The uptick in phishing and ransomware assaults indicates that cyberattacks are becoming more frequent and sophisticated. By stopping assaults before they start, advanced threat protection (ATP) solutions are made to reduce the dangers these attacks bring to an organization’s endpoints.
Cybersecurity is vital because it involves everything related to protecting our data from cyber attackers who wish to steal this information and use it to inflict harm. This can include private information, intellectual property, protected health information (PHI), personally identifiable information (PII), government and business information, and sensitive data.
It is essential and in everyone’s best interest to have sophisticated advanced threat protection solutions and plans in place to protect this data. Everyone in society depends on essential infrastructure, such as power plants, hospitals, and other healthcare facilities.
What is advanced threat protection?
A subset of security tools called Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is designed to safeguard sensitive data against sophisticated cyberattacks, including malware and phishing schemes. With the threat landscape always shifting, ATP technology frequently combines cloud security, email security, endpoint security, and more to strengthen your organization’s defenses and help you better foresee and avert costly security breaches.
Advanced threat protection definition
A group of security tools known as “advanced threat protection” guards against sophisticated malware or hacking-based attacks that target sensitive data. Advanced threat protection systems can be purchased as managed services or as software. The methodologies and components of ATP solutions might vary. Still, they typically consist of endpoint agents, network devices, email gateways, malware protection systems, and a central management dashboard to correlate alarms and control defenses.
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How do advanced threat protection solutions work?
Advanced threat protection solutions are created to safeguard an organization’s endpoints from sophisticated and advanced threats. They utilize tools like machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) (ML). ATP technologies reduce the risk and potential effects of sophisticated attacks on an organization’s endpoints by putting more emphasis on threat prevention than threat detection and response.
Advanced threat protection systems need a few essential features to achieve their goals of threat prevention and risk reduction, including:
- Real-time visibility: Deep, real-time visibility into the events taking place on a protected endpoint is required to prevent a threat rather than respond to it after the fact. Thanks to this visibility, an advanced threat protection system can instantly identify warning signs of a potential cyber attack and thwart it before it starts.
- Contextual awareness: A deluge of security alarms generated by various security solutions and continuing threats has overwhelmed many security teams. Advanced threat protection requires context to guarantee that security personnel is aware of and capable of quickly responding to genuine threats to the company.
- Data understanding: The risk of sophisticated assaults aimed at the data held by a business is managed by ATP solutions. To do this, the tool must be able to comprehend the sensitivity and worth of the data to recognize assaults that target it and respond appropriately.
Cyberattacks now employ extensive reconnaissance and cutting-edge technology to become more sophisticated and targeted. ATP systems require the same visibility and intelligence to stop these attacks before they occur.
The most important features of advanced threat protection solutions
ATP solutions are designed to recognize and defend against assaults from highly skilled threat actors who specialize in covert attacks employing cutting-edge malware and zero-day exploits. An advanced threat protection solution must have specific capabilities to recognize and defend against various risks. These functionalities include:
- File analytics: All of an organization’s endpoints are at serious risk from malware, especially because hackers are increasingly focusing their attacks on mobile devices. No matter where they came from or how they were delivered, every file that enters a device must be automatically analyzed for dangerous functionality before it can run on the endpoint.
- Attack management: The vast attack surface of the modern company gives an attacker several opportunities to take advantage of its endpoints. Advanced threat protection solutions employ several techniques, including application control, sandboxed file analysis, and execution, to manage an organization’s attack surfacing.
- Combined detection and prevention: Although the main objective of ATP solutions is to stop assaults before they start, some attacks may manage to execute despite an organization’s protections. In order to mitigate these risks, advanced threat protection solutions enable quick threat detection and response in addition to their preventative capabilities.
- Rich threat information: Since cyber threats are developing quickly, having access to the proper information can make the difference between successfully stopping a new attack and slipping through the gaps. Access to reliable cyber threat intelligence that gives advanced threat protection solutions and the most recent details on the most recent cyberattack campaigns is a requirement.
Why do you need advanced threat protection?
Cybercriminals are constantly coming up with increasingly complex tactics to break into networks. These attacks frequently have substantial funding, are frequently precisely targeted, and use sophisticated software that is intended to get through standard security measures. Advanced analytic tools that can quickly offer insight, analysis, context, and response into the contents and activities of malicious network traffic are necessary for combating advanced threats.
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Best advanced threat protection solutions
Below we’ve selected some of the best-advanced threat protection solutions you can find. These packages offer solutions for both businesses and individuals.
Best tools for advanced threat protection: Microsoft Office 365
Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection is an email filtering service that uses the cloud to provide real-time protection against phishing and other dangerous links, as well as zero-day protection against malware and viruses.
Select Exchange and Office 365 subscriptions can add Office 365 ATP. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 as an add-on service is a logical extension for organizations of all sizes using Microsoft 365 services. It is built to defend against a variety of advanced threats, such as business email compromise, credential phishing, and other common forms of sophisticated attacks.
The advanced threat protection platform offers additional security for protecting email, users, systems, and data with AI-powered risk detection and remediation, integrated administration within Office 365 services, and a security approach that includes prevention, detection, investigation, remediation, and even awareness education and training.
