How to protect remote endpoints and what to look for in an endpoint protection solution.

As businesses transition and adapt to the work-from-home environment, cyber threats will start to adapt to attack home networks. To understand how you can secure your work-from-home environment on a high-level, read our blog here.

For this blog, we will dig deeper and define how you can ensure your endpoint devices are protected against cyber threats.

Endpoint protection solutions work to secure devices like laptops, mobile phones, tablets, etc. Note that endpoint protection is not the same as antivirus protection. Antivirus focuses more on only protecting the device from viruses whereas endpoint protection invests in the bigger picture of securing the network and devices accessing it.

So how do you ensure the endpoints on your network are secure? Here are six features that you should look for when investing in an endpoint protection solution:

  1. Antivirus Software

Antivirus is an important component of endpoint protection. Many third-party antivirus software companies have dedicated teams that monitor and identify trends in cybersecurity.

Enabling real-time scanning and automatic updates will help identify patterns of known malware and protect your endpoints from cyber threats spread via email, malicious web downloads, etc.

  1. Monitoring and Reporting

Continuous monitoring features should be enabled to recognize odd behavior from your enterprise endpoints and notify you of vulnerabilities. To mature this feature, invest in having a dedicated enterprise team that is proactive in analyzing alerts and determining the proper escalation plan for notifying coworkers, management, and clients.

Once vulnerabilities are identified, proper documentation and reporting will aid in incident remediation and investigation to prevent future incidents.

  1. Application and Device Control

Most vulnerabilities come from applications and devices within your network. Application and device control features enable organizations to enforce strict access control of an individual’s ability to upload or download data.

Active whitelisting and blacklisting of applications, email addresses, IP addresses, and websites will reduce the threat of security vulnerabilities.

  1. Data Security

Investing in a strong data loss prevention feature will provide you with better control over file integrity and prevents access violations and unintentional data loss caused by employees.

This feature should be a top priority if your company handles sensitive data such as payment card information (PCI), personally identifiable information (PII), and personal health information (PHI). Enabling data loss prevention features will improve your visibility of how data is moving within your network and help prevent major breaches.

  1. Third-Party Integrations

Whenever and wherever possible, your endpoint protection solution should be communicating with other security tools in your network.

Tools like Active Directory, intrusion detection systems, intrusion prevent systems, SIEMs (system information and event management), etc. should be able to connect and speak to each other to improve your company’s cyber threat intelligence.

  1. Advanced Machine Learning

With machine learning, endpoint protection suites will analyze trends of vulnerabilities and deny any new malware from running before it impacts your endpoint devices. This feature will mature your company’s approach to securing all endpoints from a defensive approach into an offensive approach.

Using endpoint protection is a great step toward securing both your personal and work environment. The next step to mature your endpoint protection is to raise awareness of what protection you have in place and enforce these protection measures on every endpoint. At the end of the day, YOU are the ultimate defender of your company data and assets.

What other features should be included to protect your endpoints from the cyber threats? Let us know what your thoughts are!

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Protecting endpoints against malware and cyber attacks is a continuous effort, but you do not have do it alone. Reach out to our team for advice on how to best secure endpoints and networks!