The great debate – are anti-malware solutions really worthwhile?

Over the years, I've heard some cybersecurity experts at industry conferences ridicule the efficacy of anti-malware solutions and recommend that organizations not bother using such solutions. They tend to justify this point of view by pointing out that anti-malware software cannot detect and clean all threats. This is true. They also point out that the anti-malware solutions can have vulnerabilities themselves that can increase the attack surface area instead of reducing it. This is also true. Since anti-malware software typically has access to sensitive parts of operating systems and the data they scan, they can be an effective target for attackers. Some antimalware vendors have even been accused of using the privileged access to systems that their products have, to provide illicit access to systems (Solon, 2017). Other vendors have been accused of improperly sharing information collected by their products ...