The Critical Role of Endpoint Protection

Digital connectivity permeates every facet of our lives, and the significance of robust cybersecurity measures has never been more pronounced. Among these, endpoint protection stands out as a pivotal component in safeguarding our digital integrity. The landscape in which cybersecurity operates is constantly evolving, and there have been significant shifts in both business environments and the nature of attacks in recent years.

Business shift: Interconnectivity

In the constant search for ways to improve productivity and efficiency, organisations have created a very interconnected supply chain, along with the infrastructure and technology to support it. The migration of data and applications to the cloud has delivered many benefits, like the ability to work from anywhere, lower costs of operation, and improved performance and scalability, while also catalysing the growth of the global, digital supply chain.

In parallel, COVID-19 rapidly accelerated the shift to home/remote working, and in doing so shattered any remaining myth of an organisational perimeter. It should be assumed that people, applications, devices, and data can be found anywhere. While these interconnected and dispersed systems serve us well, they also create new security challenges. Many organisations struggle to map the reach of their network, let alone secure all the systems connected to it.

Intelligent, adaptive adversaries persistently target these systems, lured by the opportunity of scale they offer. Testament to this was the SolarWinds attack in December 2020 which impacted victims ranging from major technology vendors and smaller businesses to public sector entities at the highest levels.

Attack shift: From automated to operational

When you work in cybersecurity, it’s easy to lose sight of an important but under-appreciated fact: in the battle over our critical systems and data, the defenders are winning. The daily headlines that report new security breaches serve an important purpose: as cautionary tales to remind us to take preventative action and stay vigilant. But these stories are the exception to the rule. There are no headlines for the businesses that successfully defend themselves against thousands of breach attempts every day.

Not only has cybersecurity effectiveness dramatically improved, but the latest tools and managed security services are more accessible and cost effective than ever before. Technologies like anti-ransomware, exploit prevention, behavioural detection, and anti-phishing are available to all.

These capabilities – which are facilitated, improved, and accelerated by artificial intelligence and machine learning – are addressing the known adversarial tactics, techniques, and procedures documented in the MITRE ATT&CK framework as well as new and novel attacks never before seen in the wild. By closing holes, closing paths and blocking techniques, these improvements have made some attacks so cost prohibitive that attackers have had to adapt. The improvements in security are so significant that the old adage “the attacker only needs to be correct once” is no longer true. In order to make money, attackers need to be correct many times during an attack.

In fact, it has shifted their approach from automated malware to a more comprehensive approach that combines automation with hands on hacking. The adversaries’ main goal is to remain undetected, and the best way to do that is to act like an employee – using local tools, local devices, and typical traffic patterns.

These sophisticated attacks, which require significant human investment, are all the more costly for the victims. The attackers are able to exploit their in-depth knowledge of the victim’s environment to cause maximum damage – and demand maximum return.

The IT security shift to security operations

Such business and attack shifts necessitate an evolution in IT security. Organisations face an intelligent adversary that continually moves the objective as they progress toward it, requiring IT security teams to develop countermeasures that improve their chances of winning. Firstly, it requires a step-change shift from security management to security operations. Gone are the days of “set it and forget it” security policy; as attackers move to hands-on-keyboard, IT security needs to do the same to hunt and detect suspicious behaviour and events before they become a breach.

Security teams need to look for suspicious activity as early in the attack chain as possible in order to give defenders the ability to respond before damage is done. Even stealthy attackers will leave breadcrumbs, and security teams need to find and follow that trail to stop the attack early in the process. It’s no longer just a matter of finding the signal amongst the noise, but of identifying critical weak signals before they become strong signals. The stronger the signal, the closer you are to a breach. With proper tools, IT issues can be proactively detected and remediated before an adversary is able to discover and use them in an attack.

With business now so interconnected, security needs to follow suit. IT security teams need to move from unintegrated security point products to an adaptive security system that automatically prevents as much as possible, while enabling operators to search and detect weaker signals – such as suspicious behaviors and events – and prevent them from becoming breaches.

Business environments and attacks are always evolving

The future of IT security is a system that enables a unique feedback loop so it can constantly learn and improve. New information and events detected by the operations team can be automated, improving prevention and reducing the number of new attacks that get into the system. Similarly, as automation software improves, operators can find suspicious behaviours and events faster, further reducing incidents. This virtuous cycle constantly improves overall security for an organization and its connected business.

In Conclusion, endpoint protection is not just a technical necessity; it’s a fundamental aspect of maintaining cybersecurity in a world increasingly dependent on digital devices. As we navigate the complex web of cyber threats, it’s clear that endpoint protection is not just an option, but a necessity for anyone looking to secure their digital presence in this interconnected world.