Airlock Digital
Defending the Digital Frontier

In an era of accelerated digitalization, organizations are deploying tech-driven solutions throughout their operations to enhance productivity and overall performance. However, this shift expands their endpoint attack surfaces, making them susceptible to malicious breaches. To mitigate this problem, numerous businesses are adopting allowlisting—a cybersecurity strategy to control access by explicitly specifying what is permitted or allowed to prevent unauthorized applications from running on their infrastructure. Despite its impact, most allowlisting solutions have complex deployment and maintenance processes, necessitating an easy-to-use and scalable offering.

Developed by cybersecurity practitioners with firsthand experience handling endpoint cyber-attacks, Airlock Digital addresses this need with its workflow-based allowlisting feature that enables users to only allow files that it is instructed to trust or run. Regardless of whether an application is known to be good, bad or indifferent, if it is not in the allow list, it cannot run.

Airlock’s allowlisting competency is a central process, not an integrated feature. Bringing the sought-after deny-by-default model to endpoint security allows customers to make their own security decisions on which files and applications to trust. This contrasts with most endpoint security vendors who handle the security aspects on behalf of a business instead of working with them to assess core challenges.

“Airlock puts the power of trust directly into the hands of users to enhance security, maintain flexibility and allows customers in the endpoint security space to make decisions at scale and effectively define their trust by simplifying the creation of custom allowlists,” says David Cottingham, co-founder and CEO.

The recent surge in ransomware and targeted attacks highlights the inadequacy of traditional signature-based detection, revealing the need for stronger security measures against the vulnerabilities of open computing infrastructure. Answering the question, ‘How do you find a baseline for trust within an environment designed to accept and run any code?’ Airlock achieves a secure state by scrutinizing every aspect of all the applications to define trust levels. It also allows users to enforce restrictions tailored to their needs while identifying anomalies over time.

Its platform accelerates the process of adding or removing things from an allow list by closing the loop with an end-user and improving transparency into the timeline and use of a particular application for IT personnel. This is a testament to Airlock’s focus on user experience and adeptness in promptly addressing access issues to mitigate business friction.

A notable example of Airlock’s success is its collaboration with EQT Corporation, a major U.S. natural gas producer. Implementing its innovative allowlisting strategy, this client fortified their endpoints against ransomware and targeted threats with minimal operational disruption and remarkable efficacy. The ‘deny by default, allow by exception’ policy enforced by Airlock’s solution reinforced EQT’s change control process while maintaining a secure and trusted environment. At the heart of the client’s decision to choose Airlock was the simplicity and scalability of its platform, which is the driving force behind its ability to adeptly manage allow lists at scale.

Centered on proactive allowlisting and user empowerment, Airlock’s comprehensive approach to endpoint security addresses the evolving challenges security practitioners face in an increasingly complex threat landscape. It is poised to become a key player in the domain, especially in light of the February 2024 joint guidance released by The Five Eye nations—U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, which discusses how allowlisting can be a pivotal measure against ever-evolving cyber threats.

Reiterating the ‘Why?’ behind Airlock’s position as a reliable partner providing flexible and effective endpoint security solutions, Cottingham states, “If you aren’t using the functionalities that attackers can abuse to achieve their objectives, then blocking and preventing them is the best mitigation.”