What is endpoint security? How to protect your devices

Endpoint security is crucial for every company nowadays. The term refers to a com­pre­hens­ive security strategy put in place to protect a company’s devices, which includes smart­phones, laptops, PCs, printers, and servers. When im­ple­men­ted thor­oughly and promptly, endpoint security addresses vul­ner­ab­il­it­ies like outdated software or in­ad­equate access controls, helping to prevent data theft and malware in­fec­tions.

What is endpoint security?

Endpoint security, also known as endpoint pro­tec­tion, is the first and most important line of defense that protects your company network from cyber threats. This requires a com­bin­a­tion of the endpoint pro­tec­tion platform (EPP) and endpoint security man­age­ment. The EPP im­ple­ments security standards and measures for all existing or new end devices in the company - from smart­phones, laptops and PCs to pho­to­copi­ers - while endpoint security man­age­ment ensures that these can be fully complied with. In this way, you can prevent cyber threats from malware or ransom­ware and detect them in good time.

Why is endpoint security important?

Modern offices no longer consist of just a work­sta­tion PC, a printer and a server room. The number of end devices accessing the company network is growing every year. In addition, there are new hybrid working models such as remote work or the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) concept, where employees vol­un­tar­ily use private mobile devices for pro­fes­sion­al purposes. Despite the many benefits of diverse company networks, such as increased flex­ib­il­ity, mobility, and pro­ductiv­ity, they also create vul­ner­ab­il­it­ies that can lead to cy­ber­at­tacks through infected or in­ad­equately secured endpoints.

If there is in­ad­equate network pro­tec­tion in addition to the over­whelm­ing number of endpoints, it’s in­ev­it­able that malicious actors will find any weak­nesses there may be and exploit them. Potential outcomes include data theft, ransom­ware blackmail, en­cryp­tion of corporate data, external control, or malware spreading to customers and business partners. All of this not only harms your company fin­an­cially and tech­nic­ally, but also affects your image and cred­ib­il­ity.

Few things are more important than reliable, proactive pro­tec­tion against ransom­ware, spyware and scareware through endpoint security. This prevents the tedious situation of having to remove malware or recover business-critical data in the first place.

What counts as end devices in the company?

Endpoint security is all about secure endpoints, but what does it actually include? Endpoints stand for all fixed and mobile end devices that are in­teg­rated in­tern­ally into the company network or have au­thor­isa­tion to access them ex­tern­ally.

These include:

• PCs, desktop computers
• Printers, scanners, pho­to­copi­ers, fax machines
• Servers, routers, modems
• Landlines
• Laptops
• Tablets
• Smart­phones
• Smart­watches
• POS systems (Point-of-Sale)
• Switches
• Voice-con­trolled virtual as­sist­ants (i.e. Alexa)
• ATMs

Basically, this includes all internet-enabled end devices that can com­mu­nic­ate and interact with the company network in any way. This ability to interact also opens up the afore­men­tioned risks and security gaps as soon as an end device is in­ad­equately protected or accesses the network via an interface that isn’t properly protected.

How does endpoint security work?

Endpoint pro­tec­tion measures are designed to safeguard your network against malicious files, processes, and com­prom­ised devices. A critical element of this security strategy is a cent­ral­ised security and man­age­ment console for ad­min­is­trat­ors, which enables processes and access to be monitored so that device per­mis­sions can easily be granted or revoked. Ad­di­tion­ally, it is essential for in­di­vidu­al endpoint pro­tec­tion measures to interact within an endpoint pro­tec­tion platform, sharing insights on threats. These security measures can be im­ple­men­ted on-premises, through cloud services, or using a hybrid approach that combines both local services and cloud functions.

