Today’s security threats have greatly changed. It was not too long ago, that the worst thing that could happen to your computer was you spilled water or coffee on it, or the computer just completely crashed.
Now we see on the news how hackers, viruses, or human error affect us both on a personal, and business level. Companies are being held at ransom until they pay hackers to regain access to their data. Companies also have to pay big fines because personal information has been leaked whether accidently, intentionally, or brute force. How can you address these threats, and do you know what is best? Not only have the threats changed, but the way we work has changed as well. We now access work files and email from anywhere, or any devices. That also greatly changes, and increases the risks that business owners face when securing their company’s data, and network.
Part 1 of our Look at Modern Security is going to address Endpoint Protection. A modern Endpoint protection solution is MORE than traditional anti-virus. It’s a better, and more complete solution for protecting your Endpoints. Traditional anti-virus, only tried to prevent attacks. A modern antivirus will do three things for you, prevent infections, detect compromised systems, and remediate threats. A great Endpoint protection software will prevent 90% of all attacks.
A Modern EndPoint Security will increase your security by reducing the “attack surface”.
Application, Device, and Web Control are features that will help control what the user can actually do, which will reduce your “attack surface”, and provide a means for your IT Administrator to enforce security, and appropriate usage policies.
Application control allows you to block legitimate applications from user’s computers, they may not be malicious sites, but maybe sites that are unproductive like games, instant messaging programs, Facebook, or iTunes for example.
Device Control can restrict the use of USB drives, Network adapters and other peripheral devices. You can block all USBs, except those that have been supplied by the IT Department. New, and unapproved devices can be detected, and then lets an administrator know about it. The admin can then choose to authorize the new device or not.
Web Control allows you to decide which websites to block or allow, you can do this based on categories like adult websites, or shopping websites, etc. Because web control is located on the Endpoint itself these rules will apply whether they are on the corporate website, at home, or at Dunkin Donuts; this is really important feature if you have a mobile workforce.
Additionally, modern end point protection software can sync with your Microsoft Active Directory (AD). This allows for the two services to communicate with each other. Policies, and user groups that are created or modified in AD, can be pushed in to the Endpoint console. This communication greatly simplifies, and improves the security management process.
The above features are a high level look in to what is offered for you to protect your endpoint. For a modern workforce, you NEED these modern security features. AND REMEMBER, Endpoint Protection is only one portion of a FULL security solution. Next month we are going to look at mobile security, and the security vulnerabilities it creates, and how to begin securing the weaknesses. Stay tuned!
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