What is Endpoint Security?

What is Endpoint Security?

Endpoint security is the process of protecting endpoints (such as laptops, desktops, servers, mobile phones, and IoT devices) and end-users from malware and cyber threats.

Enterprises leverage endpoint security solutions to fortify the network against cyber threats. These tools automatically scan the network to monitor and detect malicious attacks and possess remediation capabilities for responding to security threats and incidents.

What is an Endpoint?

An endpoint is a physical device connected to a network that enables the exchange of data or information. Laptops, mobile devices, desktops, servers, routers, and IoT devices are all examples of endpoints.

In the context of endpoint security, any device that employees use to connect to the network or carry on with their daily tasks is classified as an endpoint. This includes both official and personal devices of employees that are connected to the organization's network.

With the rise of BYODs, the occurrence of cyber threats and related incidents has increased drastically in enterprises, highlighting the need for comprehensive endpoint protection.

What is the Importance of Endpoint Security?

The growing shift to hybrid and remote work environments raises multiple alarms for SOC teams, especially when it comes to securing the endpoints. Here are some of the reasons why endpoint security is crucial for enterprises:

• Most cyber threats start from the endpoint, be it ransomware, privilege escalation, or phishing. Attackers understand that it is easier to compromise a user's device via phishing or credential harvesting, rather than attacking a hardened server.
  To prevent such intrusions, endpoint security platforms with features such as browser protection, URL filtering, and download filtering are a must.
• As enterprises extend the workforce beyond the conventional corporate offices, traditional security controls such as firewalls and VPNs fall short. Implementing endpoint security drastically reduces the attack surface by continuously monitoring the endpoints, patch levels, and compliance status. Additionally, the imposition of USB control and data loss prevention further helps harden the environment.
• Large organizations manage millions of endpoints - servers, laptops, mobile and IoT devices, PoS systems, and more. The biggest challenge is to have centralised visibility over these assets. Since various endpoint types require varied protection, a holistic view of the network allows rapid remediation and faster response by IT teams in times of crisis.
• Data protection rules and compliance regulations mandate secure handling of endpoints in enterprises. Since these endpoints store large amounts of sensitive data, a single compromised system can lead to a full-scale data breach, resulting in downtime, legal fines, and loss of brand trust.
  Enforcing endpoint security helps manage the attack surface, fortify sensitive data, and adhere to compliance requirements.

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What are the different types of Endpoint Security?

The explosive growth in vulnerabilities and ingenious cyber attack techniques over the years renders traditional antivirus solutions obsolete. Hence, endpoint security platforms that combine multi-faceted detection and remediation approaches are the ideal solution now for securing enterprise networks.

Prevention and Hardening:

Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) focuses on preventive security via the following solutions:

• Signature-based Detection to identify known malware through matching patterns.
• Behavioral or Heuristic Analysis to detect threats based on various instances of suspicious activities such as rapid file encryptions, unusual registry edits, etc.
• Exploit & Memory Protection to prevent code injection, memory corruption attacks, or buffer overflows.
• Browser/Web Control to block access to phishing URLs, malware downloads, and more.
• Application Control to prevent unauthorized executables or scripts and to restrict unauthorized applications from running.
• Peripheral Device Control to monitor and block external devices such as USB, Bluetooth, printers, HDD, to curtail sensitive data theft or malware injection.

Detection, investigation, response, and remediation

Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR) focuses on the visibility of assets, investigation of threat incidents, and responds to such threats via:

• Continuous monitoring and collection of granular endpoint data via telemetry, such as process events, file system changes, network activity, etc.
• Attack chain reconstruction to analyze and trace how attacks originated, the actions they performed, and the systems they impacted.
• Threat hunting to proactively search for Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) and the behaviour of attackers.
• Automated Response to the security threats by killing the malicious processes, quarantining the affected files, isolating the affected hosts, and more.

Extended detection via cross-platform correlation:

Extended Detection and Response (XDR) extends the scope of response and remediation beyond the endpoint by correlating the endpoint data with signals from various instances, such as network monitoring, email security, identity systems, cloud workloads, and SaaS applications. It reduces false positives, providing complete context on the incident through:

• Unified console to analyze and investigate alerts, in one place, instead of switching across multiple tools.
• Improved incident prioritization by detecting the most critical threats by correlating signals across environments.
• Multi-faceted adaptive response, such as blocking malicious IPs, quarantining phishing emails, or disabling compromised accounts.

Identity-based access control:

Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) fortifies the network by securing application access to users on a need-basis, and only to the necessary apps - thereby preventing lateral movement of malware and threats. With ZTNA, endpoint security access controls are based on the identity, device health, location, and context via:

• Least privilege access for users, i.e., access for only the required applications and not the entire network.
• Security posture verification of devices to provide access, i.e., access is granted only if the endpoint meets the set security requirements, such as patch level, disk encryption, etc.
• Access decisions based on context by tracking parameters such as geolocation, time of access, user behavior, and so on.

How does Endpoint Security work?

An endpoint security solution continuously monitors the network for imminent threats, correlates the incidents with the latest threat database, and prepares for rapid remediation. Here's an outline of the endpoint security process:

• Deployment and provisioning of the devices are conducted automatically via scripts, directory-based enrollment, or via mobile device management tools.
• Policy enforcement for the enrolled devices is based on set security standards, such as patch compliance, application allowlisting, device encryption requirements, browser security settings, etc.
• Data collection across the endpoints is carried out via telemetry, and millions of data points per endpoint are gathered and analyzed for correlation and anomaly detection.
• Evaluation and detection of threats are accomplished by various machine learning models. These MLs detect lateral movement of threats, privilege escalation attempts, file modification patterns, script-based attacks, and more.
• Response and containment of the threats are achieved with rapid action through network isolation, memory rollback for restoration of the compromised files, remediation scripts, and forensics snapshots.
• Post-incident forensics with detailed logs helps trace the attack vector and refine the defense modes.

