I came across this post from John Pescatore today on his Gartner blog titled, “Twelve Word Tuesday: I’d Start Over Again on Desktop Security”, and I couldn’t agree more. The evidence of the failure of blacklisting anti-virus can be found everywhere.
John, makes a reference to the Government’s Cash for Clunkers program and I think the analogy is an appropriate one. There are many desktop security companies that are heavily invested in the way things are today. Their recurring revenue model is based on subscriptions to a bloated blacklist. Their security solutions work on a find and clean model and not a preventative model. The likelihood that they will “start over” on security is slim to none and more likely they will keep trying to add a fresh coat of paint, change the tires and oil and patch things together with new additions. The problem is the engine is broken and won’t last much longer. Continue reading this post…
Last week I blogged about the general momentum around application whitelisting citing our meetings with Neil MacDonald from Gartner and a recent post from George Kurtz of McAfee.
This week, I want to speak more specifically about using application whitelisting to both meet the letter and the spirit of NERC CIP-007 compliance requirements. This is an area where application whitelisting is gaining significant momentum as a supplement or alternative to traditional blacklist antivirus. There are many reasons why the energy industry is ahead of the general curve in adopting whitelisting technologies. Continue reading this post…
We are having a great week where we are seeing more evidence than ever for the value of application whitelisting in providing both endpoint protection and application control. Earlier this week we met with Gartner analyst Neil MacDonald and got his perspective on the future of application whitelisting. He had many good insights about the state of the industry and we particularly agreed with his perspective on the importance of “trusted change” to the success of any application whitelisting solution. Continue reading this post…
The most recent piece of evidence comes courtesy of the 2009 Black Hat conference going on right now in Las Vegas. MX Logic reports from this year’s conference that a new trojan called “Clampi” is being used for highly sophisticated identity theft. The researcher cited from SecureWorks claims that hundreds of thousands of PCs have already been infected. Continue reading this post…
This week Michael Assante, the Chief Security Officer (CSO) for the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), testified before congress about the threats facing the modern electric grid. The focus of this testimony in particular was the readiness of the systems comprising the electric grid to defend themselves against cyber attacks. At the beginning of his testimony, Mr. Assante called out the unique aspect of the dangers posed by a cyber attack and why that was so concerning to him.
“Unlike other concerns, such as extreme weather, security-related threats can be driven by malicious actors who intentionally manipulate or disrupt normal operations as part of a premeditated design to cause damage. Cyber-related threats pose a special set of concerns in that they can arise virtually anytime, anywhere and change and emerge without warning.” Continue reading this post…