A com­pre­hens­ive EPP usually consists of the following four com­pon­ents:

Further endpoint security solutions

In addition to the quadruple com­bin­a­tion of EDR tools, virus pro­tec­tion including NGAV, ap­plic­a­tion and access controls and automatic updates, the following solutions are available:

• Data Loss Pre­ven­tion (DLP): Protects data from ex­filtra­tion through anti-phishing training for employees and the correct use of anti-malware ap­plic­a­tions.
• URL filtering: Only au­thor­ises data traffic with approved URLs.
• Extended Detection and Response (XDR): Using Extended Detection and Response (XDR) means that not only end devices can be protected with EDR, but also cloud services and network processes through alerts and telemetry analyses. This applies in par­tic­u­lar to complex in­fra­struc­tures with many ap­plic­a­tions and end device types. XDR is generally used as part of SaaS.
• Browser isolation: Browser sessions are only enabled in isolated en­vir­on­ments to restrict malicious downloads locally to sessions.
• Endpoint en­cryp­tion: Encrypts sensitive data of the company or connected endpoints and requires a de­cryp­tion key.
• Pro­tec­tion against insider threats: Measures such as Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) mean that any sus­pi­cious user activity on the network can be iden­ti­fied im­me­di­ately.
• Cloud security: In cloud en­vir­on­ments con­sist­ing of end devices, client software or cloud ap­plic­a­tions, companies can use cloud firewalls and cloud web filtering tools to protect them­selves and monitor sus­pi­cious activity.
• Email gateway: Secure email gateways (SEG) check and monitor incoming and outgoing email traffic for risks such as sus­pi­cious at­tach­ments and links.
• Sand­box­ing: Sand­box­ing allows business-critical areas of the network and operating system to be isolated and reliably protected against cyber threats.

An overview of endpoint security ad­vant­ages

An Endpoint Security Platform (ESP) in com­bin­a­tion with stand­ard­ised cyber security offers your company the following ad­vant­ages:

Protect business-critical and sensitive data

Complete pro­tec­tion of company data, including customer and business partner data, is enorm­ously important not only in your own interests, but also from the point of view of com­pli­ance guidelines, GDPR and possible claims for damages. Endpoint security monitors all data access via each in­di­vidu­al endpoint and registers un­au­thor­ised or insecure access.

Pre­ven­tion is better than damage lim­it­a­tion

A good endpoint pro­tec­tion platform requires in­vest­ment. Many companies put off the decision to invest in endpoint security because cyber threats cost nothing as long as they do not affect their own company. So why invest in pre­ven­tion if there may never be an emergency? The answer is clear: the number of cyber threats to companies, es­pe­cially ransom­ware attacks that endanger business and the company, is growing every month. Without adequate pro­tec­tion, the risk also increases ex­po­nen­tially, making it mostly a question of when, not if.

In the event of an incident, measures to limit or repair damage, such as data recovery, resetting all systems and devices, or replacing these devices, typically incur sig­ni­fic­antly higher costs than proactive, thorough pre­cau­tions. Most im­port­antly, in serious situ­ations, you risk losing the trust of your customers and partners—a loss that is often hard to recover from.

Pro­ductiv­ity and flex­ib­il­ity

Holistic endpoint security man­age­ment allows for the pro­tec­tion of critical business data in a way that is both time-efficient and cost-effective because pro­tec­tion strategies are applied sys­tem­at­ic­ally and in a stand­ard­ised manner. This sig­ni­fic­antly reduces the time and effort required from your IT team. When you use Managed Security Services provided by a managed security provider, you benefit from tailored solutions for your in­fra­struc­ture and devices that your provider will implement and maintain. Over time, this approach boosts your pro­ductiv­ity and cuts down on man­age­ment tasks, as it sim­pli­fies the in­teg­ra­tion of new devices while security measures operate un­ob­trus­ively in the back­ground.

Trans­par­ency and control

A platform offering solutions for all devices also provides greater oversight and clarity regarding access and data transfers. This setup allows you to manage everything from de­ploy­ment and access control to re­gis­tra­tion, updates, and the de­com­mis­sion­ing of devices in a manner that is both traceable and veri­fi­able. With a frontline seam­lessly protected against cyber threats, any com­prom­ised data can be quickly located, isolated, and sanitised in the event of an intrusion, pre­vent­ing further impact to other endpoints and network areas.