With cyber attacks a growing threat, protecting your business online is an evolving field. Ensuring you have effective endpoint security keeps your organisation's data safe.

What is endpoint security?

 When it comes to a business's networks, the endpoints involved are the individual computers, tablets, phones, and other devices that are enabled to connect to it. All of these provide an access point for possible cyberthreats.

 Endpoint security focuses on monitoring and protecting these devices to prevent them from being used to inject malware and viruses into the network. This is managed centrally by corporate IT, which controls the security agents that are working at the endpoints. Another term, which is often used interchangeably with endpoint security, is endpoint protection. The difference here is that endpoint protection can include products that aren't centrally managed.

Endpoint security focuses on preventing cyberthreats using individual devices from gaining access to your business's networks.

How endpoint security is changing for digital enterprises

As cyberthreats rapidly change, so must the security that protects from them. Some of the tactics that are at the forefront of developments are:

• AI - To keep up with the accelerating threats, much of the repetitive work involved with endpoint security is facing automation. AI will process and examine traffic in the background, with only matters requiring human interaction and responses brought forward.

• Internet of Things (IoT) monitoring - While the IoT has a lot to offer, it also introduces additional risk due to the internet connection involved. Some endpoint security providers are beginning to develop protection software that runs on devices such as cameras, sensors and routers to minimise the possible threat they pose.

• Endpoint security as a service - Just as cloud-based storage, such as Dropbox, is now offered as a service managed outside of your business, there are organisations that have begun offering endpoint security as a service as well. This presents the opportunity to offload the management from internal staff to trusted vendors.

• Fileless attacks - A new branch of malicious attacks that are evolving involve malware residing in RAM and never being written to disk. Protection aimed at handling this kind of attack is quickly being developed and improved, as current responses aren't yet efficient or consistently accurate.
  
  

AI will soon be needed to keep up with evolving cyber attacks.

4 ways a digital enterprise can improve their endpoint security

For a digital business managing its endpoint security, there are a few processes that they can implement to improve their protection.

1. Request device registration

It's common for employees to bring their own devices into the office to work from that connect to the company's network. As part of a business's digital transformation, you can put in place a policy that requests that staff register their devices with a cybersecurity team before connecting to work systems.

2. Keep on top of updates

While it can be frustrating updating cybersecurity systems, by keeping up-to-date with your endpoint security you're ensuring your system is aware of the latest threats and the defences against them.

3. Actively manage access

When employees leave, or structures change, it's easy to forget to update access permissions within your systems. Ensuring you're deleting old users, and regulating access keeps the company's cyber perimeter secure.

4. Build a cybersecurity culture within the workplace

Involve your employees in the endpoint security processes, and train them in the areas they need to be aware of. Changing the culture around your digital transformation is important for success, and reduces chances of human error when it comes to cybersecurity.

For help managing your digital transformation or learning more about cybersecurity, contact the team at XLdigital for support today.