What are the Best Practices for Endpoint Security?

Fortifying the network requires more than just the implementation of endpoint security solutions. IT teams must ensure periodic scanning of the inventory to account for newer system additions and to phase out obsolete ones. Here are some of the best practices that make endpoint security more effective:

• Prioritize patch and vulnerability management by ensuring that the OS, third-party apps, browsers, and firmware are updated. Unpatched vulnerabilities are one of the top attack vectors - hence, ensuring risk-based vulnerability management can help patch the critical ones first.
• Enforce org-wide access control and least privilege by limiting admin accounts, time-bound privilege elevation, audits, and regular monitoring.
• Integrate endpoints with IAM to strengthen identity security and authentication by using multi-factor authentication, conditional access, strong password policies, session monitoring, etc.
• Enforce encryption across all endpoints to protect data in case of theft or loss. Additionally, BitLocker encryption should be enabled by default across all systems, along with strong password policies.
• Review threat detection policies at periodic intervals to regularly tune the detection process, reducing noise, preventing alert fatigue, and highlighting critical anomalies.
• Conduct regular security awareness and user education trainings to reduce the success of social engineering attacks, password reusing, and other unsafe browsing habits.

Endpoint Security vs Firewall

Endpoint security and firewall - both of these offer protection to the organization's IT infrastructure, but at varied levels. A firewall offers network-level control to monitor, filter, and block traffic based on a predefined set of rules. It segments the traffic, acting as a barrier that ensures only legitimate inbound and outbound network traffic is allowed.

On the other hand, Endpoint Security protects devices such as laptops, desktops, mobile devices, servers, and IoT devices from cyber threats that can bypass the network-layer defenses.

The fundamental difference between endpoint security and firewalls is the scope and visibility. A firewall inspects the network flows to enforce segmentation and block malicious IPs and ports across the network. Alternatively, Endpoint security blocks malicious processes and files as well as privilege escalation attacks that happen within the endpoints, irrespective of the network connectivity.

Endpoint Security vs Antivirus

Antivirus and endpoint security are related terms, but cannot be used interchangeably. At the core, both of these tools differ in functionalities, as explained below. Traditional antivirus software focuses on the detection and removal of malware in the endpoints, with heuristic scanning and signature-based scanning. Antivirus detects known malicious files in the systems, blocks their execution, and quarantines the infected files, if required.

The scope of antivirus is largely related to the detection and remediation of malware, while endpoint security is a multi-layered security framework designed to protect endpoints against a wide spectrum of threats on a broader level. Endpoint security combines the following functionalities:

• Next-gen malware protection that includes antivirus capabilities and ML-based behavioral detection.
• Endpoint Detection and Response for threat hunting and incident response.
• Attack surface reduction with patch and vulnerability management, and device hardening with application, device, and browser control and phishing protection.
• Ransomware protection, zero trust checks, and data rollback to recover lost or encrypted data.

To summarize, endpoint security is crucial for preventing lateral movement of threats - known and unknown, zero-day exploitation, credential attacks, etc. Antivirus, being a subset of endpoint security, focuses on the detection of known malware.

 

FAQs on Endpoint Security

1. What does endpoint security include?

Endpoint security includes the set of tools and functionalities to secure endpoints from cyberattacks, such as Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), Extended Detection and Response (XDR), Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP), firewalls, and zero-trust access controls.

2. What are the three main types of endpoint security?

The three main types of endpoint security are:

• Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP): Focuses on preventing known threats.
• Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR): Continuously monitors and detects threats based on behaviour.
• Extended Detection and Response (XDR): Unifies telemetry across endpoints, networks, and cloud workloads for coordinated detection and response.

3. What are the three main steps of endpoint security?

The three main steps of endpoint security are:

• Prevention: Using antivirus, vulnerability scanning, and patching to block known threats.
• Detection: Monitoring for malware and suspicious behaviour using analytics and telemetry.
• Response: Isolating affected devices, quarantining traffic, or mitigating the threat.

4. Is endpoint security an antivirus?

Antivirus is one part of endpoint security, but endpoint security includes a wider set of capabilities such as EDR, firewalls, encryption, EPP, and behavioural detection to protect against advanced threats.

5. What is the most common example of an endpoint?

A laptop is the most common example of an endpoint. Other examples include mobile devices, servers, IoT devices, and more.

6. What is a commonly used endpoint security technique?

Device control is a commonly used endpoint security technique that allows only approved peripheral devices - such as USB drives or CDs - to be accessed on endpoints, preventing data theft or malware injection.

7. What is the difference between EPP and EDR?

EPP (Endpoint Protection Platform): A proactive model that prevents known threats using vulnerability management, patching, and application control.
EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response): A reactive model that detects and responds to unknown or advanced threats using behavioural analytics, heuristics, and telemetry.

8. What is the difference between a firewall and endpoint security?

A firewall monitors and filters inbound and outbound traffic based on rules to block malicious connections, while endpoint security focuses on protecting individual devices from malware, exploits, and other threats. In summary, a firewall protects the network, while endpoint security protects the endpoints.

About the author



Anupam Kundu is a Product Specialist at ManageEngine in the Unified Endpoint Management and Security suite. With a background in digital marketing, his expertise includes creating technical and long-form content for SEO and user education in the IT and cybersecurity domain.