The world of cybersecurity is constantly changing. This is due to the fact that technology, its usage, and the threats affecting it, are also all evolving at an increasingly fast pace. As a result, the market for security tools is growing rapidly as well. It’s estimated the size of the endpoint security market will be nearly twice as big in 2024 as it was in 2020.
What does all this mean for enterprises today? A few things. First, it’s essential for stakeholders to take cybersecurity seriously. This means dedicating time, personnel, and financial resources to identifying and understanding what needs to be done in order to build a comprehensive security posture. Once this has been done, executives—especially those who have a part in technology, operations, security, and compliance—along with IT managers must determine what specific tools are right for this huge task.
Threats are becoming more frequent and existential, as small groups of rogue actors have the potential to find vulnerabilities in what should be secure networks. Therefore, security must be made a priority. When looking at security solutions, EDR and EPP are two name that might come across your radar. Let’s look at how these security platforms can help enterprises keep their data safer.
What Is EDR?
Endpoint detection and response (EDR) is one of the most popular forms of network security today. There are some good reasons why EDR has risen to hold such a prominent place in the realm of enterprise security solutions.
As the name suggests, EDR is all about endpoints. These are the devices connecting to enterprise networks, such as laptops, phones, Internet-of-Things sensors, and others. As you can imagine, due to the continual increase in digital adoption, this is a growing world, as more and more endpoints keep coming online.
EDR can be offered alone or through a third-party provider. These are a few of the benefits of choosing a service-based EDR cyber security solution:
- EDR can stand alone or come in a larger package – There are security services provider that will offer EDR as a stand-alone offering. However, this can be made even better when opting for a more comprehensive solution that includes EDR, such as managed detection and response (MDR). Leveraging the right tools here can lead to huge security and financial benefits.
- Industry-leading experts on your side – Whether you choose EDR as a standalone product or as part of a larger offering, you’re going to benefit from having top-tier engineers guarding your networks.
- Enable real-time response – Time is an essential factor when dealing with a cyberthreat. The faster you’re able to isolate and kill threats, the less likely they are to reach their target or transmit sensitive data. Look for an EDR provider that can boast having some of the best engineers around, as this will pay for itself.
- Get total visibility, control, and monitoring of endpoints – It’s not enough to just assume all is well. Organizations need the ability to see what’s happening on their networks. Furthermore, collecting and storing this activity will allow for a better understanding of what happened if there is an attempted breach. This is also important for compliance reasons, both for enterprises that might be held legally liable for data loss, but also for accountability to stakeholders.
There’s no doubt that EDR is one of the best solutions out there for enterprises looking to boost their endpoint security. But there are other products and services available as well.
What Is EPP?
Now that you know all about EDR, let’s dig into some of the specifics of endpoint protection platforms (EPPs). An EPP, according to research firm Gartner, “is a solution deployed on endpoint devices to prevent file-based malware attacks, detect malicious activity, and provide the investigation and remediation capabilities needed to respond to dynamic security incidents and alerts.”
At first, EPP sounds pretty similar to EDR in a lot of ways. While they both focus on protecting endpoints, there’s an important distinction that needs to be made between these two. Generally speaking, EDR is going to use more advanced tools to tackle higher-level endpoint security problems, such as identifying and stopping attacks in process, while EPP deals with more traditional tasks like scanning and basic alerts.
At the same time, due to EDR being a more active tool, it also requires more of a human presence in order to deliver its full value. On the other hand, EPP can exist without requiring much intervention.
While EPP and EDR both exist to protect endpoints, they go about it in different ways. But what makes endpoint security such a critical focus for enterprises, anyway?
Why Is Endpoint Security So Important Today?
The answer to why endpoint security is so important today is both complex and simple. If you need to know a technical answer to the question, it can send you down a never-ending rabbit hole. At the same time, there are some straightforward reasons why endpoint security should be seen as an essential piece of a firm’s overall security posture.
There are two main trends at the hearth of this: an increasing number of unsecured devices connecting to enterprise networks, and a growing threat of cyberattacks. The first of these factors is coming from multiple angles. One of the most obvious reasons for an increase in device connections is the Coronavirus pandemic. All at once, workforces had to shift to a remote structure. This meant many people were using personal devices to connect to networks, which are difficult to secure from an IT perspective.
Even before the pandemic, however, there was already a shifting scene toward more hybrid work environments. Another common threat to endpoint security has been the popularization of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies. It’s extremely difficult to ensure a personal device isn’t carrying a potential threat to your network. This is why advanced endpoint detection tools are becoming so essential for organizations today.
To the second point, it should go without saying that the cyberthreat landscape continues to grow more extreme. The cost and frequency of breaches keeps going up over time. In today’s world, there’s simply no excuse for overlooking the dangers here.
Cybersecurity needs to be a main consideration at enterprises today. Whether it’s through EDR, or combining EDR with EPP, securing endpoints is s vital part of this equation.