Your endpoint acts as an entry point to your organization and provides access to sensitive resources. Endpoints can be classified as laptops, desktops, servers, mobile devices, and other physical electronics that store and keep your confidential data. Our main concern is these devices that are located within and outside your organization’s networks.
Good endpoint security is a strong component of any robust cyber security strategy. You cannot expect to protect your clients without securing the devices that house their information. Your endpoint can also be a virtual machine or network that communicates with a container or connects to it. If you consider expanding IoT ecosystems, you can consider your endpoints to be all the interconnected devices located inside them. Since companies are shifting to remote working models and using cloud-based solutions, we will need to secure our network perimeters. This means not only protecting the devices located within our office spaces but also ones scattered across different locations that access corporate resources remotely.
Let’s explore why endpoint device security is so important, best practices, and how to go about it.
What is Endpoint Device Security?
Endpoint device security protects your laptops, tablets, and other peripherals from a variety of cyber threats. Hackers are relentless and known for launching attacks every few seconds. Your endpoints are potential entry points and endpoint device security closes them. It mitigates vulnerabilities, seals hidden or unknown gaps, and secures corporate networks. As a business, it’s imperative you employ endpoint device security solutions so that you don’t get taken by surprise by cyber adversaries. It will enable you to quickly detect and respond to security risks, achieve deep infrastructure visibility, and also smoothly collaborate with other members of your security team.
The Need for Endpoint Device Security
It is said that 90% of successful cyber attacks and 70% of data breaches originate from endpoints. Hackers love targeting customers who are unaware of their endpoint device vulnerabilities. Antivirus alone is not good enough to secure all your endpoints. Today’s businesses are going mobile which means the number of endpoints is increasing as employees adopt remote work models. Centralized security solutions aren’t good enough to keep your devices protected. There is a need for multi-layered security solutions as data volumes also keep growing; this is exactly where endpoint device security solutions fit the bill.
Attackers don’t target just from inside but operate externally; they can work from outside controlled environments. The cost of neglecting endpoint device security goes far beyond data breaches. It can greatly impact an organization’s reputation, and lead to regulatory repercussions, and other consequences. Data is the lifeblood of modern businesses and not securing endpoints means new threat vectors open up automatically.
Examples of Endpoint Devices
Endpoint devices enable smart productivity and have so many applications in businesses. They remotely monitor user data, streamline collaboration, and make our lives easier by creating interconnected ecosystems. Endpoint devices also communicate with each other and can connect to networks. Any hardware components or virtual components that emulate physical devices can also be considered as endpoints. Let’s take a look at the most common examples of endpoint devices.
1. Endpoint devices
Laptops and smartphones are the usual endpoint devices out there. Other different types of endpoint devices are scanners, servers, databases, printers, tablets, virtual machines and environments, and IoT (Internet of Things) devices like smart wearables, mobile technologies, smart appliances, and other end-user devices. Note that routers and network infrastructure devices are not considered to be endpoints.
2. Non-endpoint devices
Traditionally, routers are non-endpoint devices since they work as intermediary devices that only forward communications between networks and endpoints. Routers route data packets between IP addresses and connect to multiple computer networks. Other devices that can be classified as non-endpoint devices are firewalls, switches, load balancers, network gateways, storage area networks, and APIs.
How Does Endpoint Device Security Work?
Endpoint device security will protect all your devices that connect to and from networks. It essentially uses a combination of technologies, tools, and practices to detect, respond to, and prevent emerging threats. Endpoint protection will scan for malicious software programs, block unauthorized data access, and enforce strong security policies.
It integrates with advanced Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence algorithms to identify and neutralize threats in real time. In addition, endpoint device security incorporates incident response capabilities and can isolate infected devices from networks to prevent the spread of malware. It can de-escalate critical situations and provide detailed analytics and reporting to IT teams so that they can manage future threats effectively.
How to Secure Endpoint Devices?
You can secure your endpoints by adopting a multi-layered approach to cyber security. The first step is educating your employees on the role they play in securing their own data. Strong passwords are a great line of defense against potential data breaches. Most employees aren’t aware of the best cyber hygiene practices or how to interact with cyber adversaries. Teach them how to not get baited by social engineering tactics and how to avoid falling prey to phishing, malware, spyware, and other common malicious campaigns.
