Antivirus, NGAV, and EDR: Strengthening Cybersecurity with Zero Trust

Cyber threats are evolving rapidly—and so must our defenses.
Traditional Antivirus (AV), Next-Generation Antivirus (NGAV), and Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) all aim to protect endpoints, but they do so in fundamentally different ways. Understanding these differences is key to aligning your security strategy with a Zero Trust architecture.

Definitions and Examples

Category	Description	Detection Method	Examples
Traditional Antivirus	Relies on known virus signatures or hashes stored in a database. Cannot detect unknown or evolving threats.	Signature-based	Avast, AVG, McAfee (Legacy), Kaspersky, Norton
Next-Gen Antivirus (NGAV)	Uses AI/ML to detect malware based on behavior and patterns. Detects fileless and zero-day attacks.	Behavioral, ML/AI, cloud analytics	CrowdStrike Falcon Prevent, SentinelOne Core, Sophos Intercept X, CylancePROTECT
Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR)	Combines NGAV features with real-time monitoring, threat hunting, and response capabilities like rollback and isolation.	Behavioral, telemetry, analytics, threat intelligence	Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, CrowdStrike Falcon Insight, SentinelOne Complete, Palo Alto Cortex XDR

How It Connects to Zero Trust

Zero Trust is a cybersecurity philosophy that assumes no application, user, or device should be implicitly trusted. Instead, all access and behavior must be verified and monitored continuously.

Here’s how AV, NGAV, and EDR align with—or fall short of—Zero Trust principles:

• Traditional Antivirus: Trusts everything not already known to be malicious—violates Zero Trust.
• NGAV: Starts moving toward Zero Trust by verifying behavior using AI—but lacks visibility and response depth.
• EDR: Fully supports Zero Trust by monitoring continuously, validating actions, and enabling active containment and recovery.

Final Thoughts

Modern threats require modern tools. Traditional antivirus is no longer enough. For true alignment with Zero Trust security, organizations must move toward EDR solutions that combine prevention, detection, and fast response.

Don’t just detect. Respond.
Don’t just trust. Verify.