Top Cybersecurity Solutions

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As cybercriminals such as ransomware groups and social engineers target global enterprise data, organizations are scrambling to secure their networks, endpoint devices, and storage to avoid millions of dollars in losses and reputation damage.

Cybersecurity is particularly critical in data storage management, which is responsible for protecting sensitive corporate and personal information at enterprise scale. A comprehensive security platform is also important for companies that have a widely remote workforce: endpoint devices can be compromised by several threats, including unsecured networks, extended sessions, and insufficient authentication measures. 

See below to learn all about the top cybersecurity software platforms and their providers: 

Choosing the Right Cybersecurity Provider

• Features of Security Software
• Benefits of Security Software
• Top Cybersecurity Software Platforms
  • CrowdStrike Falcon
  • McAfee MVISION
  • Palo Alto Prisma Cloud
  • Bitdefender GravityZone
  • Symantec Advanced Threat Protection
  • Fortinet Security Fabric
  • Trend Micro Vision One
• Security Software Comparison
• Security Software Use Cases
• What to Look for in Cybersecurity Software 

Features of Security Software

Some of the key capabilities offered by cybersecurity platforms include: 

• Cloud security: for data and applications running in public cloud environments
• Threat intelligence: the study of patterns in malicious traffic and cyber attacks, so enterprises can recognize them 
• Endpoint monitoring and protection: studying traffic on endpoint devices and mitigating threats there 
• Extended detection and response (XDR): expanding the reach of endpoint detection and response to other layers of the security infrastructure
• Data analytics: for endpoint and network traffic, which reveal vulnerabilities and deviations from regular traffic

Benefits of Security Software

Some of the key benefits for enterprises implementing comprehensive cybersecurity platforms include:

• Gain insights into endpoints: by revealing the traffic and activity on endpoint devices, so enterprises can address unsecure practices and view malware and attack patterns. 
• More rapid identification of vulnerabilities: by showing enterprises exactly where threats are sourced, such as misconfigurations, so they can address a problem before they’re breached. 
• De-silo data protection: by extending security to multiple layers of the enterprise infrastructure, providing visibility for data across devices, networks, and workloads. 

Top Cybersecurity Software Platforms

CrowdStrike Falcon

Renowned endpoint detection and response (EDR) vendor CrowdStrike offers Falcon, a platform for monitoring endpoints and other infrastructure assets, detecting threats and attacks, and preventing breaches. CrowdStrike Falcon was named a leader in Gartner’s 2021 Magic Quadrant for endpoint protection platforms. 

CrowdStrike’s artificial intelligence (AI)-infused Threat Graph is the resource for endpoint indexing and behavioral analytics, studying petabytes of raw data stored in a database. Using Threat Graph requires customers to have enough experienced personnel to manage the tool and sufficient high-performance computing resources. CrowdStrike Falcon is ideal for large enterprises with a sizable IT infrastructure. 

Falcon XDR moves beyond EDR to extended detection and response, a security monitoring and threat prevention platform for all layers of an organization’s security infrastructure. As well as endpoints, Falcon XDR monitors network assets, email, data, and workloads running in the cloud. Crowdstrike’s software is designed to avoid the silos and dangers that come from using different security tools for different segments of IT infrastructure. 

Key Differentiators 

• Threat Graph, a high-power analytics tool that indexes endpoints and stores petabytes of raw data
• APIs for automation that integrate with existing CI/CD pipelines
• Modular design that allows enterprises to add security tools to their existing CrowdStrike platform
• Managed threat hunting 
• Antivirus technology

CrowdStrike offers four EDR plans:

• Falcon Pro, $8.99 per endpoint/month
• Falcon Enterprise, $15.99 per endpoint/month
• Falcon Premium, $18.99 per endpoint/month
• Falcon Complete, pricing available upon request from the vendor 

Also read: Top XDR Security Solutions

McAfee MVISION

McAfee MVISION is a cloud-based suite of security products that protects both cloud and on-premises environments. Gartner named McAfee a leader in its 2021 Magic Quadrant for endpoint protection platforms. MVISION covers devices, data in transit, and applications and infrastructure environments.

MVISION offers user access analytics, cloud usage statistics, and cloud activity audits. McAfee provides organizations with pre-built policy templates and applies created policies to all cloud services, whether at rest or in transit.

The platform allows users to apply policies to third-party applications that are connected to cloud services. It also integrates with other enterprise security solutions, like next-generation firewalls, security information and event management (SIEM), and encryption key management service.

