IT personnel are well-versed in identifying risks and developing an airtight firewall and encryption practices that prevent cyberattacks that threaten critical databases. But without an endpoint security strategy in place, it’s possible to have a gap in one of the main areas of vulnerability: human users.
Companies know the value of human resources, but IT departments, unfortunately, often come across the security risks humans present. Employees may make one great decision after another, but a single lapse in judgment and a click on a phishing email could bring a company under attack. Employees often throw open the doors to a virus without intending any harm. If the company does not have endpoint security, risks associated with the human element are inevitable.
Cyber attacks continue to increase in both frequency and intensity, and most large organizations say they have been the victim of at least one cybersecurity incident, or that they expect to be. Despite that, many businesses continue to not take cybersecurity defense seriously and many others overlook even basic security measures.
So what can companies do to protect businesses against cyberthreats?
Awareness is the first defense.
Unfortunately, some of the riskiest humans in a company are right in the IT department. If an administrator with unlimited access to systems opens a phishing email, the entire company can potentially be impacted by a virus.
Businesses can combat this problem by creating a culture of awareness. Training is helpful in teaching users to avoid phishing emails or infected files. Training scenarios with simulated email exchanges are effective in educating employees on how to recognize a phishing email or a compromised file.
Such training scenarios can be used not only to educate users, but as a measure to evaluate their understanding of the different threats they may come across during their daily work activities. Any awareness programs can be adjusted based on the results of these informal assessments.
One of the challenges of this approach is that it can be difficult to keep pace with the rate of change among cyberattacks. For instance, teaching employees to only open files from a trusted source can be complicated when hackers use the names of trusted sources in their emails, or when an employee shares a file that turns out to be infected. Unfortunately, antivirus software and awareness training can’t combat this kind of attack.
Human-driven security challenges call for more than anti-virus protection.
Even with employees fully trained on the types of emails they should avoid, they still may download an infected file—simple documents or even images, for example—from a trusted colleague.
Spoofing attacks are also common. In this form of hacking, a malicious actor mimics a familiar or trusted website or device to fool an unsuspecting user. Sender information in emails, in particular, can be easily spoofed.
Companies need something more significant than the typical security measures to protect themselves. Anti-virus and anti-malware software, while useful in their own right, rely on threat information from a database to determine if a file is infected. Because of this, more sophisticated threats like spoofing slip through the cracks undetected, compromising the system.
Endpoint security offers another layer of protection.
There needs to be protection that fills the gap between firewalls and anti-virus software. Endpoint security focuses on anomalies that indicate a compromise in areas like memory or processor activities, shutting down those processes to prevent infiltration by a cyberthreat.
This strategy offers better protection by eliminating the potential for human error. Endpoint security doesn’t require the manual processes and decision-making that come with traditional antivirus protection, such as running a scan or mapping out problems. And when the possibility of human error is eliminated, the company network is more secure.
Endpoint security takes many forms.
There are several variants of endpoint security that businesses of all sizes would find useful. Many endpoint security tools utilize machine learning algorithms for threat prevention. Based on artificial intelligence, machine learning means a machine is taught to make decisions on its own. In some cases, machine learning tools are the basis for endpoint security. In others, such tools can be utilized as an additional layer of security on top of signatures, file reputation scoring, and other such tools.
In a different vein, endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools are no longer just being utilized by large enterprises. EDR tools provide continuous monitoring and response to more complex security threats—which even smaller businesses are susceptible to in today’s security climate.
