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You might pride yourself in your ability to recognize spam messages from legitimate ones, you might have a keen eye for compromised webpages, and you might thoroughly vet downloads before you open and run them — but that doesn’t mean your device is secure. Especially if you use your device for business, you need to be certain that it and all other devices connected to it boast the best protections possible. If you believe that you are not at-risk for attack — if you’ve never considered instituting an endpoint security program at your organization — here’s what you’re missing:
Your Business Isn’t Secure Enough
How many devices connect to your business network? How many devices also connect to foreign networks? What types of devices are they, and what types of programs do they run? Can you trust their users to employ the same secure behaviors that you do?
If any of these questions has an answer of “I don’t know,” then your business is not secure enough. Knowledge is power, especially when it comes to cybersecurity, and when you have appropriate information regarding your organization’s devices, software and networks, you can appropriately protect against threats. Unfortunately, many new and small businesses lack knowledge regarding their tech assets. Worse, smaller businesses are more likely to encourage policies like Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) which compounds the issues of asset ignorance and insecurity.
If you lack critical endpoint security software, there is no way of knowing how secure your business is — which ultimately means it isn’t nearly secure enough, especially not for today’s online environment.
The Web Is Less Secure Than Ever Before
Despite the ever-increasing numbers of websites that rely on HTTPS and encryption, you aren’t as safe online as you might expect. The web is crawling with danger and risk; there are more threats lurking online than ever in the history of the internet. In fact, the number of discrete malware instances online is impossible to know because it is increasing so rapidly every day — every minute.
According to the AV-TEST Institute, more than 250,000 new malicious programs emerge every day, which is one new malware threat eking onto the internet every 2.9 seconds. Thus, your chances of encountering malware in the wild is rising every few seconds, and it is unlikely that caution will be enough to keep you safe.
That’s because not only is malware increasing in volume, but it is increasing in intelligence. The development of machine learning is beneficial in that it improves device functionality and reduces human effort, but it does the same for bad-actors. As artificial intelligence evolves, InfoSec experts have little doubt that it will be used to create smart malware that is better than ever at finding ways onto your devices and into your network.
Even without machine learning, the rates of attack on businesses are increasing, and the protections that existed in previous years will likely no longer be available. Net neutrality ended in April 2018, meaning internet service providers (ISP) are no longer required to provide equivalent service to all users. Thus, encryption and similar security services once ensured by your ISP will now likely cost you extra every month — so you might as well equip your business with comprehensive protection in the form of endpoint security solutions.
Endpoint Security Is a Top-Tier Solution
If you believe that your antivirus program provides even close to the same level of security as endpoint products, you are again mistaken. Though most comprehensive endpoint solutions do include antivirus protection, they also provide features such as:
- Endpoint detection and response: detect new endpoints and execute determined responses to potential threats.
- Data loss prevention: prohibit users from sending critical information outside designated networks.
- Insider threat protection: enforce company security policy in real-time.
- Full disc encryption: encrypt endpoint for another layer of security.
- Application control: whitelist applications acceptable for use on endpoints.
- Access control:determine what users have access to different tiers of data, and regulate what endpoints have access to the business network.
It is impossible for you to perform all these tasks on your own; it is even highly unlikely that a dedicated team of security professionals could provide this quality of service. Therefore, you need to get over your over-confidence in your security hygiene and commit to a comprehensive endpoint security plan ASAP.
