The Benefits of ThreatLocker for Business (2022)

ThreatLocker protects your business from malicious and misused software in numerous ways. By using Ringfencing and Application Whitelisting, along with other defensive methods, ThreatLocker can help to protect your systems from ill-intended software.

 

What is ThreatLocker?

ThreatLocker is a low management, fast to deploy Application Whitelisting and Ringfencing solution that puts the user’s business in control over what software is running on their endpoints and servers. Ransomware, viruses and other malicious software are more efficiently prevented from infecting your machine than without ThreatLocker.

While protecting against malware is an essential feature of this software, it also takes storage control beyond just blocking USB hard drives. ThreatLocker gives the user granular control over what happens on external storage devices, including network-attached storage, USB drives and even secondary hard drives directly connected to their computer.

 

Application Whitelisting and Ringfencing

Long considered to be the gold standard in protecting businesses against malicious software, Application Whitelisting puts you in control of what software, executables, scripts and libraries can run on your endpoints and servers. Known as “default-deny”, this approach not only stops malicious software but also stops other unpermitted applications from running.

The first line of defence in protecting yourself against malware should be controlling what software can run. Ringfencing adds a second line of defence for applications that are permitted by adding firewall-like boundaries to control how applications interact with other applications. First, by defining how applications can interact with each other, and then controlling which resources that applications can access, such as networks and files. When it comes to fighting against fileless malware and software exploits, Ringfencing is invaluable.

 

What Does ThreatLocker Protect Against?

ThreatLocker can help to protect your business in many ways. When it comes to protecting your business from threats such as viruses, malware, ransomware and data theft, there shouldn’t be any compromise on your security. ThreatLocker targets all of these threats and deals with them quickly and efficiently.

 

Malware

Creators of malware are getting faster every day at releasing new threats. In the last year alone, it was discovered that around 450,000 new pieces of malware were created every single day. Viruses are identified by antivirus vendors through methods such as definition files with a list of known viruses, heuristics or AI.

You can be left vulnerable by utilising this old-school way of thinking, and are left at risk of being infected by viruses and malware from zero-day attacks. This is because antivirus vendors take hours- if not days- to update their definitions or analytics to detect a new trend of malicious software, whereas ransomware and malware can copy and encrypt your files in a matter of minutes.

Taking a more logical approach to protecting your business, ThreatLocker uses a combination of Application Whitelisting and Ringfencing to protect you from zero-day malware threats.

• Macro Viruses: These viruses are written in the same macro language as the software that it infects, with common victims including Microsoft Excel and Word. They can infect any operating system by targeting software rather than the systems themselves. ThreatLocker’s Ringfencing protects your system from this threat, as any program that tries to encrypt data it isn’t authorised to will be blocked.
• Zero-Day Attacks: This threat is a computer-software vulnerability that is either unknown to those who should be interested in its mitigation, or is known as doesn’t have a patch to correct it. Hackers can exploit this vulnerability to adversely affect programs, data, additional computers or a network until this vulnerability is mitigated. ThreatLocker’s combined Ringfencing and Application Whitelisting protect against these vulnerabilities even before they are discovered.
• Fileless Malware: This is a type of malicious activity that uses native, legitimate tools built into a system to execute a cyber-attack. Unlike traditional malware, it doesn’t require an attacker to install any code on the victim’s system, which makes it hard to detect. With ThreatLocker, however, even malware that hides in memory can’t sneak in; if its code isn’t on the trusted list, it isn’t getting in.

 

Remote Access Attacks

A ‘remote access attack’ refers to a malicious attack that targets one or more computers on a network. As remote access to outside users and partners is necessary for much of today’s business, they are left vulnerable to attacks without proper protection. Remote hackers specifically look for vulnerable points in a network’s security to remotely compromise systems, steal data and cause many other kinds of problems. ThreatLocker makes it so that even authorised visitors to your servers and systems can’t deliberately or unintentionally let malware in.

• Remote Asset Protection: ThreatLocker is fully compatible with remote desktops and Citrix servers, so employees can work from anywhere while still being fully protected.
• Control of Unknown Apps: The applications of trusted visitors are unobtrusively controlled by ThreatLocker, to prevent cybercriminals from piggybacking into servers they aren’t wanted in.
• Per-User Limits: Eliminates the need to grant blanket access as ThreatLocker creates policies for unique users or organisations.

