A Security Wake-Up Call
Do you your eyes glaze over at the mention of IT security terms that are thrown around by your friends, family, or even your IT Provider? This is Part 3 of a series that breaks down these annoying buzzwords and acronyms and translates into the WHAT but more importantly the WHY and why it matters to your business.
Conventional Antivirus is nearly dead. It’s simply not enough anymore to protect your IT. Let me break it down for you with a metaphor.
Hackers and IT Admins have been locked in a see-saw arms race battle for decades. Each side tries to continually one-up the other side with newer technology. Think of this as two nations engaged in an arms race. Eventually the “good enough” technology (weapons in an arms race) becomes obsolete as the other side counters with even better technology.
Back in the 1800’s, muskets were a perfectly acceptable weapon to defend a nation. Flash forward to the 1940’s and machine guns are on the scene. In order to stay safe and “keep up”, a nation would realized that the muskets are not enough anymore to protect, and newer technology is required to defend themselves. In the same vein, tanks are more effective than horses (ask 1939 Poland).
The same thing is happening with antivirus. Right now.
In the early 2000’s and previous, antivirus was an acceptable, complete solution to protect your IT (musket). In 2024, it’s simply not enough anymore and EDR is the machine gun.
Antivirus is the old school phone. EDR is the smartphone. Antivirus is the musket. EDR is the machine gun.
What is EDR?
- EDR = Endpoint Detection and Response
- EDR gets installed on each device, and continually watches in REAL TIME for threats (antivirus is based on “definitions” that update often, but is not real time)
- EDR sends and receives all sorts of intelligence of possibly threatening activities facing users on their devices, and recognizes patterns that happen
- Every user of EDR benefits from every other user of EDR because info/intelligence is shared by the EDR
Antivirus is the old school phone. EDR is the smartphone.
Antivirus is the musket. EDR is the machine gun.
Times have changed, threats have evolved, and it’s critical that your device protection evolves too. If you’d like to chat about this, reach out!