Leonid Shtilman CEO Viewfinity

Leonid Shtilman, chief executive officer of Viewfinity, a leading innovator of privilege management solutions, cited the number of recent and prominent cyberattacks as a clarion call for government agencies, large commercial enterprises and even small/mid-sized business to take proactive steps to enhance their organization’s network security technology to thwart acts of cyber warfare and cyber terrorism.  Of particular concern to Shtilman are cyberattacks on our national energy/utility grids and transportation networks.

Shtilman points to a warning issued by President Obama during his 2013 State of the Union Address when the President warned of threats to our national power and transportation infrastructure. 

“We know hackers steal people's identities and infiltrate private emails. We know foreign countries and companies swipe our corporate secrets, now our enemies are also seeking the ability to sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions, our air traffic control systems,” said President Obama.

“The President is right and his meeting earlier this month with CEOs from IT security companies demonstrated that he understands that effective network security technology is required to protect our complex digital networks that run our rail systems, our airlines and air traffic, our cities, and our electrical power grids, all of which can be compromised by a hacker who has gained access,” said Shtilman.  “We have to defend ourselves against cyberattacks from foreign state-sponsored hackers who seek to disrupt the electronic communications systems that we’ve come to depend upon.  It is an issue in which government agencies, educational institutions, healthcare operations and business entities of all sizes need to make some serious choices about making sure access to critical systems is more difficult than breaking down a locked door.”

Shtilman suggested a good starting point is to reduce or eliminate an organization’s exposure to malware and virus threats by removing administrator rights from desktops.  Additional security management is required here as several business processes and even certain application functionality does at times require administrator level access to an organization’s operating system.  So the key is managing end user desktop privileges on a granular scale.

It’s important for organizations seeking to improve its cyber security posture, that there’s a clear view into its end user client computing environment so companies can be proactive and respond to cyber threat without impacting business processes and applications. 

“The possibility of a cyberattack is a constant threat,” said Shtilman.  “Removing administrator privileges from end users is a big step in protecting companies from malware and viruses. No single organization has all the answers, so it’s important to find partners who have solid technology that interoperates and complements other IT security technology.  And if you think security technology is expensive, try comparing it to the cost of rebuilding your business after a major cyberattack.”

Viewfinity provides the only solution which offers complete application control features and administrative privilege capabilities to protect against sophisticated zero-day attacks, malware, and advanced persistent threats. Their next generation application control provides everything needed for whitelisting - from trusted sources and updaters to a cloud-based system which can rank unknown executables, reinforced with managed administrative privileges. Applications not yet classified run in a sandbox "greylist mode" and are automatically evaluated and assigned to a white/black list. The solution enhances the utilization of antivirus as a protective filter for the greylist. This approach leads to more secure desktop and server environments, enables high operational IT efficiency via a lower TCO model, and maximizes end user productivity.