What is next-generation antivirus, and how is it different from traditional antivirus?
Traditional antivirus was built primarily to recognize known malicious files using signatures. Modern endpoint protection goes further by using machine learning, behavioral analysis, exploit prevention, and attack indicators to identify both known and previously unseen threats.
For professional firms, that matters because many modern attacks do not look like traditional viruses. Ransomware, fileless attacks, malicious scripts, zero-day threats, and compromised applications may not be stopped by signature-based antivirus alone.
Traditional antivirus looks for what is already known
Legacy antivirus typically compares files against databases of known malware signatures.
That model is useful, but inherently reactive. A threat generally has to be identified before a signature can be created and distributed.
Modern attackers increasingly use techniques designed to avoid that type of detection, including malicious scripts, memory-based attacks, fileless techniques, and rapidly changing ransomware variants.
Next-generation protection looks at behavior
Modern endpoint protection analyzes what applications, processes, and users are actually doing.
It can combine machine learning, behavioral indicators, exploit prevention, threat intelligence, memory analysis, and other techniques to identify suspicious activity even when the specific threat has never been seen before.
This allows the security platform to ask a more useful question than simply, “Do we recognize this file?”
It can also ask, “Is this behavior consistent with an attack?”
Protection extends beyond malware
A modern endpoint platform can help protect against:
known and unknown malware
ransomware
malicious scripts
fileless attacks
software exploits
suspicious processes
command-and-control activity
other behaviors associated with an active compromise
Endpoint telemetry can also provide security teams with visibility into how an attack developed, which processes were involved, and what systems may require investigation.
Antivirus and EDR work together
Next-generation antivirus focuses primarily on preventing malicious activity.
Endpoint Detection and Response, or EDR, adds deeper visibility into activity occurring on the device and supports investigation and response when suspicious behavior is detected.
Together, prevention and EDR provide a stronger security layer than either traditional antivirus or alerting alone.
The ProCirrus approach
ProCirrus uses next-generation endpoint protection and EDR throughout the managed environments we protect.
The technology uses behavioral analysis, machine learning, threat intelligence, and other modern detection techniques to help prevent malware, ransomware, fileless attacks, and other suspicious activity.
Endpoint protection operates alongside Zero Trust application control, managed detection and response, identity protection, network security, vulnerability management, and backup and recovery.
The objective is not simply to recognize known viruses. It is to identify and stop modern attack behavior before it can create material impact.