Key Differentiators 

• Data loss prevention policies that users can design for cloud storage
• Blocking downloads of corporate data to certain endpoint devices
• Audits to detect security misconfigurations
• Malware detection and removal
• Real-time adaptive authentication through an identity and access management (IAM) integration, based on applied access control policies 

Prospective customers must contact the vendor to receive pricing details.  

Palo Alto Prisma Cloud

Palo Alto Prisma Cloud is a cloud-based security platform designed for hybrid cloud and multicloud infrastructure, application, and data protection. Palo Alto offers five different modules that customers may combine and integrate. 

Prisma Cloud is a cloud-native solution, and its Cloud Code Security includes code and container image scans and GitHub repository vulnerability management for DevOps teams to have built-in software development security. Cloud Workload Protection supports both public and private cloud workloads and provides security measures for multiple workloads, like containers, serverless functions, and cloud virtual machines. It also reveals vulnerabilities and compliance risks and provides access controls. 

The Cloud Network Security module implements identity-based microsegmentation for networks and containers, allowing DevOps teams to continue deploying workloads without security stalls. Each host and container covered by the tool receives a cryptographic identity, which means that Prisma Cloud manages traffic based on identity rather than IP addresses. 

Key Differentiators 

• Cloud service provider APIs that add public cloud coverage to organizations’ security infrastructure 
• Microsegmentation policy management with automatically generated policy recommendations and policy as code
• Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management module for least privilege access, including unused privilege monitoring and permission audits
• Malware scans for public cloud storage environments 

Prisma Cloud Enterprise Edition pricing is connected to credits, a system Palo Alto uses to manage resources used. Prospective customers must contact the vendor for pricing details. 

Bitdefender GravityZone

Bitdefender offers comprehensive threat detection, monitoring, and protection from malware for organizations of varying sizes. It was named a Gartner “Peer Insights Customer’s Choice” for endpoint protection platforms in 2021 for the North American region. Its four plans are designed for different company sizes: GravityZone Business Security; GravityZone Advanced Business Security; GravityZone Elite; and GravityZone Ultra.

GravityZone Ultra, for larger businesses, includes XDR capabilities and MITRE attack techniques. Its extended detection and response feature, which Bitdefender calls XEDR, allows security teams to run EDR technology on workstations and servers. The risk analytics feature monitors endpoint misconfigurations and prioritizes security improvements for enterprises to implement. 

GravityZone Elite, another enterprise plan, offers fileless attack blocking, misconfiguration scans, and automated backups for files targeted by ransomware. Its network attack defense includes detection of lateral movement, SQL injections, and botnet attacks. 

Key Differentiators

• Risk analytics and user behavior identification
• Pre-execution detection
• Supports integration with Splunk and other security operations software
• Works with major hypervisors, including Microsoft Hyper-V

Prospective buyers must contact the vendor or use Bitdefender’s price calculation tool for pricing details.  

Symantec Advanced Threat Protection 

Symantec Advanced Threat Protection, offered under Broadcom, is a threat protection and remediation platform for endpoint devices, email, and networks. Broadcom was recognized as a visionary in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for endpoint protection platforms and a leader in the Forrester Wave for cloud security gateways. Its management console allows organizations to search the enterprise for indicators of compromise and extract files from endpoints to examine. 

The platform uses Symantec Synapse, a correlation tool, to connect threats detected at endpoints to events that occur in enterprise networks or email, so security analysts don’t have to manage overlapping incidents. Symantec Cynic, a sandboxing and payload detonation tool, uses analytics with machine learning (ML) capabilities to detect malicious activity and runs sandbox tests to study advanced attacks.  

Key Differentiators

• Endpoint management features, like blacklisting and quarantine 
• Support for third-party sandboxes 
• Security Analytics tool with network traffic analysis and forensics
• Content Analysis, an anti-malware product that works with other Symantec tools to inspect traffic from networks, email, and endpoints and study unknown files with machine learning

Advanced Threat Protection is purchased through Broadcom-licensed partners or distributors. 

Fortinet Security Fabric

Fortinet offers a widespread fabric platform that encompasses many of its other network and cloud security solutions. Fortinet Fabric Management Center, the console for the fabric, allows enterprises to manage their security operations, including products like endpoint security, XDR, and SIEM. Available within the fabric is Fortinet’s network security solution, which includes Fortigate, a next-generation firewall hardware appliance, and Fortinet’s software-defined wide-area network (WAN).  The network security solution also provides SSL inspection and a virtual private network (VPN). 

