Traditional Endpoint Protection Platforms Are No Longer Sufficient
Endpoint protection is a critical component of any organization’s cybersecurity strategy. It involves the use of software and hardware solutions to protect the various endpoint devices within a network, such as laptops, servers, and mobile devices, from cyber threats. Protection at the endpoint is even more important in the age of remote work and bring-your-own-device IT policies when endpoints frequently have access to sensitive applications and data while being outside the protection of traditional network-based security solutions.
Endpoint protection platforms (EPPs) have evolved to include advanced features such as real-time threat detection and response, machine learning-based malware detection, and cloud-based management. These solutions are designed to detect and respond to a wide range of cyber threats, including malware, ransomware, and phishing attacks.
Current Shortcomings of Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPPs)
Despite recent advancements in endpoint protection, there are still several shortcomings that organizations need to be aware of:
- Ineffective: EPPs are only as effective as their ability to detect and respond to new and emerging threats. As a result, with the constant evolution of cyber threats, it can be difficult for EPPs to keep up and provide adequate protection.
- Resource Intensive: Endpoint protection solutions can be resource-intensive and negatively impact the performance of devices they protect. This can be especially problematic for organizations with limited IT resources. EPPs typically have extensive setup and configuration requirements and require a considerable time investment from already overstretched security and IT teams.
- Limited Protection: EPPs can sometimes be bypassed by sophisticated attackers or even by users who may unknowingly download malware or fall for phishing scams. They rely on users to make good decisions to prevent certain attacks. For example, if an employee receives an email that appears to be from their bank and it requests personal information, they may provide it without realizing it’s a phishing scam. In this case, the EPP may not detect the threat because it is disguised as legitimate communication. In short, while EPPs are a critical component of an organization’s cybersecurity strategy, they are dependent on human decisions that are frequently affected by misplaced trust.
An Emergent Solution
As organizations have increasingly come to see that EPPs cannot provide a holistic security solution, a new class of “enterprise browsers” and browser-based security solutions have taken off and gained attention from investors. While most do provide an additional layer of protection, they simultaneously increase the complexity of the IT environment on top of the complexity already introduced by the EPPs. Still, these solutions can help address some of EPPs shortcomings by enforcing zero-trust concepts and removing the burden from users of making judgments about which links and files are safe to click.
ConcealBrowse is the newest entry in this emerging class of solutions. Instead of introducing a new layer of IT complexity, ConcealBrowse provides plug-and-play protection via an easy-to-manage browser extension. ConcealBrowse transparently checks every link and every web site a user visits with both historical and predictive intelligence about URLs. Dangerous activity is blocked, while risky sites and applications are opened in a cloud-based isolated browsing environment where they can’t access your devices or network. ConcealBrowse can fill in the gaps left by EPPs in a package that is easy to manage and affordable to deploy across an organization.
Click here to try out ConcealBrowse for free or schedule a demo so that we can show you how ConcealBrowse can drastically improve your cybersecurity posture.