The next step is enforcing regular software and policy updates along with patching. You can implement potential bug fixes and conduct preventive maintenance activities to keep your devices secure. Take a zero-trust approach to security and adopt robust multi-factor authentication and encryption.
This will enable you to detect and react to various threats immediately. You should treat all your endpoints as compromised in the event of an attack and scan them for potential malware. There are many more additional measures you can implement to protect your endpoint devices and we will cover them in the upcoming sections below.
Endpoint Device Security Benefits
Endpoint device security offers several powerful benefits which are as follows:
- Great visibility – You will learn about your organization’s assets and be able to centralize the security management of various enterprise devices.
- Access management – Access management solutions and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) controls can block non-compliant devices, users, and infected systems.
- Data loss prevention – Endpoint device security solutions can store a wide range of sensitive data. They can monitor for ransomware, data exfiltration, and other malicious activities and prevent data losses by eliminating chances of information theft.
- Cost savings – Businesses can avoid regulatory fines, expensive downtimes, or operational disruptions, and enjoy significant cost savings. The benefits of using endpoint device security solutions outweigh their initial investments.
Critical Security Risks for Endpoint Devices
Want to eliminate threats in time that target your endpoints directly or indirectly? Watch out for these critical security risks:
- Spoofed emails that appear to originate from legitimate sources are a big challenge. These phishing messages can come with malicious links, and use SMS, social media, phone calls, and other methods to bait you. Be aware of them.
- Business email compromise is hard to detect since cyber adversaries perform thorough reconnaissance of their targets. They may send fraudulent fund transfer requests, solicit data, fake invoices, or even pose as authorized business entities. Their communication styles are usually persuasive and they do careful research on corporate hierarchies and vendor relationships. Employees who are new to the organization can fall for their deception.
- Your employees can mishandle files at work and accidentally leak sensitive data. There is a possibility of having malicious insiders in your company who may sell confidential information for financial gains once they quit the organization. Improper data disposal practices are another safety issue.
- Stolen endpoints are a huge cause for concern. If the data stored on these devices are not encrypted or improperly secured, they can potentially risk exposing confidential information and seriously compromise an organization’s security.
- Malware threats can consist of trojans, viruses, worms, ransomware, and also lure victims by enticing them with web-based drive-by downloads. The most challenging ones to get rid of are rootkits and fileless malware strains.
- The widespread adoption and use of mobile devices at work can increase the number of endpoints. Insecure WiFi connections, poor app permissions settings, and weak messaging platforms associated with them are other critical security concerns.
Endpoint Device Security Best Practices
Here is a list of the best endpoint device security best practices for your organization in 2024:
1. Identify, Locate, and Monitor Assets
Make a network inventory or map of all your assets and know how many endpoints are in use. To get started, it’s critical you identify which devices are housing critical information. You can’t create an endpoint security system without mapping out your devices and networks, that’s why.
2. Scan Your Endpoints with EDR
Train your workers on applying the best endpoint security management practices. This will minimize human errors. Work on using strong passwords, verification codes, and other authentication workflows to ensure that only authorized parties get access to your endpoints.
The next step is scanning your endpoints regularly with EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) technology. It will help gather data from them, send alerts, and track user behaviors. A good EDR add-on will enable you to actively respond to attacks, breaches, and other types of endpoint security events. Set up breach protocols too and automate post-briefing to minimize attack surfaces and resolve critical issues quickly so that they don’t escalate.
3. Patch and Update Regularly
This involves installing the latest software updates and making firmware upgrades. You can use automated patching tools for this. Regular patching and updates is something most organizations fall behind in. If you implement them correctly, you will address a lot of early bugs and hidden endpoint device security vulnerabilities.
4. Use Secure Browsers, SIEMs, and Email Clients
You can keep your security patches up-to-date by using the best browsers and email clients. Implement a secure remote desktop protocol (RDP) to access endpoint devices remotely. Use secure endpoint device backup solutions and also have a secure data destruction process in place. Secure your endpoint connections and access by using VPN to encrypt internet traffic.
Use a SIEM solution as well to do your endpoint device monitoring and analysis. It will provide contextual analysis and correlate security events.
5. Use Content Disarm and Reconstruction (CDR) Tools
When your employees leave the organization, there are a lot of dormant accounts or inactive data lying around. There’s also the risk of malicious files being forwarded to intended recipients and threat actors can hijack hidden or unnoticed content. CDR tools can prevent these instances from happening and prevent organizations from trading off employee productivity for security and vice versa.
