Application Control Plus

Every year, thousands of enterprises fall victim to cyberattacks that leverage known and unknown vulnerabilities present in their applications. This means that closely monitoring and controlling the use of applications across endpoints is vital in maintaining your enterprise's security goals.

With the latest advancements in technology, there exists a copious amount of software applications that address every requirement in a business environment today. However, along with the advantages they may present comes the serious possibility of compromising your network security.

In the absence of suitable measures to control applications, unsafe programs can be installed and run without your knowledge. These unsafe applications can serve as a route to facilitate data leakage and the intrusion of malware to your endpoints. Some popular types of applications regarded as unsafe include:

1. Remote desktop sharing software, i.e., TeamViewer.
2. Software that operates on peer-to-peer network architecture, i.e., UTorrent, BitTorrent.
3. End-of-life applications.
4. Games.
5. Other torrent downloading software.

ManageEngine's Application Control Plus helps you keep track of which applications are used by the members of your organization so no unauthorized or unsafe software can make its way into your enterprise's IT network.

With Application Control Plus, you can automate the generation and upkeep of application whitelists and blacklists, simplifying the way you regulate the software used in your enterprise. Here are some compelling features of this solution.

1. Application whitelisting

Application Control Plus enables you to create a list of trusted applications allowed to run on client machines. Using application whitelists, you can ensure the apps used in your network cannot be leveraged in a cyberattack, preventing threats that result from software vulnerabilities.

Apart from malware protection, application whitelisting helps you streamline inventory management by eliminating the time spent in managing licensing information and patches for unnecessary apps. Additionally, you can allow users to access specific applications based on their role and job requirements.

2. Application blacklisting

Application blacklisting prevents certain unauthorized applications or executables from installing or running in your managed device. Apart from adding an extra layer of security to your enterprise, this feature lets you keep apps that hinder employee productivity at bay. These include applications for social media, instant messaging, games, and more.

Depending on the needs of your enterprise, completely prohibiting the use of such applications may not be practical; that's why Application Control Plus lets you create custom groups of computers to associate specific blacklists to, enabling you to block access to unsafe applications.

3. Flexibility regulator

Application Control Plus caters to the demands of every enterprise, regardless of their size and industry, with its built-in flexibility regulator. This feature gives you a clear understanding of how to build your application control framework by introducing two modes of operation: audit mode and strict mode.

Audit mode allows you to grant access to applications present in both whitelists and greylists, while strict mode only allows access to applications in whitelists. Both modes disallow the functioning of blacklisted applications in any of your endpoints.

4. Endpoint privilege management

Standard users and administrators are the two basic levels of hierarchy in an enterprise environment. Sometimes, standard users require administrative permissions to use or modify apps. In such cases, giving admin credentials to the user not only grants access to the application, but also entitles them to higher privileges reserved only for admins.

This is where endpoint privilege management comes in to ensure that your admin privileges are not excessively distributed among standard users of your organization. Using this feature, you can collectively group the applications that need to be run as an administrator to a list of privileged applications. Once you group privileged applications, you can create a suitable policy that dictates which custom group can run these applications as an administrator.

Application Control Plus comes in Free and Professional editions. While the Free edition is fully functional and applicable to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), the Professional edition provides users with a 30-day free trial, and is ideal for managing systems across LAN and WAN. Download the free trial today!