential threats to our cloud for additional scanning. Scanned files will be isolated in our sandboxing system and tested for malicious behavior if they don’t show up as malware. They will be blocked at the source if they attempt to communicate with Command and Control servers.
As soon as files begin to run, this Next-Gen Antivirus will keep track of processes and their chances using AI-powered Heuristic, behavior-based engines, and will look for any alterations to the code at all levels.
Heimdal® Next-Gen Endpoint Antivirus
- Multiple layers of detection.
- Enhanced Brute-Force Protection.
- Remote device control with MDM.
Final Thoughts
With new attack strategies and more complex malware, attackers have learned how to defeat conventional Antivirus software.
NGAV is necessary if you want to be protected against the bulk of threats in the current cyber environment. It will defend you against the majority of “next generation” assaults thanks to endpoint detection and response, integrated AI learning, and cloud capabilities.
However, Next-Generation Antivirus is merely a component of the defenses required to shield your data from hostile assaults.
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