Whitelisting: A New Alternative To Anti-Virus Software? - Small Business Computing

Whitelisting: A New Alternative To Anti-Virus Software?

Dec 14, 2010
1 minute read


ITBusinessEdge: Whitelisting – A New Alternative To Anti-Virus Software?

There are two approaches to using whitelisting security products – use them on their own in place of anti-virus software, or use them in conjunction with traditional anti-virus programs as a failsafe mechanism. Paul Mah discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each.


“I wrote recently on the topic of deploying whitelisting for your SMB in which I spoke with a couple of senior executives from whitelisting company CoreTrace, namely J.T. Keating, VP of marketing, and Greg Valentine, director of technical services. In my post, I highlighted the administrative overhead – compared to traditional, definition-based anti-virus software – inherent to whitelisting, as well as a couple of important considerations for companies considering whitelisting.

One issue that I deliberately sidestepped was whether whitelisting is a viable replacement for traditional anti-virus software. While the answer might appear to be self-explanatory when considering whitelisting as a security product, there are actually two schools of thought on this topic. Let me articulate more on both of them today.”

Small Business Computing Staff

Small Business Computing addresses the technology needs of small businesses, which are defined as businesses with fewer than 500 employees and/or less than $7 million in annual sales.

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