What is Application Whitelisting?
Application whitelisting is the process of indexing, approving, and allowing the application(s) to be present on the computer system. Unlike in the case of blacklisting where the system blocks an application or set of applications; the process of whitelisting allows a particular set of tools to run on the network. Application whitelisting is more useful in environments which require individual systems to be more secured, due to data on these systems being highly confidential.
4 Benefits of Application Whitelisting
Application whitelisting allows you to have greater control over the type of apps installed inside the network.
In a data-sensitive environment such as government organizations or projects involving sensitive data, this technology proves to be more helpful than application blacklisting.
Application policy feature related to your mobile devices in application whitelisting tools allows you to minimize the risks associated with your own devices and applications installed on them.
Application whitelisting tools provide the insights of cyber threats, the applications through which the malware and/or Trojan viruses penetrate inside a system.
Also, they provide a detailed analysis of these threats in the form of a report which can help you to shortlist, or reassess the whitelisted applications.
Application Whitelisting tools also provide you a detailed application-based report. It helps you to understand the app-based activities such as data usage by an application, new installations of an app on a particular machine, uninstalling of an application from a device.
These tools provide the application upgrade notifications as well to help the organizations to keep up with the latest versions of the applications.
- Greater Control over the applications
- Reduced risk associated with Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) policies
- Threat Detection, Malware, Trojan Insights
- Application-based reports such as upgrade, usage, and install/uninstall reports
We will be discussing key application whitelisting tools in the succeeding content.
Applocker whitelisting tool comes with Microsoft windows server editions, and windows operating systems with its enterprise and upgraded editions.
Its rules can apply to an individual or also to a group of systems. You can also customize and set up different levels of enforcement as required.
PowerBroker whitelisting tool is another popular application whitelisting tool that supports Windows, Linux, and Mac too.
This application is considered to have a more application control-based approach. It is more popular due to its key features, such as activity logging and privilege management. Its mobile policy features also help you out with the issues associated with the BYOD policy.
PolicyPak integrates with Windows server and other OS editions mainly. It comes with three main editions, namely Group Edition, Cloud Edition, and MDM Edition. You can also opt for a GP Compliance Reporter tool for whitelisting.
PolicyPak Cloud Edition has a BYOD feature while Group Edition is more suited for smaller organizations.
MDM Edition is similar to Cloud Edition but is useful with existing mobile device management services such as Workspace One, Intune, etc.
This tool is also useful with Windows. Its primary purpose is to keep sensitive data within the environment and help the organizations to secure data with more ease.
It is known for its key features such as hierarchical access, endpoint security, mobile support, and the ability to main the privileges irrespective of locations.
It has other important features, such as monitoring of inactivity, data management, secured installation.
It comes with an upgrade and notification feature for the uninstallation of the application as well.
They provide an application whitelisting tool called Defendpoint, which is popular in practices such as BYOD, enterprise network security, endpoint security, malware detection, and report management.
Centrify Server Suite’s EPM is also a popular application whitelisting tool which focuses more on privilege policies, reporting and auditing, and threat analytics.
Its core features also include application control, application management based on vulnerabilities, and security of ecosystem integration.
Kaspersky's whitelisting tool focuses more on default-deny mode, which helps to block the unauthorized applications easily and notifies the network admin about the same.
It also comes with other key features, such as a local and global whitelisting database to comply with different regional data protection policies.
Also, with a feature like a golden image, you can prioritize the most crucial applications to start and work on the operating systems.
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