Many organizations are considering next-generation solutions to deal with the unknown threats cybercriminals use to evade traditional defenses. One technology that’s had a fair share of hype is the sandbox.
A sandbox is an isolated, safe environment that imitates an entire computer system to execute suspicious programs, monitor their behavior, and understand their intended purpose, without endangering an organization’s network.
Choosing a sandboxing solution can be a challenge due to the numerous options available on the market. Consider the following five points before you make your decision.
1. Does the solution analyze a broad range of suspicious objects?
Pick a sandbox solution that can detect threats designed to evade sandboxes. Your sandbox needs to be able to analyze a broad range of suspicious files. Check that your chosen solution can analyze archives, Microsoft Office documents and PDFs, as well as executables.
2. Does it offer comprehensive operating system and application stack coverage?
Comprehensive platform coverage is important for detecting malware that has been fine-tuned to run only in a specific operating system or application.
3. Does it give contextual information about the malware or targeted attack?
Context about the targeted attack is mission critical. You need a solution that can give you granular, incident-based reports that provide valuable context.
4. What is the sandbox analysis rate?
Choose a solution that uses anti-malware and reputation services to reduce the number of wrongly convicted files and the number of files sent for sandboxing. This helps reduce impact on performance and your users.
5. Does it use collective security intelligence?
Conventional security checks fail to discover unknown threats. To improve the accuracy of detecting these threats, choose a solution that uses cloud-based collective threat intelligence from multiple events and customers.
We address all these questions in our new guide, Defeating the Targeted Threat: Bolstering Defenses With a Sandbox Solution. This free paper explains why you should consider a sandbox and answers your questions about what to look for in a sandbox solution.
Introducing Sophos Sandstorm
Sophos Sandstorm is an advanced persistent threat (APT) and zero-day malware defense solution that complements Sophos security products. It quickly and accurately detects, blocks, and responds to evasive threats that other solutions miss, by using powerful cloud-based, next-generation sandbox technology.
To find out if Sophos Sandstorm is the right sandbox solution for your business, visit sophos.com/sandstorm.
Image of number 5 courtesy of Flickr user Joanna Poe.
