How to Bridge Digital Transformation and Endpoint Security

In the wake of the enterprise-level digital transformation revolution, new access demands and storage issues has complicated endpoint security in a way never before encountered. New questions are arising. Where is the digital perimeter if there so many assets exist in the cloud? Which endpoints need to be secured if employees could bring any number of devices into the workplace?  

Complicating matters, failing to get a handle on your enterprise’s endpoint security can place a serious damper on your enterprise’s potential digital transformation. Do you know what to emphasize in your endpoint security strategy as you prepare for a digital transformation? Do you know where your endpoints are truly unsecured? Do you have the right strategies to fix deficiencies?

Here are a few of our top suggestions for aligning your digital transformation with your endpoint security:     

Stop Neglecting Patches and Updates

Your endpoints—laptops, mobile devices, etc.—all require continual security updates for both their firm and software. More often than not, these are considered nuisances, wasting work time waiting for the updates to download and implement.

However, these updates are vital to your digital transformation and your endpoint security alike; they contain essential security updates necessary for protecting users from new malicious threats on the web or cloud. These security updates improve devices’ threat intelligence, allowing them to stay alert to modern cyber attacks. Furthermore, these updates innoculate your endpoint devices from infections by other endpoints, vital to establishing a secure network overall.    

On a related note…

Regulate Your Enterprise’s BYOD Culture

The promise of bring-your-own-devices culture is enticing to enterprises of all sizes: employees can provide their own laptops and mobile devices (generally). They will know their individual devices better than endpoints provided by your business and will, therefore, be more productive. Further, it allows your enterprise to take advantage of digital transformation by allowing for more flexibility in work location and work hours.

However, for the digitally transformed enterprise, each new device represents a potential threat to your endpoint security. You can’t be sure every connecting device has a consistent or compatible endpoint security solution (or any solution at all). Each one could be a new security hole in your digital perimeter.

Therefore, in your digital transformation, make sure you know exactly which devices are connecting to your network. Even in a BYOD culture, this is possible—ask employees to register their devices with your security team as part of their onboarding process. If they need to register a new device, ensure all employees know the process to register their devices, and prevent them from accessing the network with an unregistered device.   

This may seem like huge demands but think of them as upfront costs. The long-term benefits cannot be calculated.  

Solve Your Culture Problems

Your enterprise’s culture—its business processes, its ability to handle external ideas, how it grows and adapts—can be part of the endpoint security problems preventing your enterprise’s digital transformation. According to research giant Gartner, 46% of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) say their enterprise’s culture is the biggest obstacle to their digital transformation.  Cybersecurity is as much a part of that culture as any other process. This needs to change.

This doesn’t mean hosting “culture change meetings” or Status Update meetings. All those will accomplish is wasting your precious and limited time.

Instead, demonstrate your new endpoint security policies to your employees through continual and high-quality training initiatives. Show them what about your endpoint security has changed in the wake of your digital transformation, including what protocols and safety measures they will need to embrace. Often, a lot of endpoint security mishaps occur because employees and enterprise leaders simply don’t know what their enterprise’s security protocols are.

Take the first steps to make security a recognized part of your culture. Then keep going.

Close Any Unregulated Access

Access management tends to get lumped into identity management when discussing cybersecurity. Granted they are similar solutions dealin with similar issues. However, access management also comprises an essential part of the modern digital perimeter, especially in the era of enterprises’ digital transformation.

The distinction between the different branches of cybersecurity can become blurry when cloud storage and off-premises communications become involved. Identity is certainly a central component of new endpoint security. For example, if during the offboarding process you fail to remove permissions from a former employee, you create a security hole in your digital perimeter hackers would love to exploit…or a potential insider threat in waiting.

So don’t allow it to happen. Make sure your perimeter is secured against improper accounts and orphaned accounts as well as ransomware and cryptojacking malware. Your business may depend on it.  

Get Up-to-Date on Your Endpoint Security

“Legacy antivirus” is called such because it’s a relic of a bygone age. Traditional viruses no longer serve as the go-to tool for hackers. Blatant attacks like ransomware are being rapidly supplanted by quieter threats like cryptojacking malware or fileless malware—threats designed to slip through the digital perimeter unnoticed.

Additionally, legacy antivirus solutions aren’t even designed to handle cloud architectures or digital transformation. They are inadequate for the modern enterprise in every way. Do yourself and your security team a favor and select a next-generation endpoint security solution designed to handle these demands.

You wouldn’t hire an employee unable to do the job. Why have a technology that can’t?   

Other Resources: 

Key Findings – The Gartner Unified Threat Management 2018 Magic Quadrant

You Need to Hire More Female Cybersecurity Professionals

In Focus: The Desperate Shortage of Women in Cyber Security

Gartner’s 2018 Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP): What’s Changed?

4 Tips For Endpoint Security Solutions (That Everyone Forgets)

Comparing the Top Endpoint Security Vendors — Solutions Review

Answering the Top 4 Enterprise Endpoint Security Questions

What Can We Expect for the Future of Endpoint Security?

Six Endpoint Security Vendors to Watch in 2018

The 25 Best Endpoint Security Platforms and Tools of 2018

Key Findings from the Webroot Threat Report: Mid-Year Update