6. Define BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) Policies
If your employees bring their personal devices to work, you should establish certain ground rules for using or storing company data on them. This is to ensure that these devices do not pose a high degree of threat to your enterprise. It will also minimize the risk of malicious file infections, prevent phishing attacks, and train them on the best cyber hygiene practices. Every organization is different and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to setting BYOD policies. So experiment with them and find out what works best for your business.
SentinelOne for Endpoint Security
SentinelOne Singularity™ Endpoint can take your endpoint device security to the next level by offering superior visibility and enterprise-wide protection. It enables Dynamic Device Discovery that will automatically identify and protect unmanaged, network-connected endpoints. You can greatly reduce the number of false positives, minimize security risks, and increase detection efficacy consistently across OSes with its autonomous combined EPP+EDR solution.
SentinelOne comes with Singularity Ranger which is a real-time network attack surface control solution that finds and fingerprints all IP-enabled devices on your network. It will enable you to automatically understand risks, extend protections, and require zero additional hardware or network changes, no agents.
Other features offered by SentinelOne that make it excellent for endpoint device security are:
- Machine-speed malware analysis, Secret Scanning, and 1-click automated threat remediation
- Rapid threat hunting with Storylines
- Singularity™ Vulnerability Management, Singularity™ Threat Intelligence, and Singularity™ RemoteOps Forensics
- Singularity™ XDR
SentinelOne’s Purple AI works as your personal cyber security analyst and can provide actionable recommendations on how to manage your endpoints better. Storylines will enable your enterprise with deep forensics and present additional findings. You can simplify DevSecOps and scale autonomous protection with its patent-pending AI technology. Translate natural language into complex threat-hunting queries for search and triage.
Purple AI is never trained with customer data. Your processes and insights are not shared with other customers. It is architected with the highest level of safeguards. You can also explore Singularity™ Marketplace and Singularity™ Platform if you are seeking complete protection that goes beyond your endpoints.
Conclusion
Monitor every app and device that is accessing your network. Don’t ignore endpoint device security because your security and privacy matter. Next-gen endpoint device security is constantly evolving so it’s critical to keep up with the latest trends.
The key takeaway here is that your endpoints are more than just protecting your data or customers. It’s about securing the future of your organization and minimizing its chances of getting breached. As IoT ecosystems expand and digital worlds become more interconnected, the number of endpoints will go up. If your business scales up and you get more clients, you can expect endpoint security solutions to be very valuable.
Lucky for you, if you’re seeking an adaptive solution, SentinelOne will help. It can also manage third-party apps, integrations, and provide mobile device management for multiple devices. You can learn more about its features by scheduling a free live demo with the team.
FAQs
1. What is Endpoint Device Security Management?
Endpoint device security management involves limiting the exposure of endpoint devices to a variety of risks. It implements the best practices and workflows to safeguard them against different cyber threats. And it doesn’t stop there. From rule-setting, administrator rights and access, employee training, and more, it covers all aspects related to the security and management of endpoint devices in corporate networks.
2. Which is the best tool for Device Endpoint Security?
Currently, the #1 solution for managing endpoint device security in the cyber security industry is SentinelOne. What makes Singularity™ Endpoint great is that it shields organizations from a variety of cyber-attacks and protects attack surfaces. It also protects mobile devices, servers, and other cloud-based assets. SentinelOne proactively extends endpoint visibility and can build further, customized automations with one API with 350+ functions.
3. What are the three main types of endpoint security?
The three main types of endpoint device security are:
- IoT (Internet of Things) security
- Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP)
- Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
Of course, there are other types of endpoint security as well like anti-virus, network access controls (NACs), endpoint encryption, and more.
4. Why should we secure our endpoints and what kinds of devices fall under them?
It’s important to protect our endpoints because they are integral to the safety and functionality of our organization. Compromised endpoints not only impact businesses but customers as well. Endpoints house and process a wealth of information that can be used for malicious reasons by threat actors. With the increasing adoption of remote work, we can expect the number of endpoints to go up significantly.
The most common kinds of devices that are categorized as endpoints are:
- Laptops
- Tablets
- Smartphones
- Printers
- Servers
- Scanners
- Internet of Things (IoT) devices
- Robots