The way we do our work is changing. More and more companies are moving away from the traditional approach to work, which often involves employees accessing company servers that lay within a centralized data center on-site. Nowadays, work lives and methods are far more flexible, with many working from home or at a third location and staff being encouraged to utilize their own devices for work.
The problem is that all these devices, regardless of whether they’re cloud-based or on-prem, are potential attack vectors and are highly vulnerable without proper protection in place. These tools are all gateways into your network, leaving your sensitive data and information open to being compromised.
The solution? Endpoint protection.
What Is Endpoint Protection?
Endpoint protection (or endpoint security; the terms are interchangeable) provides protection to endpoint devices in a network, preventing them from being infected with malware and ransomware or, if infected, preventing the rest of the network from being infected or threat actors from accessing sensitive data and information.
So, what are endpoints?
Endpoints are end-user devices, such as laptops, phones, desktops, IoT devices, and servers. Basically, anything that can connect to your network is an endpoint device. Even appliances like smart coffee machines and gas pumps are endpoint devices. Endpoint security protects these endpoints whether they’re part of a network or in the cloud.
Why Implement Endpoint Protection?
There has been an increase in devices needed for an employee to do their work in recent years. It was estimated by TechJury that by the end of 2021, there would be 46 billion IoT devices connected around the world. That’s a lot of devices. Each device connected to a company network is a gateway to said company network.
With so many devices in circulation and so many of them potentially attached to your company network, it opens up a lot of unsecure gateways for threat actors to take advantage of. While endpoint security also serves for on-prem devices within the data center, it becomes especially important when these devices reside outside of it, which has become the norm since COVID-19 and the rapid rise of remote work and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). These devices are all endpoints and potential attack vectors which need to be secured.
Potential risk can come from all angles. Malware, ransomware, and security breaches can occur from an employee clicking a malicious link on their mobile device, or from someone downloading an attachment from a dubious source, as well as other avenues. A rise in hybrid and remote working has also seen end-users connecting to work networks at home or through public Wi-Fi networks. This, twinned with an increase in edge devices (devices that reside outside of a centralized data center) and BYOD, has led to an increasingly flexible network perimeter.
Comprehensive endpoint protection aims to eliminate these risks by securing an organization’s endpoints through a series of security measures that work in tandem with each other.
How Does Endpoint Protection Work?
It sounds all well and good, but how does it work?
Endpoint protection platforms (EPPs) are, as mentioned, a consolidation of multiple security measures. More often than not endpoint protection is cloud-based but there are a few vendors that offer solutions to be deployed on premises. EPPs store information on previous threats and log zero day attacks in databases that can be referred to when needed.
Company admins are presented with a central console that enables them to remotely control and enforce policies on every device that is a part of the network. Endpoint security can be deployed either as SaaS or installed directly onto the device.
Once deployment is complete, admins can send patch updates, monitor usage, control access, and create policies for the end-user on their device. Endpoint protection solutions will scan for malicious activity, singling out potential threats. Admins can also configure strong browser isolation policies, blocking any websites that may be deemed risky to visit. Encryption methods are also deployed to prevent data loss.
Endpoint protection, essentially, revolves around detecting security threats and responding to them accordingly across all avenues. Alongside automatic updates, scanning, and responses, admins also have full visibility into the “who, what, where, when, and why”, allowing for them to take appropriate action as threats emerge.
What Endpoint Protection Features Do You Need To Look Out For?
Endpoint protection is a comprehensive approach that consolidates multiple security measures. Programs often – but not always – include firewalls, web and email filtering protocols, data encryption methods, data loss prevention (DLP), and anti-virus protection.
Some important features to look out for when choosing an endpoint protection solution include:
Centralized Management Systems
With so many devices connected to the network, admins need a full, comprehensive and in-depth view into every single device attached to said network. Having a singular centralized management system allows for admins to oversee every device and its usage, helping them to respond to threats in real-time by isolating and disconnecting a device. On a single interface, admins can view usage history and data, get alerts, manage policies, and automate updates.