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Best tools for advanced threat protection: Sophos
Sophos’s AI and ML-powered advanced threat protection tool is called Intercept X Endpoint. With cross-product data sourcing options, ransomware file protection with automatic file recovery, behavioral analysis features, automatic detection and mitigation, and a centralized management console, the extended detection and response solution offers a full advanced threat protection package for companies of all sizes and complexity levels.
Intercept X is available in four versions: Advanced, Advanced with XDR, Advanced with MTR Standard, and Advanced with MTR Advanced. It is compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems.
Deep learning malware identification, behavioral analysis, potential undesirable application blocking, and intrusion protection are all included in the base implementation. Other capabilities include active mitigation, ransomware defenses, and data loss and exploit prevention.
Upgrade to Intercept X Advanced with XDR for more detection defenses. Examples include cross-product querying and SQL querying protections.
Human-led threat hunting and response features are added by Intercept X Advanced when combined with MTR Standard and Advanced. Examples include support for threat neutralization, remediation, and direct call-in help.
On Sophos’ website, a detailed product and feature breakdown is accessible. Pricing is determined by the user and varies depending on the edition. However, it can be as little as $20 per user per year. Business-grade licenses and services from the company are offered through MSPs and resellers.
Best tools for advanced threat protection: Zscaler
A cloud-based malware prevention engine with AI and machine learning, Zscaler Cloud Sandbox was created to intercept new threats and shield all your employees, no matter where they are. It runs inline and inspects all of your traffic, including encrypted information, as opposed to operating in TAP mode, before sending any suspicious files. It continuously detects and stops new and changing threats as they develop, thanks to always-on zero-day protection, ransomware prevention, and real-time visibility into malware activities.
Zscaler automatically calculates a PageRisk Index for each Web page served, which considers the usage of suspect tactics like JavaScript obfuscation and zero-pixel graphics and links it with other criteria like website location and reputation to compute a risk score. The resulting score can then be used to determine whether to “allow or block” the page or even a specific page object by comparing it to a predetermined risk threshold. The user experience is not slowed down in any way, as all of this is done instantly.
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Best tools for advanced threat protection: Fortinet
Fortinet Endpoint and Remote User Protection, aimed at SMBs, combines endpoint detection and response with patching and vulnerability scanning, VPN protection to safeguard users, networks, and data, including on-premises systems and cloud-based applications, and multifactor authentication defense. The company’s FortiClient software performs automatic scans, remotely applies updates and guards against dangers from unpatched vulnerabilities.
Additional Fortinet capabilities, like exploit prevention, web filters, automatic quarantining and patching activities, and sandboxing features, strengthen the defenses of the enterprise-grade ML endpoint protection engine. The Fortinet Endpoint solution, which is a component of the larger Fortinet Security Fabric cyberdefense array, also offers FortiSandbox functionalities, both on-premises and as a platform-as-a-service alternative.
Fortinet Endpoint and Remote User Protection can be licensed and deployed in a variety of ways with a variety of configurations, all of which have an impact on price. It is compatible with Windows, Macs, and Linux, as well as public cloud applications on Amazon and Microsoft Azure. Several merchants and partners are selling the product.
Best tools for advanced threat protection: Google
To enjoy Google’s tightest account security, sign up for the Advanced Protection Program.
Anyone who is at a high risk of targeted internet attacks should use advanced threat protection. This applies to all individuals whose Google Accounts hold priceless data or sensitive information, such as journalists, activists, political campaign workers, company executives, IT administrators, and others.
To better protect your Google data, such as emails, documents, contacts, or other private Google data, Advanced Protection requires security keys at sign-in. Without your security key, even if a hacker gets your login and password, they cannot sign in.
Tip: When logging into a computer, browser, or another device for the first time, you must have your security key. If you continue to be logged in, you might not be prompted to provide your security key the following time you log in.
Downloads are subject to additional tests by Advanced Protection. It alerts you or prevents the download when a file that can be hazardous is being downloaded. Only apps from trusted retailers are permitted on your Android phone.
Advanced protection restricts access to your Google Account data to only Google apps and approved third-party apps in order to prevent illegal access.
Additionally, Advanced Protection prevents hackers from accessing your account by pretending to be you. If someone tries to recover your account, Advanced Protection goes above and beyond to confirm your identity.
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Best tools for advanced threat protection: BitDefender
The programs and processes that are now executing on your computer are continuously monitored by Bitdefender Advanced Threat Defense. It keeps an eye out for unusual behavior, including moving files into crucial Windows operating system folders, starting up multiple instances of the same process, modifying the Windows registry, or installing drivers.
Every procedure is given a score, and each action is given a danger score. When a process’s overall score exceeds a certain level, Bitdefender decides to stop that program, which, 99% of the time, turns out to be malware. The amount of false positive detections is very low and threat detection, especially for very recent attacks, is quite successful due to the score-based rating system.
Conclusion
You could hardly be more mistaken if you believe that only large companies are prime targets for cyberattacks and that you cannot possibly be one of them. Anyone with internet access who is not vigilant enough could easily become a victim. Learning the importance of cybersecurity is the first step you can take to protect your data and digital assets because connected devices are easy targets.
