Cybersecurity challenges in the decade of the endpoint

What’s a key cybersecurity challenge organisations are currently facing?

The lightning-fast growth of endpoints and devices puts IT in an impossible situation. Endpoint devices are constantly targets of cyberattacks, and it’s often challenging for organisations to maintain visibility over and manage the devices on their network. Endpoints pose a serious risk.

70% of employees use four or more endpoint devices a day, while more than three-quarters of organisations (77%) have experienced a cyberattack that started via exploit of an unknown, unmanaged, or poorly managed endpoint.*

Every device, from servers to employee laptops and mobile phones, represents an entry point for attackers. What’s more, the rise of remote work and digital consumer services, only perpetuates this challenge.

So, what can organisations do to get a handle on endpoint sprawl, increase their cybersecurity, and reduce risk?

Increase visibility

With 90% of organisations not being able to actively monitor all endpoints*, putting in measures to track devices and ensure visibility across all endpoints is vital for IT and security teams.

A lack of visibility into what endpoints are connected to an organisation and what they’re being used for, creates blind spots and hampers the enforcement of security policies, meaning IT can’t identify and remediate all vulnerabilities, which leaves organisations vulnerable to cyber threats.

We’ve all heard the phrase, “you can’t protect what you can’t see”, and that couldn’t be truer when it comes to endpoints. IT and security teams who have full visibility into the endpoints within their environment can keep track of the health and performance of all devices and quickly address endpoint issues from escalating or causing further damage.

Keep patches up to date

Many organisations find patching cumbersome and time-consuming but, when it comes to endpoints, patching is an essential security control. Out-of-date operating systems and applications can leave doors open for intrusion or exploits.

To make this easier, organisations can use tools like automated patch management to gain vital context around each patch and ensure critical patches happen in real-time. This makes patching more efficient and saves IT and security teams time.

Ensure recovery with backup

Despite the protections organisations have in place against cybersecurity threats, unfortunately, cyberattacks and breaches still happen.

Ensuring data backup is incredibly important for organisations to secure critical data, prevent data loss, and swiftly recover from incidents.

Cloud-first backups, which can be accessed remotely, alleviate pressure and strain on IT teams by automatically ensuring backups happen consistently across all endpoints and recovery occurs quickly.

Is there a way organisations can take on these challenges with one solution?

Organisations’ challenges around endpoint security can be supported by automated endpoint management, a solution specifically designed to help IT teams to monitor and manage all types of endpoints connected to an organisation’s network in one console. Having everything visible in one place makes it easier for IT teams to apply important security measures, implement patches, install applications on devices, change configurations, provide user support, and much more.

By taking a few smart steps and using the right solution, organisations can rest easy knowing they have visibility and control over all endpoints, making cybersecurity processes easier to implement and more effective.

*ESG: Managing the Endpoint Vulnerability Gap: The Convergence of IT and Security to Reduce Exposure. Dave Gruber, principal analyst; Gabe Knuth, senior analyst; Bill Lundell, director of syndicated research; Enterprise Strategy Group; May 2023