Traditional virus scanners have struggled to keep pace with the threats, with systems that are protected by up-to-date antivirus software often getting hit by malware.
To be effective, antivirus products need to be able to detect and block every bit of malware that attempts to run on a system.
Application allowlisting (also known as application whitelisting) takes the opposite approach. Rather than block only known dangerous files, application whitelisting only allows known, trusted applications to launch. While new variants of malware may slip by an antivirus product, they will be blocked by a properly configured application whitelisting policy.