Patch Management
Patch management is a pre-emptive security protocol that regularly deploys software updates to remediate any patches in security. These patch updates will be deployed to all endpoint devices in a network, regardless of whether they are cloud based or on-prem. Patches are usually a specific update in response to gaps in security or software issues that have been spotted by admins, which if left unchecked can lead to security breaches. Other times, patch updates can be automatically enabled to continually make sure everything stays up to date. Enabling and not avoiding these updates is important to overall security of the network.
Web Filtering
A protocol to secure users’ browser sessions, web filtering blocks users from accessing certain websites from a predetermined blocklist or by assessing the contents and IP of the website as it’s being accessed and deciding to take action based on that. It can be deployed via the cloud or on-prem, making it a workable solution for all organizations. It’s in a business’s best interest to introduce web filtering to their security strategies, to prevent any malware or ransomware from infecting company servers due to employees accessing something they shouldn’t be.
Web filtering works by the software checking to see if the website in question is on any lists that document popular pages. Web filtering often relies on an ever-changing, frequently updated URL database that meticulously lists any sites that have been known to be harmful.
Further options in web filtering protocols can use browser isolation tools to isolate a user’s session if they need to access a particular website that might not be on an approved list. Physically isolating the session isolates the user’s session away from the network, preventing any threats from accessing the network.
Email Filtering
Email filtering filters out inbound and outbound emails. Inbound filtering scans for any malicious emails coming in, whether they’re from a spoofed address or just contain any content – like suspicious links – that makes the email seem unsafe. This is done to prevent any malware or ransomware from infecting the server or an employee divulging sensitive information, either directly or through accessing harmful links and attachments. Advanced inbound filtering can also detect whether or not the sender is posing as a trusted figure from within the company, matching sender ID and domains with that of the person they’re claiming to be.
Outbound filtering works in the same way, although achieving a different result. Outbound filtering scans the contents of emails to make sure that nothing highly sensitive is going somewhere it shouldn’t be by examining files and attachments – as well as the content body of the email itself. It prevents sensitive data and information from leaving the company, or from any harmful content from unwittingly being passed on.
Policy Management
For security to be effective and protect endpoints, it needs to align with predetermined policies set by admins. Policies allow for admins to ascertain who has access, who has what level of access, and more. The best policy management solutions will allow for strong customization capabilities, enabling admins to set different policies for different groups under different circumstances and more. Good solutions will also allow for strict policies in response to overrides and breaches, instantly removing or revoking access when suspicious activity is detected.
Anti-Virus
Anti virus protocols are an important, integral part to a strong endpoint protection solution. Anti-virus measures will scan, find, and respond to malware infections on any devices in your network either on an automatic, scheduled basis or manually when the need arises. Anti-virus can be installed on any endpoint device, even if they’re outside of an organization’s firewall.
Anti virus software is a crucial component of endpoint protection, but mustn’t be deployed alone. Rather than opting for just an anti-virus platform, it is best to enable full endpoint security with anti viral protocols built in. This means that devices connecting to the network will be protected, not just the devices that reside behind the firewall.
How To Choose The Right Endpoint Protection Solutions
When it comes to choosing the right endpoint security solution, it’s good to keep the above protocols in mind. However, there are a lot of products on the market and, while they’re similar on the whole, not every solution is the perfect fit for your business. Some are more suited to enterprises, while some fit MSPs and SMBs better. Some are only cloud-based, which while this may be easier and scalable, presents some problems when it comes to certain regulations. On-prem solutions are also available.
To make things easier, we’ve compiled a list of the best endpoint protection software vendors on the market. Read on for an in depth look at what they offer:
The Top 11 Endpoint Security Solutions For Business
Summary
With an overwhelming number of endpoints connected to a company network at any one point, protecting these endpoints is critical in ensuring your company’s overall security. Endpoint protection offers a fail-safe security measure for endpoints that minimizes risk and keeps on alert for emerging threats. With so many endpoints connected to networks, all businesses stand to benefit from deploying endpoint protection measures. Solutions offering the strongest protection will be the ones that blend investigation and remediation capabilities, threat detection, data loss prevention, and anti virus software.
