Traditional anti-malware tools have become so inefficient at handling current threats that most IT administrators have considered throwing them out altogether, according to a study published today.

The study, which was conducted by Dimensional Research and sponsored by application whitelisting vendor CoreTrace, surveyed 226 IT administrators, CIOs, and security professionals about their attitudes toward traditional signature- and blacklisting-based technology.

According to the survey, 89 percent of respondents are using traditional anti-malware tools, but 74 percent say they are "not confident" in the effectiveness of those tools. Only 20 percent of security pros said they are confident in the technology.

In fact, 58 percent of the security professionals surveyed said they have considered scrapping their traditional products altogether. However, only 8 percent have actually done so, the study says. Fifty-three percent of respondents said the tools "are better than nothing," while about half of respondents said they had to keep their products in place to meet compliance requirements or corporate guidelines.

CoreTrace, which is among a number of vendors that are pushing the concept of whitelisting, is still fighting an uphill battle, however: Eight-two percent of the respondents said they have concerns about whitelisting technology, as well.

"A lot of people still equate whitelisting with lockdown, but that's changing as people get more familiar with it," says JT Keating, vice president of marketing at CoreTrace.

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