Protect your business regardless of scale with these five comprehensive antivirus tools.
To modern business, viruses have become increasingly less of a threat as time has passed due mostly to the increased threat of other, smarter, malicious threats such as ransomware. However, this doesn’t mean you should allow your organization to operate unprotected from virus threats. According to a study performed by IBM in 2020, a company will spend around $3.86 million to recover from a data breach. Such data breaches can occur as a result of malware infection.
Here is our list of the best Business Antivirus Tools:
- Crowdstrike Falcon Prevent One of the most thoroughly effective and technologically cutting-edge antivirus and anti-malware technologies available for enterprise-size enterprises. Falcon Prevent distinguishes itself from many other antivirus programs by using machine-learning algorithms to locate, contain, and eliminate infections from your systems.
- Kaspersky Endpoint Security Kaspersky is renowned for offering a wide selection of antivirus and anti-malware programs that guarantee the security of your devices, from home protection to enterprise-level organizations.
- SentinelOne Singularity Thanks to great protective coverage across all important systems and a strong integration environment, Singularity is intended as a SaaS solution that complements your current security systems.
- FortiClient For a variety of Fortinet products, including FortiGate, FortiAnalyzer, EMS, managed APs, managed Switches, and FortiSandbox, FortiClient offers a uniform user agent. However, Forticlient also offers a variety of standalone services, such as antivirus.
- VIPRE EDR Using VIPRE Endpoint Protection Cloud as its base, VIPRE EDR continuously scans files, processes, and network traffic for known and unknown threats and promptly alerts you to any odd behaviors.
This article discusses several antivirus solutions catered specifically to your business needs, regardless of the scale of your organization’s infrastructure demand. Note that all of these solutions are focussed on ‘anti-malware’ instead of just ‘antivirus’—if you’re unsure of the difference, just remember that viruses are a subset of malware, so anti-malware tools provide you with better coverage.
Business vs. Home Protection
What differs in the kind of protection you need from an antivirus solution when considering home coverage and business coverage? Well, there are some blatantly obvious factors to consider; such as the ability to cover more than a handful of devices through a single interconnected system. The scale of your intended solution can differ greatly based on your exact business size. SaaS (Subscription as a Service) solutions are your friend when it comes to finding a flexible solution if your business is likely to grow or shift demands within a reasonable timeframe.
But what about some of the less obvious differences? Well, most modern antivirus solutions that cater to businesses come as packaged solutions. Very few large-scale security solutions focus solely on antivirus, since antivirus products aren’t anywhere near as useful as they once were, as most threats to businesses come from other forms of malware or ransomware. This is typically the case because of a combination of factors: generally better-policed internet; website filtering being as standard, and capable antivirus solutions coming as default with all modern operating systems.
So the truth is that if you’re looking for an antivirus tool for a large business, you’re also looking for an anti-malware and anti-ransomware tool, whether you know it or not. That all said, multiple home-based antivirus solutions do come with broader packages that are intended for small businesses. These solutions work if you only need to cover up to around 20 devices—for anything bigger than that, you will need to look for packaged solutions.
What is EDR?
While browsing through this article and many others that discuss business antivirus tools for larger scale organizations, you will undoubtedly see reference to the acronym ‘EDR’. This stands for Endpoint Detection and Response. This term refers to products that scan your business environment for malicious threats. This includes viruses, but also a broader range of malware and ransomware.
An EDR solution is exactly what you need when searching for a business antivirus tool that covers your entire spectrum of endpoints while responding to threats quickly and robustly.
The Best Business Antivirus Tools
1. Crowdstrike Falcon Prevent
Crowdstrike Falcon Prevent presents one of the most comprehensively robust and technologically advanced antivirus and anti-malware tools available for enterprise-size businesses. Where Falcon Prevent excels above many other antivirus tools is the practice of employing machine-learning algorithms to trace, quarantine, and remove viruses from your systems. AI-driven antivirus systems are becoming increasingly popular as a method of outsmarting malicious threats, but Falcon Prevent is ahead of the curve in just how well their algorithms can detect threats across your entire collection of endpoints.
Key Features:
- AI-Driven Antivirus/anti-malware
- Cloud-based with agent deployment
- Enterprise-level network scale
- Exploit blocking
- MITRE ATT&CK framework
The system can also give each alert’s specifics, context, and history while revealing the whole attack in a single, simple-to-understand process tree that is supplemented with threat and contextual intelligence information. For easy comprehension of even the most complicated detections, it maps alarms to a recognized attack matrix for easier understanding. The system’s inbuilt quarantine collects obstructed files and can permit access for research. Malicious MS Office macros are inspected and blocked using script-based execution monitoring, all while the Falcon Prevent sensor is protected from manipulation or disabling by a feature called sensor tampering protection.
It is worth noting that as an Enterprise-grade system, Falcon Prevent is developed specifically for the cloud to remove business-wise complexity and streamline deployment across your whole network. The solution has support for a wide range of platforms, including Windows, macOS, and Linux. The solution works through a lightweight deployed Falcon agent running that has all the necessary defenses against threats, whether they arise online or offline.
Crowdstrike Falcon Prevent has a free trial to test how well it can integrate with your systems—while it’s unlikely you’ll see new virus activity throughout a 15-day trial period, you might be surprised to find lingering threats already on your network upon activating the product. Falcon Prevent comes as part of one of the Falcon product packages available on the cloud platform. It comes with all packages as standard, the cheapest of which is $9 per endpoint per month.
