The way cybercriminals attack businesses has changed dramatically over the past several years. But has your endpoint security kept up?
I regularly hear people still referring to their endpoint protection software as “antivirus.” Understandably so—it’s a familiar term, and there’s nothing wrong with using it—but the distinction between traditional antivirus and modern endpoint protection is becoming increasingly important to realize.
Attackers aren’t necessarily using viruses or other malicious software to compromise your systems anymore. Instead, they’re finding ways to turn legitimate applications and built-in Windows tools against you—and traditional antivirus software isn’t always equipped to stop them.
Today’s Cyberattacks Don’t Always Involve Malware
Recently, one of our customers was targeted by an attack that illustrates this shift. An employee received an email containing what appeared to be a Social Security statement PDF. But opening the attachment triggered an attempt to install ScreenConnect, a legitimate remote support application commonly used by IT professionals.
ScreenConnect itself isn’t malicious; it allows technicians to remotely access computers to troubleshoot problems and provide support. But in this case, the attacker was attempting to use it to gain unauthorized access. The attack also involved legitimate Windows utilities, including PowerShell and curl, to download software and steal credentials. This is known as a living-off-the-land attack: Rather than introducing obviously malicious software, attackers use tools that already exist on a computer to accomplish malicious objectives.
Read More: How To Prepare For AI-Powered Cyber Threats: A Guide For Small Businesses
That makes these attacks particularly difficult for traditional antivirus products to detect, while also becoming increasingly common. According to Crowdstrike’s 2026 Global Threat Report, 82% of detections were malware-free, compared to approximately 40% in 2019. That means the majority of today’s detected attacks don’t involve the traditional malicious files that antivirus software was originally designed to identify.
How Endpoint Protection Has Evolved
Traditional antivirus software primarily works by identifying known malicious files. If a file matches a known threat definition, software blocks it. If it doesn’t, the file may be allowed to run. This approach still serves an important purpose, because businesses need protection against malicious downloads, infected files, and dangerous websites.
But what happens when the software being used in an attack is legitimate?
That’s where more advanced endpoint protection comes in. Modern endpoint security solutions go beyond identifying malicious files. They can:
- Evaluate suspicious behavior
- Restrict unnecessary applications, and
- Prevent legitimate tools from being used in unauthorized ways.
For example, many of our customers use Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise. It’s a strong product that continues to do what it was designed to do very well. However, it doesn’t offer all the application control and advanced behavioral protection capabilities available in Symantec Endpoint Security Complete. That distinction matters when an attacker isn’t relying on traditional malware.
When Should You Upgrade Your Endpoint Protection?
The answer isn’t necessarily that every business needs to upgrade. Instead, I’d ask a different question: Does your current endpoint security protect against the types of attacks your business is most likely to face?
One of the most important considerations is your ability to reduce your organization’s attack surface, which includes the various ways an attacker might gain access to your systems or misuse the tools available on them. Reducing that surface means limiting unnecessary opportunities for an attack to succeed.
For example, consider an employee who works in bookkeeping. That employee probably uses the same handful of applications every day. They likely have no legitimate reason to run PowerShell scripts or install remote access software. With more advanced endpoint protection, you can establish policies that prevent those unnecessary tools from running.
If your organization doesn’t use ScreenConnect, for instance, you could restrict it. If an employee doesn’t need access to certain administrative utilities, you could block those as well. This approach is sometimes called a positive security model. Rather than allowing everything that isn’t known to be malicious, you’re intentionally limiting which applications and activities are permitted. Basic endpoint security products may offer some firewall capabilities, but they often lack the application controls needed to implement these restrictions. More advanced protection gives you additional ways to reduce your exposure before an attack even begins.
Two Technologies Helping Businesses Stay Ahead of Attackers
Symantec Endpoint Security Complete includes two capabilities worth highlighting because they’re specifically designed to address these more sophisticated attacks.
1. Adaptive Protection
Adaptive Protection evaluates how applications and utilities are used across your devices and helps identify which ones may be unnecessary.
Imagine a group of computers that regularly uses only 20 applications but has access to hundreds of others. Adaptive Protection can help you identify those unused tools and simplify the process of restricting them. That way, if an attacker attempts to exploit one of those unnecessary applications, the activity can be blocked before it progresses. The goal isn’t to make employees’ jobs more difficult. It’s to remove opportunities attackers might otherwise exploit.
2. Incident Prediction
Incident Prediction takes a different approach. This newer, AI-powered capability analyzes attack activity as it unfolds and attempts to predict what an attacker might do next. For example, if suspicious PowerShell activity occurs, the technology may recognize that a particular command or utility is likely to be used in the next stage of the attack. It can then proactively block that anticipated behavior.
Instead of simply responding to something malicious after it happens, Incident Prediction helps endpoint protection stay a step ahead. And because this intelligence is built into the technology, it doesn’t necessarily require administrators to create individual rules for every possible attack sequence.
Is Your Current Endpoint Security Enough?
To be clear: I’m not saying your business is inadequately protected if you have a basic endpoint security product. You may have other security controls in place that compensate for its limitations. A small organization with only a few closely managed devices often has very different needs than a larger company with dozens or hundreds of endpoints.
The important thing is understanding what your current solution does—and doesn’t—protect against.
If you haven’t reviewed your endpoint security recently, now is a good time to ask:
- What types of attacks is our current software designed to prevent?
- Can we restrict applications and utilities our employees don’t need?
- Are we taking advantage of the security features we already have?
- Do we have gaps that more advanced endpoint protection could address?
At Atlantic Data Systems, we can help you evaluate your current endpoint security, understand its limitations and determine whether additional protection makes sense for your business.
Contact us to schedule an endpoint security review and make sure your protection is keeping pace with today’s threats.
