On Thursday March 15th, a cloud security specialist at MailGuard identified a fast breaking virus that was not being detected by most end-point anti-virus software. The suspect email contained a message from an Eastern European resident looking for love and friendship. The intention was to lure recipients into browsing what they thought would be pictures of the lonely heart, when in actual fact they were executing malware.
MailGuard’s cloud security protects against this type of threat with detection policies to stop executable files entering business networks. Whilst MailGuard customers were protected against this threat, a number of organisations that only had a desktop AV solution in place were put at risk.
Nearly 6 hours after MailGuard identified the virus, independent researcher Virus Total, reported that the suspect email was only being detected by around one quarter of the AV providers they track.
Fast breaking viruses are dangerous. They can spread rapidly.
Once a virus has been identified, traditional AV providers work to develop signatures to detect them then release updates to protect their customers. The customer’s desktop client then has to discover the update and apply it. The longer the lag time between an outbreak and its detection, the more damage can be done so it is obvious that a fast and effective reaction by AV providers is needed to mitigate these threats. If an update takes hours, a virus has a greater opportunity to disrupt business networks.
AV providers is needed to mitigate these threats. If an update takes hours, a virus has a greater opportunity to disrupt business networks.
How cloud security helps
The events of March 15 illustrated that solely having a desktop AV solution in place is not enough. Businesses need a cloud security solution that protects their network from fast breaking viruses.
MailGuard’s instant reaction demonstrated why it’s considered an industry leader in cloud security. Our technology blocked the virus and our customers were safe, no matter what AV software they used on the desktop.
If you need to prevent your business from being susceptible to the next fast breaking viruses, then adding an extra layer of security through MailGuard email filtering could not be easier.
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