Building A Proactive Cybersecurity Approach

Introduction 

The battle against cybercriminals has never been more demanding, and the stakes have never been higher. Businesses attempt to construct strong defensive postures to protect their valuable assets and data. They race to find and mitigate vulnerabilities as attackers run to exploit them. As businesses find ways to defend against specific attacks, adversaries craft new assault techniques that are harder to detect and stop. This cycle repeats, over and over, in a constant struggle to see which side can pull ahead, and unfortunately, the criminals are winning. Today's organizations must switch to using proactive security measures instead of only relying on reactive measures. 

What Does Proactive Cybersecurity Mean? 

 A proactive cybersecurity strategy seeks to stop attacks before they happen. It is an offensive approach that focuses on finding and defending vulnerabilities before an attacker can attempt to exploit them. As the threat landscape is ever-evolving, so should your security approach. There is no one magic tool that you can buy, install, and never look at again.  

What is the Difference Between Proactive and Reactive Security? 

Comparing proactive versus reactive security is like comparing offense and defense. Reactive security tools are the defensive team. Once a threat is detected, reactive tools defend your organization against the present danger. Security tools like EDR and antivirus operate on a reactive basis, monitoring the environment. A threat must enter the system and be detected before a reactive security tool takes action. Proactive security measures are the offensive team. They operate to secure the organization so that a threat can't enter it. Proactive security tools put up resistance before a threat occurs. Strategies such as providing security training to employees, engaging in ethical hacking, and application allowlisting are considered proactive, as they seek to reduce risk, preventing the possibility of an attack before it can happen. Combine proactive and reactive cybersecurity tools to strengthen your cyber posture.  

Why is Proactive Cybersecurity Important? 

A proactive cybersecurity defense is beneficial to successfully defending against zero-day exploits. Zero-day exploits are attacks on vulnerabilities in software that are unknown to the developer. These attacks have never been seen before, so they can slip by tools that react to known bad behavior or files. Because cybercriminals are crafty, creating new types of malwares to exploit and abuse new vulnerabilities, implementing a proactive security strategy can protect your organization better than using reactive security alone. 

How can ThreatLocker Help You Implement a Proactive Zero Trust Approach? 

The ThreatLocker Endpoint Protection Platform contains proactive cybersecurity tools that can help keep your organization ahead of attackers. ThreatLocker Allowlisting is based on a default deny philosophy. No unapproved software can run in an environment protected by ThreatLocker. Allowlisting prevents fileless malware and ransomware before it has a chance to execute. 

To take this proactive approach a step further, ThreatLocker can use its Ringfencing™ solution to create boundaries that limit what applications can access once permitted. Prevent needed business apps from being weaponized by blocking their access to other applications, the registry, your files, or the internet. Ringfencing™ provides proactive protection against application abuse. 

ThreatLocker Network Control is a centrally managed endpoint firewall. Configure Network Control to block all inbound network traffic from the LAN or WAN and then permit access to permitted devices only, and with the ability to use dynamic ACLs, it won't matter where the authorized device is connecting from, the specified port will open for that device. Any unpermitted devices will be unable to see the open port and will be unable to connect. Prevent bad actors from connecting to your assets, stopping threats before they can enter your network.  

Add proactive security tools to existing reactive strategies to combat unknown threats and malware. Schedule a live demo with a Solutions Engineer today for more information on how ThreatLocker can add proactive protection to your environment. 

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