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The Growing Importance Of Endpoint Security In The Post-Covid World

Enterprise Security Magazine | Monday, May 30, 2022

With remote work becoming the norm in the post-covid world, companies are investing more in endpoint security.

Fremont, CA: Data breaches almost always start at the endpoint. Given the potential consequences of a data breach, implementing best practices for endpoint security is critical. Every year, the threats to your company get more serious. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), data breaches increased by 17 percent in 2021 compared to 2020, with 1,291 breaches in the first three quarters.

In addition, the average cost of a data breach is rising. According to IBM and the Ponemon Institute, the average cost of a data breach in 2021 will be $4.24 million USD, the highest in the last 17 years. They also discovered that in breaches where remote work was a factor in triggering the breach, the average cost was $1.07 million USD greater, demonstrating just how exposed endpoints can be to cybersecurity risks with our present remote and hybrid working models in place.

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Because every device linked to your company could be a potential attack vector, endpoint security is critical. As a result, identifying and protecting any device that connects to your network, regardless of location, is vital. Employees are no longer reliant on their office desktop computers. The rise of remote work in recent years has boosted the usage of laptops, iPads, iPhones, smartwatches, and other devices to access critical company data 24 hours a day, seven days a week – presumably encrypted – from wherever and whenever they wish to work. It's also not limited to personal computers. Endpoints and probable entry points for bad actors include printers, fax machines, point-of-sale systems, and an ever-growing number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices currently accessing your network. This is where policies and procedures play a role. Here is a collection of endpoint security best practises that your company can use to improve security.

Unauthorized users cannot access sensitive data or propagate malware that could infect it using a zero trust security approach to user privileges. As previously stated, this method has been shown to considerably reduce the cost of a data breach in firms that have a mature zero trust posture.

Administrators must keep track of which systems users access from their endpoints, as well as if the access rights given to each user are appropriate for their function. Users should only have access to the business systems and data they need to do their jobs. By default, people should have the least level access to the systems they need, with administrator credentials reserved for specialist users.

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