Can Your Advanced Malware Analysis Solution Keep Up in the Wake of Digital Transformation?

The acceleration of digitization has prompted businesses to shift to a more robust online presence. Now digitally connected from everywhere, touchless, self-service business models are ubiquitous. We are thus seeing a rise in portals that accept electronic documents as part of normal business practices. From a security perspective, this expands the threat surface, which has forced infosec teams to look for malware scanning solutions.

Advanced Malware Analysis in the Modern Era

A typical malware scanning solution is a sandbox and many organizations look to deploy it as part of their advanced malware analysis stack. Traditionally, these solutions were appliance-based. While these on-premises solutions are still required by certain highly regulated verticals, we are seeing a faster adoption of cloud-based solutions, especially within the context of digitization. A cloud-based advanced malware analysis solution eliminates a high cost of ownership, delivers the latest capabilities, and leverages intelligence from multiple global sources to keep everyone protected. They are also optimized for scalability, providing the power of malware analysis across your entire network, cloud environments and endpoints.

In the modern era of threats, your solution needs to not only keep pace with attacks, but proactively deploy defenses in anticipation of future attacks. Solutions have to prioritize time to detection while maintaining efficacy and avoiding false positives. Your advanced malware analysis solution also needs to be integrated across major control points, on your network, endpoints, cloud environments, and custom portals. Data residency is also crucial as several countries have mandates in effect that prevent data from leaving the country. Deploying a solution that offers in-country or in-region cloud-delivered advanced malware analysis with required certifications combines the advantages of the cloud with the compliance of data privacy regulations and data residency requirements.

A Revolution in Standalone Solutions

Threats are now designed to cause the maximum amount of damage in the shortest amount of time making security top of mind for organizations. Not only does security need to be effective, it also needs to adapt to fit the needs of organizations in different industries and environments. Your malware analysis solution is no exception. With the rapid digitization of businesses, we’ve observed the demand for security solutions that can easily integrate into customer environments and processes. Some of these may include:

• The shift from brick & mortar to online services: As businesses shift to an online presence, so too do customers using these services. Banks and insurance companies are now shifting to a more digital process, enabling loan applications, insurance claims, and other sensitive documents to be submitted online. While this may convenience both customer and company, it also creates opportunities for attackers. In this vein, not only does the documentation need to be scanned for the threats, but the entire supply chain - from the business website to third party signing applications - must be secured.
• Evolution of in-person to online government: As governments manage shrinking budgets and launch efficiency initiatives, citizens are being directed to self-service e-governments portals. Examples where documents are accepted are court filings, permit applications and government ID renewals.
• Automation and integration in the SOC: With too many alerts and a shortage of SOC personnel, organizations are investing in tools that accelerate triage and incident response. By integrating an advanced malware analysis solution into SOAR playbooks, security teams are able to automate existing SOC processes to speed up triage and response actions, ultimately reducing their workload.

Deploying an advanced malware analysis solution that can be integrated into 3rd-party or custom applications is an effective approach to securing these individual business use cases. And with more to secure online, the power of malware analysis needs to be everywhere - in custom applications, in your SOC - and not just on your network. To learn more about the capabilities and benefits of a standalone malware analysis solution, join us at Ignite 2021 where we will be covering the latest innovations coming from Palo Alto Networks.