2. Kaspersky Endpoint Security
Kaspersky is known for providing a broad range of antivirus/anti-malware products that ensure your systems are secure, ranging from home protection to enterprise-level businesses. Their Endpoint Security platform is designed to be a business scalable solution that works through SaaS flexibility while bringing all the best features of a secure endpoint solution. Using Kaspersky, IT managers can allow, restrict, or regulate programs with “Dynamic Whitelisting,” using real-time file reputations provided by the system, including operating a “Default Deny” scenario.
Key Features:
- App & Web Control
- Vulnerability and Patch Management
- Secure Data Sharing
- MDM integration
- Hardware and Software Inventories
Kaspersky also allows you to build surfing rules that accompany the user on the business network and when they are roaming based on pre-set or customized databases of unacceptable websites. By automatically deleting harmful and potentially hostile programs from HTTP(S), FTP, SMTP, and POP3 traffic, your network is kept secure, and it also enables Users to quickly create self-extracting packages that are encrypted to ensure that data is secure when shared over removable media, email, networks, or the internet.
Kaspersky provides a 30-day free trial of the cloud platform, allowing you to sign-up and test the basic functions before committing to a subscription. The full product comes as three separate basic subscriptions, with an ‘Enterprise Security’ version of the license available for companies with over 1000+ employees. The Plus and Pro versions of the product add features such as Root Cause Analysis or Application Control. The subscription costs around $202.50 for 5 devices for a full-year license—though these costs can be reduced when purchasing bulk licenses.
3. SentinelOne Singularity
Singularity is designed as a SaaS solution that extends to your current security systems thanks to excellent protective coverage across all key operating systems and a robust integration environment. The solution uses real-time, autonomous detection and repair of complex hazards without assistance from a person. It supports Windows, Linux, and macOS through a variety of platforms—physical, virtual, container, or cloud.
Key Features:
- Scalable Security Platform
- 1-Click Remediation
- Deep Visibility Threat Hunting
- Autonomous Detection
- Customizable Data Retention
The platform provides options for data retention from 14-365+ days to fit your exact subscription demands, and rapid deployment allows a quick, seamless rollout to all connected systems. By eliminating the need to build new scripts and resolving all affected endpoints with a single click, the mean time to respond can be shortened. Keeping this ethos in mind, Singularity allows you to create automated hunting rules tailored to your environment using inbuilt systems, which will cause alerts and actions to be taken when the rules discover a match.
SentinelOne Singularity comes in three different SaaS packages that include various feature differences. Singularity Core comes with the basic features, while Singularity Control comes with additional security features such as rogue & unsecured device discovery. Singularity Complete comes with all available features and is designed for enterprise-level businesses, but also includes features such as native EDR analytics.
4. FortiClient
FortiClient provides a unified user agent for a wide range of Fortinet products including FortiGate, FortiAnalyzer, EMS, managed APs, managed Switches, and FortiSandbox. However, Forticlient also provides several functions on its own, including antivirus. Through vulnerability scanning and optional auto-patching, FortiClient assists businesses in lowering their attack surface. When used in conjunction with zero trust access principles, this strategy can improve the hygiene and security posture of your entire organization.
Key Features:
- Broad Fortinet Integration
- Malware and Exploit Prevention
- Web Filtering and SaaS Control
- Ransomware Protection
- Included VPN
Advanced viruses and vulnerabilities are kept from being exploited by FortiClient. To instantly analyze all files downloaded to FortiClient endpoints, FortiClient interacts with FortiClient Cloud Sandbox. The cloud-based FortiGuard threat intelligence platform receives information on known and undiscovered malware from millions of FortiClient and FortiSandbox users globally. To defend against new threats, FortiGuard automatically communicates the intelligence with FortiClient endpoints. Additionally, with the ability to undo changes performed by malicious programs, FortiClient’s enhanced ransomware protection returns the endpoint to its pre-infection state.
FortiClient can be licensed by contacting Fortinet directly and discussing your business requirements, and gaining a quote on price. The full product works substantially well but is best used in conjunction with other Fortinet products—if you’re already using Fortinet products or are interested in making a shift in your network infrastructure, then FortiClient may be the best option for you.
5. VIPRE EDR
VIPRE EDR constantly scans files, processes, and network activity for known and undiscovered threats and immediately notifies you of unusual behaviors using VIPRE Endpoint Protection Cloud as its foundation. By promptly isolating a compromised device on the network, the solution can provide you with the means to stop danger from spreading. Until your inquiry is finished, only you will be allowed to control and use the equipment, and VIPRE comes with remote support tools, meaning you can access quarantined devices from any location.
Key Features:
- Full Endpoint Protection
- Rapid Deployment
- Correlated Behavior Engine
- Endpoint Isolation
- Remote Access
With integrated incident management, you can keep track of all open threats to make sure nothing escapes your team’s notice. Threats can be controlled once they have been recognized by deploying kill processes, deleting files, etc. directly from within the system. This includes all endpoint activity associated with the threat, including all user, process, file, registry, and network activity. As an additional feature designed to find and stop ransomware, Advanced Active Protection makes use of real-time behavior monitoring and AI-driven machine learning to track user trends and eliminate threats.
VIPRE provides free trials for a number of their component products, but the main EDR solution does not have any kind of trial available, unfortunately. You can, however, request a demo of their product through the company website. VIPRE does not list any pricing details on its website, but the product is licensed through a platform subscription and is flexible to your exact business needs. You will need to contact them directly for a personalized pricing quote.
