Research finds confidence in anti-virus solutions very low

CoreTrace announced the results of a revealing new survey that found most of the IT staff polled felt the threat from malware is on the rise and three quarters stated they are not confident traditional blacklist-based technology is protecting them against threats.

Two-thirds believe that blacklisting protection should cost less than five dollars annually. Over half of those surveyed concluded the lack of protection against an increasing number of zero-day attacks as a chief cause for blacklisting-based solution concern, as well as the performance impact of virus scans and the cost of signature subscriptions. Further, more than half of respondents indicated they have considered discontinuing use of blacklisting for malware protection altogether.

The research, conducted by Dimensional Research, consisted of an online survey of more than 225 worldwide participants representing a wide range of IT functions. The goal of the survey was to gather data about current opinions around anti-virus and anti-malware protection, as well as future plans for preventing external computer attacks. The research shows that IT departments of all sizes, and professionals at all levels, have steep concerns about the adequacy of anti-malware protection from blacklist-based technology and many are looking to whitelisting.

A summary of the key findings from the survey include:

• 80% of survey respondents indicated they feel threats from malware are increasing
• 74% indicated they are not confident in blacklisting-based anti-malware solutions
• 90% of those surveyed have concerns about blacklisting anti-malware solutions
• 53% of respondents cited they use blacklisting-based solutions because they feel it is better than nothing
• 66% of respondents believe blacklisting updates should be less than $5 per computer per year
• 52% of the IT users surveyed have considered discontinuing use of blacklisting
• 39% were not aware of options to blacklisting-based approaches
• 80% of respondents feel whitelisting is compelling, but only 9% currently use this approach
• 66% of respondents will only adopt application whitelisting protection if they are convinced that users can add new applications without requiring IT involvement each time.

High-profile viruses continue to wreak havoc, strengthening the case that blacklisting and reactive endpoint security strategies are broken and opening the door for proactive and more-effective solutions such as application whitelisting.