Dubai —Every day, across every industry, files flow through the arteries of enterprise IT. Millions of these transfers are at the core of the processes that are critical to business running as usual. There is an assumption that every file entering a company’s network is safe. But in an era where files are weaponised more cleverly and frequently than ever, that assumption is a risk most businesses can no longer afford to take.
To grasp the severity of this risk, consider these two examples. In finance, secure and timely document exchange underpins high-stakes transactions and loan approvals. A corrupted or delayed file isn’t just an inconvenience. It could breach SLAs, trigger penalties, or jeopardise revenue. In healthcare, the secure transmission of patient records and test results is not only vital to patient care but bound by strict regulatory standards. A single mishandled file could lead to six-figure fines and a loss of trust that’s far harder to recover from.
This begs the question: how can a company make sure that files are safe? The answer lies in an approach that is both familiar and thoughtfully adapted to the modern risks enterprises face.
Scanning: Still the Frontline, but Requires Rethinking
Despite the rapid evolution of the threat landscape, most organisations still rely on a single antivirus engine to scan inbound files. It’s a convention rooted as much in consumer behaviour as it is in enterprise practice. We’ve all seen the warning when we install a new antivirus: “Please uninstall other antivirus software to proceed.” Over time, this built-in exclusivity has fostered a strange sort of confidence in one vendor, one engine, and one solution. But what happens when that one solution fails?
Vendors are naturally optimistic about their capabilities, and many do indeed offer impressive performance. But no antivirus engine, no matter how advanced, can promise complete coverage. With malware authors constantly tweaking payloads to evade known signatures, even top-tier AV engines can miss threats. And when detection rates range from as low as 40% to 80%, depending on the engine, the math becomes uncomfortable very quickly.
The Business Risks of the Single-Engine Approach
Let’s step back from the technical jargon and think in terms of business resilience. Relying on a single antivirus engine is a little like depending on one supplier for a mission-critical component with no backup plan. In every other area of enterprise risk management from supply chains, and cloud infrastructure, to customer channels, we build in redundancy. Yet when it comes to detecting and neutralising threats that could shut down operations or expose customer data, many organisations are still gambling on a single point of failure. Moreover, the gaps in this approach are not only about what’s missed. False positives, when benign files are wrongly flagged as malicious, are a growing concern. They might not grab headlines the way breaches do, but they quietly erode productivity and trust in your security systems. Think about a financial analyst unable to access a market report before a crucial client call, or a clinician delayed in reviewing lab results. These aren’t hypothetical scenarios — they’re daily operational snags caused by the limitations of single-engine detection.
Multiscanning: Simple Concept, Powerful Results
The solution to all this is surprisingly straightforward. Simply scan each file with multiple antivirus engines. That’s it. On paper, multiscanning sounds like a no-brainer. But until recently, it came with real-world challenges. Managing multiple AV licenses, navigating vendor relationships, and juggling performance hits made it impractical for most IT and security teams. It was a technically sound idea, but a logistical headache. Fortunately, the security industry has evolved. Forward-thinking cybersecurity providers have recognised and addressed the limitations that once held multiscanning back. Today, dedicated platforms are available that integrate multiple antivirus engines into a single solution. These aren’t patchwork setups; they’re unified systems where multiple engines run in parallel, carefully optimised to minimise performance impact while maximising threat detection. And the effectiveness of this approach is measurable. Independent tests and industry benchmarks have shown that using 12 antivirus engines in tandem can result in detection rates of over 90%. With 16 engines, detection rates rise to 95%, and with 20 or more, they can exceed 99%. That’s not a marginal improvement. It’s a significant leap in security efficacy, offering a level of coverage no single engine could reliably achieve on its own. Importantly, multiscanning also reduces false positives by aggregating verdicts across engines.
“A single outlier is less likely to disrupt workflows when the broader consensus indicates the file is safe. The result is better protection, fewer interruptions, and a smoother experience for end users.”
Security Doesn’t Have to Mean Sprawl
There’s a common juxtaposition in modern cybersecurity. On one hand, we’re told to consolidate, adopt a platform approach and reduce tool sprawl. On the other, we’re dealing with increasingly complex threats that demand layered, nuanced protection. It can feel like a contradiction, but it doesn’t have to be. Multiscanning platforms offer the best of both worlds. They deliver the layered detection capabilities of multiple AV vendors without the sprawl, inefficiency, and overhead that traditionally came with managing them separately. You still get the benefit of consolidation, but without the risk of oversimplification. For security leaders, this is more than a technical upgrade, it’s a strategic decision. It’s about protecting the flow of business-critical information with the same level of redundancy and foresight that we apply to our supply chains, our infrastructure, and our continuity plans. It’s time therefore to rethink what robust file security really looks like. Because in a world where every file could be a potential threat, or a mission-critical necessity, relying on just one line of defence simply isn’t good enough.
This opinion piece is authored by Saif Alrefai, Solutions Engineering Manager, OPSWAT.