Block List, Deny List

26th December 2019 | Cybrary

A Block List or Deny List, (deprecated: Blacklist), is a list of entities that are blocked or denied privileges or access. Hosts or applications that have been previously determined to be associated with malicious activity are examples of entities that may be on a block or deny list. Blocked entities are typically identified as IP addresses, user IDs, domains, email addresses, MAC addresses, or programs. Deny/block listing is a common feature in antivirus programs, intrusion prevention/detection systems, and spam filters. Block lists save effort by limiting interactions with known sources of problems and preventing potential attacks.

What Should SMB Owners Do With Block/Deny Lists?

Deny or Block lists are quite useful at SMBs. When you have a phishing campaign coming in attacking your users, you can deny that sender by adding them to a block list. Similarly, you can create block lists for websites where you see a lot of unwanted traffic coming and going to them. For example, you might block Facebook during work hours and allow employees to Facebook after hours or not at all. The same goes for other time-wasting websites. Block lists can also be used for a lot of mandatory controls on your company and its employees.

Additional Cybersecurity Recommendations

Additionally, these recommendations below will help you and your business stay secure with the various threats you may face on a day-to-day basis. All of the suggestions listed below can be gained by hiring CyberHoot’s vCISO Program development services.

Govern employees with policies and procedures. You need a password policy, an acceptable use policy, an information handling policy, and a written information security program (WISP) at a minimum.
Train employees on how to spot and avoid phishing attacks. Adopt a Learning Management system like CyberHoot to teach employees the skills they need to be more confident, productive, and secure.
Test employees with Phishing attacks to practice. CyberHoot’s Phish testing allows businesses to test employees with believable phishing attacks and put those that fail into remedial phish training.
Deploy critical cybersecurity technology including two-factor authentication on all critical accounts. Enable email SPAM filtering, validate backups, deploy DNS protection, antivirus, and anti-malware on all your endpoints.
In the modern Work-from-Home era, make sure you’re managing personal devices connecting to your network by validating their security (patching, antivirus, DNS protections, etc) or prohibiting their use entirely.
If you haven’t had a risk assessment by a 3rd party in the last 2 years, you should have one now. Establishing a risk management framework in your organization is critical to addressing your most egregious risks with your finite time and money.
Buy Cyber-Insurance to protect you in a catastrophic failure situation. Cyber-Insurance is no different than Car, Fire, Flood, or Life insurance. It’s there when you need it most.

All of these recommendations are built into CyberHoot the product or CyberHoot’s vCISO Services. With CyberHoot you can govern, train, assess, and test your employees. Visit CyberHoot.com and sign up for our services today. At the very least continue to learn by enrolling in our monthly Cybersecurity newsletters to stay on top of current cybersecurity updates.