Why Does Endpoint Security Software Matter to Businesses?

Why does endpoint security software matter to businesses? What can it offer your organization’s cybersecurity posture that other security solutions can’t? Also, what factors may hinder your endpoint security software’s effectiveness? 

Unfortunately, cyber-criminals rarely if ever wait idly by for enterprises to catch up to them. Quite the contrary; hackers work tirelessly to evolve their threats—making them more sophisticated and more evasive than ever before. Moreover, hackers constantly find new targets for their cyberattacks. No enterprise, regardless of size or vertical, can remain safe from digital attacks. 

Hence the existence of cybersecurity. However, while identity management and SIEM have both seen a surge in popularity and adoption in recent years, endpoint security has fallen by the wayside (so to speak). On the one hand, this may not seem surprising. Endpoint security association with antivirus makes it appear as a legacy solution; the majority of threats now focus on identity and credential theft, after all. 

Yet next-generation endpoint security software is far from outdated or legacy. In fact, every day proves its necessity and effectiveness. Here’s why. 

The Necessity of Endpoint Security Software

First, we need to address the obvious: cyber attacks start at the endpoint. While your enterprise can and should protect its digital assets, it can’t neglect the actual gateways to those assets. Every laptop, mobile device, IoT device, and desktop tower could become a target and infection point.   

Therefore, every unprotected endpoint connecting to your network offers a low-hanging fruit for digital threat actors. Moreover, if one of those endpoints ends up compromised, hackers can then use it for lateral movements throughout your infrastructure. 

This is far from idle speculation. According to the IDC, 70 percent of successful breaches originate at the endpoint. Endpoint security software offers your business a chance to secure these endpoints regardless of their distance from your enterprise hub. 

Yes, this includes antivirus software, but next-generation endpoint security software offers so much more. It can also offer protection against advanced persistent threats, social engineering attacks, and protection from ransomware.

Additionally, endpoint security offers application control, data loss prevention, port control, sandboxing, EDR, and more. 

What Can Hinder Endpoint Security Software

Any number of problems can make business’ cybersecurity more of a challenge. For endpoint protection platforms, these include: 

• Unprotected endpoints. Any unprotected endpoint can represent a hole in your security perimeter and an ideal place for dwelling threats. Make sure every device connecting to your network has adequate cybersecurity. 
• Lack of visibility. You cannot protect what you can’t see. Make sure you have next-generation endpoint security that can fully monitor unexpected endpoints like mobile devices and IoT devices. 
• Employee mistakes. An employee mistakenly clicking a malicious link can compromise the enterprise in its entirety. Mandate cybersecurity information and work with your solution via an incident response plan. 

The Rise of Ransomware

If there is an argument for the necessity of endpoint security, it’s the recent resurgence of ransomware attacks. In fact, ransomware can (and has) brought down city governments and shut down businesses. Some businesses never reopen. 

We don’t know how many victims ransomware already claimed since victims tend to underreport. However, we do recognize the seriousness of ransomware’s evolution. Ransomware has become more targeted, sophisticated, and effective—in many ways, it resembles its own dark industry. In fact, lower-experienced hackers can purchase ransomware-as-a-service packages and victims can speak to customer service representatives.    

All of this should worry you and your business’ IT security team; the more professional the threat, the more difficult it can prove to deflect or mitigate. Thankfully, endpoint security software can incorporate new threat intelligence, deflect attacks, and remove dwelling threats. 

The latter proves especially important, as hackers may scout a target for months to determine the location of the most sensitive files. 

How to Learn More

Download our Endpoint Security Buyer’s Guide.