A Decade Of Protection
Between the end of 2019 and the start of 2020, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) began heavily recommending whitelisting technology. Brands that hadn’t been using it were converting over. Big name AV companies began slowly integrating the technology into their offerings.
It’s over a year later, and they still aren’t utilizing whitelisting technology to its fullest. But PC Matic has been using it as the forefront of our protection for both Home and Pro for a decade. Our whitelist turns 10 this year, and that’s pretty significant.
Building The List
PC Matic Sales reps often get asked about what’s on the whitelist. It always elicits a well intentioned smile from the rep. It’s hard to imagine that everything is on there, but it is.
Over the past 10 years, we’ve been building and refining our whitelist. If you can buy it online, and it’s safe, we’ve whitelisted it. There’s no need to worry.
And if you’re running a piece of proprietary software, something built just for you, we can get that added. Our researchers are constantly analyzing and classifying samples that our software interacts with. If it’s bad, it gets banned. If it’s good, however, it’s added to the collective knowledge.
Working The List
Whitelisting works on the concept that only what we know is good is allowed in. Take a look at this blog I wrote last year to help you understand the concept. It’ll take you through the ins and outs of whitelisting.
Basically though, there’s a list. And when you’re running our product, that list is telling your computer what’s safe to allow on it. This is pretty important to understand. If your email is hacked, that’s your email. It’s not hosted on your actual machine. This is why it’s important to continue to use common sense email practices.
But if your email is hacked and they try to install something on your machine that will allow them to access your network, well, there’s where we swoop in. All your emails may have been compromised, but they aren’t getting into your network, and they aren’t getting into your files.
What’s Next
2020 was the year we received the patent for our signature whitelisting technology. That means that when big corporations like Microsoft make software, they sign it. Since we know Microsoft isn’t trying to hack you, we whitelist that signature. PC Matic was the first to do this, and that’s been officially recognized by the US Patent Office.
And we’re going to continue to bring you next generation technology. As we grow, research, and build our product, it’ll only continue to improve. Now as a partner of NIST, we’ll be working with other American companies to further American business innovation in the field of technology.
Stay with us as we continue to bring you innovation ahead of the rest. And stay safe out there.
