Cybercriminals are constantly looking for vulnerabilities in our networks and ways to access them. Currently, on many occasions an automated system is used that scans everyone who tries to enter a network thanks to some established parameters and denies access to those who do not have permission. In this article, we are going to talk about what the app blacklist is and how it can help you prevent suspicious people from breaking into a network.
What is app blacklist
What a blacklist of applications is going to do is block the access of some applications to our network. These applications that we are going to add to the list are those with suspicious or malicious programs. The objective of this blacklist of applications is to be a means to control the danger that they can cause us. A good network administrator should prevent some applications from accessing their systems and networks for better security.
As for the advantages that the blacklist of applications can bring us, they are:
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It prevents unauthorized access, for example from ads that slow down your system speed and consume our data. Also, phone numbers can be added to a blacklist to restrict calls from certain people.
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Block harmful or suspicious programs, since thanks to the inclusion of blacklists it will be an effective way to protect our systems against malware attacks.
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It can serve as an antivirus, since it is capable of detecting and blocking viruses in a file. At that moment we will receive a notification that tells us that the application or the file that you are about to download may be malicious.
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Helps organize your system or network by blocking apps that you don’t use. We will not have to respond to all notifications, since we will only allow important ones to run. In that aspect we can create our custom blacklist of applications and files, or allow a third-party program to use its own.
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Limit the distraction of social media apps, which make it easy to lose track of time. The lack of control over this type of application usually leads to low productivity and efficiency at work. If we do not use social networks intelligently, it can cause more harm than good.
On the other hand, you may be interested in checking if your IP or domain is on a blacklist.
How does this blacklist work?
An application blacklist could be considered as a list of malicious applications that we must block. However, although it does not include all malicious actors and dangers, it helps you identify the most popular ones.
As for the way an application blacklist works, it does so using five different lists:
- It uses an application blacklist that includes those applications that can cause our system to crash unexpectedly, delay the execution of commands or can access our confidential information.
- With a website blacklist, any attempt to open a web page on your computer will be useless.
- Use a blacklist of IP addresses in which places have a large number of scammers are included in order to avoid messages or calls from there.
- Have a list of files as attackers use them to send malicious programs to their victims. We have to pay attention to the format of these files and add them to our blacklist.
- Establish an email blacklist, as this is one of the most common ways cybercriminals contact their victims. Here we can add suspicious email addresses or those identified as Spam.
As you can see, a blacklist of applications can allow us to block the routes for possible attacks when a cybercriminal tries to infiltrate our network.
