Key Takeaways
- Airlock Digital’s allowlisting approach provides a 224% return on investment (ROI) and a $3.8 million net present value (NPV) over three years
- The solution reduces the overall risk of security breaches by more than 25% and eliminates breaches altogether for organizations that deploy it
- Airlock Digital’s solution enables significant operational efficiencies, reducing administrative overhead and allowing a single security analyst to manage policies in less time
- The solution provides a proactive security strategy, reversing the traditional reactive approach to security and reducing the attack surface
- Airlock Digital’s approach is operationally friendly, enabling security teams to adopt a Deny by Default posture without administrative complexity
Introduction to Airlock Digital’s Study
Airlock Digital, a leader in proactive application control and endpoint security, has announced the release of a study conducted by Forrester Consulting, which demonstrates the significant financial and security value of their solution. The study, titled "The Total Economic Impact (TEI) of Airlock Digital," shows that organizations adopting Airlock Digital’s allowlisting approach can expect a 224% return on investment (ROI) and a $3.8 million net present value (NPV) over three years. These findings highlight the importance of Airlock Digital’s solution in providing both financial and security benefits to organizations.
The Study’s Findings
The study, which was commissioned by Airlock Digital and conducted by Forrester Consulting, used Forrester’s TEI methodology to evaluate the potential financial impact of technology investments. The study aggregated insights from customer interviews and modeled a composite organization representative of global organizations. The results showed that Airlock Digital enabled a 224% ROI over three years, a $3.8 million NPV, and a reduction in the overall risk of security breaches by more than 25%. Additionally, the study found that organizations that deployed Airlock Digital reported zero breaches, demonstrating the effectiveness of the solution in preventing security threats.
The Importance of Proactive Security
As cyberattacks continue to grow in scale and sophistication, more organizations are turning to application control and allowlisting as foundational components of a proactive security strategy. Traditional reactive security tools attempt to detect and block threats after execution attempts are made, often too late to prevent compromise. Allowlisting reverses this paradigm, enforcing a Deny by Default posture that ensures only trusted and approved software is permitted to run. This approach dramatically reduces the attack surface, curbs the spread of malware and ransomware, and helps organizations meet increasingly stringent regulatory and compliance requirements. Airlock Digital’s modern, operationally friendly implementation of allowlisting enables security teams to adopt this strategy without the administrative complexity historically associated with legacy tools.
Benefits of Airlock Digital’s Solution
The study highlights that Airlock Digital helps organizations strengthen their security posture, lower ongoing maintenance costs, and improve software inventory management while keeping operational and administrative burden low. The study noted that a single security analyst can effectively manage Airlock Digital policies in much less time than traditional solutions require, contributing to cost savings and improved productivity. This is in line with the statement from David Cottingham, Co-founder and CEO at Airlock Digital, who said, "For modern enterprises, trust cannot be assumed… it must be enforced. Allowlisting and application control give organizations the power to run only what they trust, blocking all malware and ransomware before they can execute."
Validation of Airlock Digital’s Impact
The Forrester Consulting TEI study provides clear, independent validation of the impact delivered by Airlock Digital. The study calculated the benefits to include a 224% ROI and fast payback — and most importantly — participating organizations reported zero breaches after implementation. Airlock Digital combines simplicity with enterprise-grade scale, enforcing a Deny by Default posture that blocks untrusted code, including malware and ransomware. For organizations ready to move from reactive defenses to proactive prevention, Airlock Digital provides a quantified and operationally efficient path forward — requiring, according to the Forrester Consulting study, only 2.5 hours per week to manage.
About Airlock Digital
Airlock Digital delivers market-leading allowlisting and application control solutions that empower enterprises to enforce a Deny by Default security posture. Trusted globally across industries, Airlock Digital enables organizations to prevent unauthorized code execution, simplify compliance, and strengthen cyber-resilience without sacrificing performance or user productivity. This approach minimizes attack surfaces and helps organizations align their cybersecurity strategies with government frameworks and standards. Users can download the full Forrester TEI study from Airlock Digital’s website to learn more about the benefits of their solution.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the study conducted by Forrester Consulting demonstrates the significant financial and security value of Airlock Digital’s allowlisting approach. The solution provides a proactive security strategy, reduces the attack surface, and helps organizations meet regulatory and compliance requirements. With its operationally friendly implementation and significant operational efficiencies, Airlock Digital’s solution is an essential component of any organization’s cybersecurity strategy. As Patrick Dillon, CRO at Airlock Digital, said, "The Forrester Consulting TEI study gives security leaders clear, independent validation of the impact delivered by Airlock Digital."