 

Data Theft

Commonly known as information theft, data theft is the illegal transfer or storage of personal, confidential, or financial information. This includes passwords, software code or algorithms, as well as proprietary processes or technologies.

Data theft is a growing issue that is primarily caused by office workers and system administrators. This is especially true if they have access to technology such as database servers, desktop computers and various handheld devices capable of storing digital information, such as USB flash drives, iPods and even digital cameras.

Your data storage devices are vulnerable if you don’t know what is happening on them at all times. You can not only track and control external data access (for example via the internet) by using ThreatLocker but you can also track internal storage too. When your security team has complete visibility over your data storage, they will be able to block data theft before it happens.

• Permission Change Tracking: If someone who should not be able to access sensitive data is given access, whether intentionally or not, you will know immediately.
• Control Physical Copying: Physical copying refers to the act of copying data from one place to another using hard drives, USB drives or other physical data storage devices. When you have the correct ThreatLocker Storage Control policies implemented, anyone with malicious intentions on your premises won’t be able to copy anything.
• Monitor Access: ThreatLocker generates real-time, detailed reports, so you can see who is accessing your files and when.
• Application Restriction: You get to choose which trusted apps can access your data, as is determined by your custom policies.

 

Internal IT Disputes

For large companies, tracking your employees’ computer activity is vital. In an ideal world, business leaders wouldn’t have to check up on what their employees are using their work computers for, but it would be irresponsible not to, especially for larger corporations. ThreatLocker enables meticulous oversight of your data and applications so that the truth of any IT problem is brought to light.

• Track File Access: Your data is important, not only for you but also for your business. With ThreatLocker, you can get detailed reports in real-time to see who accessed your sensitive data and what they did with it.
• Change and Deletion Tracking: ThreatLocker gives you thorough reports for any file type, so you can see the complete history of your data, including all changes that have been made to it.
• Block Unauthorised Applications: You are given the ability to block any apps you want with ThreatLocker’s custom policies, regardless of if they are malware or not.

 

Who Does ThreatLocker Help?

There are many industries that ThreatLocker works in, and it is versatile enough that it can be used with practically any business. However, some benefit more than others, such as MSPs (Managed Service Providers), and businesses and enterprises.

 

Business and Enterprise

Keeping customer data safe comes with the territory of having a business. Often, enterprise-class tools such as Application Whitelisting and Ringfencing come with significant management overhead and long deployment times that can make business operations difficult.

By implementing ThreatLocker’s Application Whitelisting and Ringfencing, however- which are considered to be the gold standard when it comes to preventing threats- you can protect not only your endpoints but also your data storage from zero-day malware, ransomware and other malicious software.

ThreatLocker’s solutions are easy to deploy and manage and remove the lengthy approval processes of traditional solutions.

Some of the additional benefits that ThreatLocker provides for businesses are below:

• Stop known and unknown viruses, malware, ransomware and other malicious software from affecting business operations.
• Quickly approve new storage devices and software.
• Block unwanted software from running, regardless of administrative privileges that it might have been given.
• Control and enforce policies when accessing file shares, USB, and other storage.
• Enforce portable storage encryption at a granular level.
• Helps to achieve compliance with ISO/IEC 27001¹, Cyber Essentials^2*, NIST³, HIPPA⁴, GDPR⁵, PCI DSS⁶, and other regulations.

 

Conclusion

Overall, it is safe to say that ThreatLocker is an essential part of any cyber-security set-up, for businesses large and small. The level of protection that ThreatLocker offers is top tier. However, you should always speak to your IT team or Managed Service Provider before making any decisions, as they will be able to accurately assess if ThreatLocker is right for you and your business. If you would like to learn more about how ThreatLocker could help your business, you can reach out to us to arrange an initial chat to discuss your business requirements and provide advice.

You can contact us through the following:

01302 986589

info@flyfordconnect.co.uk

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/philfarey

 

Additional Information

¹The International Standard for Information Security.

²A UK certification that shows an organisation has a minimum level of protection in cyber security.

³National Institute of Standards and Technology. (USA)

⁴Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. (USA)

⁵General Data Protection Regulation.

⁶Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.