It’s Crunch Time to Protect Federal Devices
A recent study revealed 44% of federal devices are not properly protected against cyber security threats. As if this isn’t concerning enough, devices are being interconnected more than ever. Therefore, these unprotected endpoints can serve as a gateway to infect an entire system or network. To ensure proper protection, Diane Phan, endpoint division chief at the Defense Information Systems Agency, is encouraging the use of application whitelisting. Phan stated to Fed Tech Magazine,
“Whitelisting provides a proactive approach to securing our endpoints.”
Along with whitelisting, users are encouraged to review the individuals who are granted administrative rights. This is due to the larger number of employees that are granted these rights unnecessarily. Malware often attacks computers which have these access credentials. By minimizing the number of individuals who have these rights, the risk is also mitigated.
Agencies are also encouraged to keep their software, and security programs up-to-date. Beyond updates, agencies are also encouraged to use the full functionality of the security solution. Often times, the security program is installed and left on autopilot. Therefore, the only features enabled are those that are on by default. Security programs often come with additional features that are left to the end-user to enable. If they are not capitalizing on these, they are not maximizing their protection.
PC Matic Pro is available for government use. PC Matic Pro uses an application whitelist as its primary method of malware detection, leaving endpoints far more secure than those using a traditional antivirus that detects with the use of a blacklist. The default-deny approach of whitelisting only allows trusted applications to run, unlike the blacklist which only blocks known malware threats and allows all unknown files to execute until proven malicious.
To learn more about PC Matic Pro, click here.
