How To Protect Your Business Against The Spectre Meltdown

The Big Vulnerability Discovery

In case you missed it, the big IT security news of the first quarter of 2018 is the discovery of two major vulnerabilities, Meltdown and Spectre. Researchers have noted that “the bugs basically melts security boundaries which are normally enforced by the hardware.” As more information is discovered about the vulnerabilities and the steps necessary for fixing them, more and more companies and users have been left in a wake of digital confusion. But not to worry, our team here at vitaltech has the support you need to make sure you stay up-to-date and protected. Here’s everything you need to know about the Spectre Meltdown, and a look into why AI antivirus is the future of computer protection. 

The Current Threat Analysis 

Right now it is important to note that the vulnerability is just that, a vulnerability. This means that, at this point, there is no known exploit, virus or malware taking advantage of the vulnerability that would cause harm to your systems. There’s no guarantee that things will stay this way, but right now it is important to understand that there are no known threats. 

The Fix Attempts

Here’s what we know about the potential fixes for these vulnerabilities. In an attempt to fix these vulnerabilities, all technologies and manufacturers are releasing a flood of patches onto any affected systems. Because of this, you may be seeing an influx of update notifications. 

While there is no hard fix to the Spectre Meltdown yet, here are a few of the leading technologies that are working on some patches: 

• Microsoft and IBM are coming out with patches for their operating systems, motherboards, and other technologies that are affected by the vulnerabilities. 
• Intel is working on deploying a patch with hardware and software manufacturers. 

The problem is that these technologies and manufacturers are not running coordinated efforts to release the patches. As a result, some patches actually do more harm than good because are fully compatible, causing systems to slow down. The vulnerabilities have shaken up the computer industry, and are forcing everyone (the technologies and manufacturers) to play nice and work together to find a solution. 

At this point, IT teams should be prioritizing two main actions: staying up-to-date on all related vulnerability news and monitoring the patches. Here at vitaltech, our team is alert and carefully reviewing all patches before rolling them out, to make sure our partners’ systems remain running securely and efficiently. 

The Road Ahead: How You Can Stay Protected 

Regardless of whether you’ve been impacted by the vulnerabilities and patches, this should be a wake-up call for all companies to make sure they are protected and on top of their antivirus. How can you make sure you are taking the right steps to stay vigilant and protected during security fallouts such as the Spectre Meltdown? By investing in the right resources, both in terms of IT team and antivirus software. 

Your New Best Friend: AI Antivirus Protection 

One specific type of technology that has been particularly effective for detecting threats in real-time is artificial intelligence (AI) antivirus. The AI enables the antivirus software to follow trends and behaviors, and take swift responsive action based off of a complex algorithm. 

At vitaltech, we work withpartners across the cybersecurity spectrum – from backup technology to phishing detection software, antivirus, and more. And in light of the recent vulnerability discoveries, one partnership that has stepped into the spotlight is Cylance, a behavioral-based AI antivirus protection software that is particularly suited to detect threats in real-time. 

Here are just a few of the benefits of getting on board with AI antivirus software like Cylance:  

• Higher antivirus success rate: AI antivirus software catches more viruses, malware, and spyware than your traditional antivirus. Cylance boasts a 97% success rate when it comes to stopping malware, which is more than twice as effective as the average antivirus software and far outpacing the second-best product (which only detected 67%).
• No updates needed, easy on computers: Unlike traditional antivirus offerings, Cylance requires no back-end updates, which results in a real-world performance advantages. Traditional antivirus is still highly dependent upon regular updates, whereas Cylance doesn’t need regular updates to keep your systems protected, both online and offline. This is far less taxing on computers than standard antivirus software, because there are no definition updates or routine scans … it all runs automatically for you.
• Best protection against unknown threats: Tests have shown that Cylance is able to detect and prevent unknown attacks, while other antivirus software is still struggling to protect against known malware. Things get even more interesting if we’re dealing with mutated versions of threats – average competitor performance drops down to 10%, while Cylance continues to achieve a 99% success rate.
• Cloud-based: This means that you don’t need any clunky hardware to get your system protected. All you have to do is get a subscription. 

Stay Protected with vitaltech & Cylance

The power of AI is real, and we are seeing it in action as we watch our partners like Cylance tackle the Spectre Meltdown vulnerability.