As computer users we’ve become acclimated to using anti-virus software to keep our systems secure. However, in recent years that’s no longer enough. Based on the security industries’ numbers, anti-virus software only catches 45 to 55% of viruses and malware. Marc Goodman, recognized cybercrime expert noted in his recent book “Future Crimes” university studies indicate that antivirus software captures only 5% of emerging malware. Add to that the antivirus software industry reports that between 100,000 to 200,000 new or variant malware are identified each day! That’s a terrible failure rate, leaving us all vulnerable to attacks, breaches and data-theft. It’s very important for us to understand that it’s not if, but when a virus or malware will infect your workstation or a server and remain undetected. Even “scanning” your computer won’t help because the antivirus software doesn’t recognize the new malware.
What does this mean for us mere mortals? How can we possibly secure our systems and data? We need to shift our focus to a detect and respond approach. We need to reduce the mean time to detection from the average of 220 days to a just few days or hours. Again, Marc Goodman notes the infamous Flame virus, a highly complex routine stole data worldwide for more than 5 years before it was detected! If you’re interested in learning more about the fallacies of anti-virus and how to detect and respond, read the following articles, and see our brief security detection tool box listed below.
Read More -> Why Antivirus Software Fails to Detect Latest Viruses and Malwares
Another article -> Antivirus software is dead, says security expert at Symantec
Third Rock Assurance – Cyber-Security Toolbox
These are additional security tools every mom & pop shop to Fortune 50 needs to have in their line of cyber defense.
- Penetration Testing
- Network discovery and inventory
- Compliance testing (HIPAA, PCI, COBITS, SOCs, NERC-SIP, etc)
- Vulnerabilities testing
- File Integrity Monitoring / System Integrity Monitoring
Let us know what you do in addition to anti-virus/malware, web app firewalls and network firewalls. If you want to better defend your healthcare practice reach out to us.