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Table of Contents

• What is Cybersecurity Software?
• The benefits of Cybersecurity Software
• Typical features of Cybersecurity Software
• The cost of Cybersecurity Software
• Considerations when purchasing Cybersecurity Software
• Relevant Cybersecurity Software trends

What is Cybersecurity Software?

Cybersecurity software protects an organization's IT networks, computer systems, mobile applications, and software platforms from cyberattacks, such as adware, ransomware, spyware, malware, and phishing. The software uses technologies such as data encryption, firewall protection, website scanning, and incident response to help prevent unauthorized access and ensure real-time enterprise security.

There are different types of cybersecurity software solutions—web vulnerability scanning, data encryption, penetration testing, network defense, firewall, antivirus, spyware protection, and password management. These tools provide application and network security as well as disaster recovery in some cases.

The benefits of Cybersecurity Software

• Improved data security: The software provides antivirus features to protect systems and networks from viruses that can drastically slow down the processing speed, hack sensitive data, or damage the computer or network systems. It also prevents identity thefts and spyware attacks to safeguard confidential information, such as passwords, financial data, credit card numbers, and social security numbers of users. Data encryption and user authorization are some other aspects handled by cybersecurity software.
• Better compliance management: Businesses have to comply with legal, insurance, and industry regulations for data storage, management, and transmission. Some of these regulations include the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS), Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). With features such as activity monitoring, file encryption, internal controls, and policy management, cybersecurity software helps businesses accomplish, uphold, and prove compliance with all applicable regulations.

Typical features of Cybersecurity Software

• Activity monitoring: Monitor and track end-user behavior across business IT resources, such as systems, devices, and networks.
• Endpoint protection: Protect the endpoints of user devices, such as remote desktops, laptops, and mobile devices connected to external networks, and provide a secure environment for devices to access company programs.
• Threat response: Identify malicious behavior on endpoint devices and alert the IT security team about potential threats.
• Antivirus: Prevent, search for, detect, and remove software viruses and other malicious agents such as Trojans and adware.
• DDoS protection: Protect a targeted network from a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that overwhelms websites and online services with more traffic than the server or network can accommodate and uses this as an opportunity to infect the systems.
• Firewalls: Monitor network traffic and decide whether to allow or block specific URLs based on predefined security rules.
• Policy management: Manage the rules to be followed when accessing and using an organization’s IT assets and resources.

The cost of Cybersecurity Software

Most products in the market are priced on a “per user per month” basis and can be divided into three pricing tiers based on their starting price.

Price ranges*:

• $5 - $12
• $12 - $34
• $34+

*The pricing included is for the entry-level/lowest-priced offering found on vendor websites on September 3, 2021. These ranges correspond to the 25th, 75th, and 100th percentiles of pricing information gathered from vendor websites of sample products.

The above list summarizes pricing for the base plans of most products. An enterprise or premium product that is priced higher may include additional features such as two-factor authentication, application-level activity auditing and security, automatic updates, and row-level (multitenant) security.

Considerations when purchasing Cybersecurity Software

• Functionality: Before shortlisting any cybersecurity tool, identify why you want to use it. Is it to ensure endpoint security, use it as an antivirus, or work with it as a threat intelligence tool? Also, select software with a layered security approach to identify and isolate potential threats more effectively. This could include firewalls, malware scanners, local storage encryption tools, and intrusion detection systems. Since software cost varies depending on the features offered, it's important to list your requirements. And if you have a limited budget, here are some free tools that can be useful.
• Compatibility: Understanding your IT infrastructure (e.g., network specifications, software installations, hardware equipment) will help you make an informed shortlist of potential cybersecurity solutions that fit your business environment. For example, if your business uses removable storage devices for data transfer, then a media encryption service will be essential to block infected files from entering your network. As cybercrime technology continues to evolve, it’s important to select software that can respond to new threats. Check the software updates and patches of the shortlisted tools to ensure they’ll be effective against potential future threats.

Relevant Cybersecurity Software trends

• Companies are exploring the application of blockchain in cybersecurity. One of the best use cases of utilizing blockchain capabilities is in the field of building cybersecurity solutions for many other technologies. Social media and messaging companies are exploring the application of blockchain as an alternative and superior option to the end-to-end encryption they currently use to secure user data. Also, blockchain can be used to create a unified API framework for enabling cross-messenger communication capabilities. The technology also finds application in the field of IoT security. In this case, blockchain is used to secure overall systems by decentralizing their administration. Usually, cyberattacks gain full control of the entire system by penetrating the central administration. Decentralizing such device authority systems ensures such attacks are harder to execute, if even possible.