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Why Visibility Is the Most Important Endpoint Security Capability

Why Visibility Is the Most Important Endpoint Security Capability

Why Visibility Is the Most Important Endpoint Security Capability

Why is visibility the most important endpoint security capability a business can deploy? Why does it matter as much if not more than more traditional capabilities like antivirus, ransomware protection, and data loss prevention? In fact, how does visibility supplement and strengthen those endpoint security capabilities? 

Imagine your enterprise as it exists today. Obviously, you know that every user and every device connecting to your network constitutes a potential attack vector. However, do you actually know all of those users and devices? With the advent of remote work in the wake of COVID-19, registering every device can prove more than challenging. Additionally, you need to consider distinct edge cases like Internet of Things (IoT) devices and mobile devices which can disrupt normal visibility. 

This is the fundamental problem with visibility as an endpoint security capability. But why is it important? 

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Visibility Is the Most Important Endpoint Security Capability

In Darkness, Hackers Thrive

Here are a few qualities that hackers possess in spades: creativity and persistence. They always seek out new methods to bypass, circumvent, or subvert enterprise cybersecurity protections, and they keep trying. Even if they can’t find a way to break into an enterprise network themselves, hackers can always find malicious solutions on the Dark Web. 

However, failing to maintain visibility over all connected devices offers hackers a far more convenient point of entry. From an unmonitored device, hackers can make lateral movements through the network, plant dwelling threats like cryptojacking malware, and open backdoors for attacks like ransomware. 

Also, this fact applies doubly to IoT devices and mobile security devices, both of which end up ignored by traditional endpoint security solutions. Only a next-generation cybersecurity solution can help maintain full visibility across all devices. 

Additionally, this visibility matters more than ever given that so many organizations have had to embrace remote work this year. Ensuring a consistent layer of cybersecurity even as the enterprise stretches beyond the brick-and-mortar premises should become a high priority for businesses of all sizes. 

Visibility Supplements Endpoint Security

Visibility isn’t just a critical endpoint security capability in and of itself. It also strengthens your capabilities. 

Here are a few examples. First, a critical component of next-generation endpoint security involves data loss prevention (DLP). DLP prevents users from uploading, copying, or trafficking data outside of accepted workflows or databases. This prevents sensitive data from leaving the network without permissions or ending up on an easily accessible cloud database. 

Yet for this to work, you need to know what data is located in which endpoints, and how data moves between the endpoints. Otherwise, DLP becomes a polite suggestion rather than a technology with the force of cybersecurity behind it. 

Another example involves endpoint behavioral monitoring. After all, hackers can completely compromise a device, turning it into a bot for easy access into the network. Unless you know how an endpoint usually behaves and can monitor endpoints for deviations, hackers could continue the ruse for far longer and thus increase the damage on your network. 

You can learn more about visibility as an endpoint security capability in our Buyer’s Guide

Download Link to Endpoint Security Buyer's Guide

 

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