3 Reasons Why Endpoint Protection Still Matters

“Endpoint protection is dead.”

Sounds ominous, doesn’t it? Here’s some other one-liners you might encounter whilst browsing the latest security headlines.

“The threat landscape has completely transformed”.

“Antivirus is useless against modern cyber threats”.

Once the golden boy of corporate cyber security, endpoint protection has seriously fallen out of fashion. And many companies are looking over their shoulder – are we not safe anymore? Will the next big ransomware outbreak or malware strain be the end of our business?

There’s good news and bad news. Let’s go for the gut punch first.

Some of the above statements are true – you might’ve even heard us endorse them. The threat landscape has changed. Attackers really are better-equipped and more dangerous than ever. You can’t rely only on endpoint protection and firewalls to protect your company.

Ouch. Okay, take a breath.

No matter what anyone says, endpoint protection is not dead. No need to get rid of your software, hire 100 full-time security professionals and start shopping for the latest miracle products from Silicon Valley.

In fact, good endpoint solutions still protect you from around 99,99% of the threats out there.

Invest in one product. Boom. You’ve effectively vaccinated your company against the majority of the nasty stuff rampant on the global internet.

That’s value for money. Don’t you wish you could get those rates with a flu vaccination?

How does this work? Here are 3 reasons why your endpoint protection package is very much alive and kicking (the bad guys right in the teeth).

1. Shred mass attacks to pieces

Mass attacks comprise most of the total threat count our sensors, among others, pick up every day. Bulk malware, ransomware, email spam, common exploits – the list is long.

Make no mistake – this stuff is really bad. We’ve seen how it can cause serious damage. But it’s no match for proper EPP software.

Your endpoint package is like a well-oiled lawnmower against dry blades of grass. There’s no fight, no excitement – it will just rip them to shreds, cool as ice.

Static software is a thing of the past. Good EPP is smart, agile and relentless – and kept so by continual updates, state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms and the latest threat intelligence. All the buzzwords, really. But in this case they’re true.

2. Protect all avenues of attack

Phones and tablets are standard-issue equipment for many businesses, and for good reason. Workplace flexibility is good for productivity, but it also means that controlling what devices, applications and programs are used within your company can become a real nightmare.

Somebody needs to use a Mac to work on a specific task – another answers emails and accesses cloud services on his mobile phone.

More dynamic? Quite likely.

Dangerous? Almost certainly.

Don’t worry. A complete endpoint protection platform will take care of all that. Windows computers, Macs, iOS and Android devices, servers – it’ll have you covered on all fronts.

With an application control feature, you can restrict unauthorized software from running across your whole device fleet. Patch management will keep your applications up-to-date, while password protection makes logging into services easy and safe.

Pretty comprehensive, especially for a single package.

With a reliable protection baseline across all your endpoints, you can focus on your business instead of juggling a dozen different security problems each day. Now that’s useful.

3. Focus on what matters

Eliminate mass attacks. Protect all your devices. We’re done, right?

This is where it starts to get tricky. Targeted and advanced attacks are growing in sophistication and volume each passing month. You’re increasingly likely to run across a highly skilled and motivated aggressor, no matter your business’ size and industry.

Equifax, Deloitte, Uber – along with a vast number of smaller companies. Breaches are everywhere.

If – and when – these types of threats become a concern for your organization, it’s time to start looking into different detection & response and vulnerability management solutions you can use to augment your security.

So, where does endpoint protection come in? Although it can’t prevent all advanced attacks, EPP still plays a key role in maintaining a good level of security hygiene within your organization.

It’s a lot like medicine. It’s much easier to focus on identifying, isolating and treating a serious point of infection when the whole organism isn’t inflamed with a bunch of other nasty stuff.

Continuing this analogy: when your immune system is so compromised that all the common viruses can creep in and wreak havoc, we’re in trouble. That’s when you lose the patient.

Just take it from our cyber security consultants: it’s better to be the doctor than the coroner.