Zero trust is another component of the security fabric: Fortinet’s zero-trust network access solution identifies Internet of Things (IoT) endpoints and scans each device on the network for vulnerabilities. Customers can also implement microsegmentation and IAM tools, like multi-factor authentication and single sign-on (SSO).

Fortinet offers web application security designed for cloud-based environments, with zero-day protection for enterprise email and FortiGate-VM for hybrid cloud. The cloud security solution includes a cloud access security broker (CASB).

Key Differentiators

• Remote application access on a per-session basis 
• FortiGate, a NGFW recognized as a Gartner Magic Quadrant leader for network firewalls 
• FortiGuard Labs, a threat intelligence and research lab, whose threat intel briefs and zero-day research are made available to Fortinet customers
• Cloud security solution support for multiple public cloud providers, including Azure, Google, and Alibaba

Pricing for Fortinet Security Fabric is available upon request from the vendor. 

Also read: Best Threat Intelligence Platforms & Tools

Trend Micro Vision One

Trend Micro is a managed XDR provider and a leader in Gartner’s 2021 Magic Quadrant for endpoint protection platforms. Trend Micro Vision One is XDR for businesses that need data from widespread sources to be analyzed. The Workbench tool is the management hub of the software, revealing all potential attacks, the model severity, and how many endpoints will be impacted by such an attack. It also shows highlights of events, and it links well-known types of attacks to related MITRE ATT&CK framework resources. 

The Remote Shell feature allows admins to remotely access endpoints and investigate malicious files. Customers can quarantine suspicious or malware-carrying emails, delete them remotely from employee inboxes, and block the initial sender. 

Vision One allows users to design custom detection criteria to monitor devices and other points on the network for suspicious behavior. The search feature permits both queries and plain text searches.

Key Differentiators

• Zero Trust Risk Insights for a broad range of activities, including cloud application activity and account compromise
• Managed services option for XDR, with access to Trend Micro threat analysts’ research and a 24/7 support line
• Automatic remediation capabilities, like file restoration
• Role-based views of risk metrics
• Threat insights connected to MITRE ATT&CK data 

Pricing for Trend Micro Vision One is available upon request from the vendor. 

Security Software Comparison

Some features are available in other software from the vendors.

Security Software Use Cases 

“Since the platform is cloud-based, there isn’t a lot of architecture review necessary. And CrowdStrike’s ‘single, lightweight agent’ isn’t just a buzzword; it is actually true. On some of our older machines, replacing the legacy AV solution with Falcon resulted in a better user experience. The handoff from being self-managed to managed by Falcon’s Complete team was also an incredibly easy and seamless transition.” -information security manager in the consumer goods industry, review of CrowdStrike Falcon at Gartner Peer Insights

“GravityZone is a very efficient means to provide endpoint protection for our virtualized workloads. It integrates easily with VMware to minimize resource usage in dense virtual environments without compromising security. … Efficient use of resources saves money on ESX hosts. Centralized console lets us combine multiple virtual environments into one console that can use our existing vSphere tags for policy assignment.” -systems architect in the software industry, review of Bitdefender GravityZone at Gartner Peer Insights

“When we began in 2014, we had small and fragmented teams of IT security, network security, and infrastructure security, and now we are a full-fledged, end-to-end, captive security team. … What strikes me, in particular, is the completeness of vision that Palo Alto Networks has demonstrated, offering us cloud-ready products along our migration curve. Add to this a clear alignment on customer-centricity and the ease of integration of solutions deployed.” -Anton Bonifacio, CISO of Globe Telecom, Palo Alto Networks case study 

“[Symantec ATP] is compatible with Symantec’s own antivirus and security products of different vendors. It informs us about the threats that may occur, thanks to advanced virus analysis. Thanks to its integration with user groups, we can monitor the security weaknesses that may occur in all users of our company through this application. It also shares the weaknesses it finds with other security practices.” -systems specialist in the food and beverage industry, review of Symantec Advanced Threat Protection Gartner Peer Insights 

What to Look for in Cybersecurity Software

• Support for new technologies: Any next-generation technologies that you know your enterprise is moving toward, make sure the security vendor you choose has a strong set of tools to secure them.
• Responsiveness: Customer support is critical for IT and DevSecOps teams. Make sure you choose a security provider that’s known for their excellent customer support. Their user base will tell you their reputation. 
• Easy-to-use management console: If its layout makes little sense to you, it won’t be beneficial. Get a demo of the software and ask as many questions as you can about navigation and functionality.

Read next: Top Cloud Security Tools & Software