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This freedom of choice means that a user’s endpoint is far and away the most exposed target for any bad actor looking to target the enterprise-and, as such, it is the most important thing to protect. They can choose to work from anywhere in the world. Endpoint protection software white paper install#Even if they can’t install their own programs, they can use whatever tools they want in the cloud. Users now have more control over their endpoints than ever. Increasingly, the endpoint has become the forefront of information security-as endpoints are now the true perimeter of the enterprise. ![]() This sort of worked-until the rise of SaaS programs (with its accompanying bugbear, Shadow IT) revolutionized computing and made firewalls less effective by increasing, essentially, the number of open and unmonitored ports in the network. The security industry tried to solve this problem by selling antivirus software bundled with software firewalls, and by making their users connect to the internet over a VPN. Users could take their laptops outside of the office, but they couldn’t take their firewall with them, because most firewalls were physical appliances embedded in the network. ![]() Suddenly, you could bring your laptop to a café or an airport and go online-and this was a problem. Of course, laptops were available for all of the 90’s, but up until the early 2000s, you wouldn’t expect to connect your laptop to the internet anywhere except inside the office. Then of course, as the 2000’s began, there was a secondary problem-Wi-Fi, and laptops. No problem-just program antivirus to automatically scan all incoming emails. The problem was compounded when viruses began to be embedded in Word macros. Firewalls don’t work too well on email viruses, because the packets comprising an email with a malicious attachment don’t look that different from a normal email. First, as we’ve mentioned, there was email. Most serious intrusion attempts came over the network.Īs the 90’s ended, however, a whole bunch of changes started occurring which dramatically elevated the prominence of endpoint security. As such, early endpoint security products didn’t have to do much heavy lifting. Its destructive payload was simply an animated display of fireworks. Endpoint protection software white paper .dll#DLL file which would automatically replicate itself into additional emails sent from the user’s client. Endpoint protection software white paper .exe#exe file disguised as an attachment, the virus would modify itself into a. As an example, the first virus ever to propagate via email was known as “ Happy99.” When users clicked on an. Late 80s to 90sĮven as the internet slowly started to gain widespread usage in the late 80s and early 90s, most malware samples were basically poorly-written jokes. For the most part, malware was originally thought of as a nuisance, although a lot of malware before it-and nearly all malware since-have real teeth, designed to break equipment, destroy data, or steal it outright. Until relatively recently, endpoint security was a bit de-emphasized in the context of information security as a whole. This is due to the fact that creating and implementing security software on mobile devices is hugely different when compared to traditional endpoints. Servers and VMs fall into cloud workload protection, while mobile devices (phones, tablets, Chromebooks, etc.) fall into a specialized category of mobile threat defense. An endpoint is the place where communications originate, and where they are received-in essence, any device that can be connected to a network.įrom a computer security perspective, “endpoint” will most likely refer to a desktop or laptop. It refers to parts of a network that don’t simply relay communications along its channels, or switch those communications from one channel to another. In simple terms, an endpoint is one end of a communications channel. So, here we are to answer one of the most fundamental questions in the infosec field: What is endpoint security software? What is Endpoint Security?Įndpoint security, or endpoint protection, is the process of protecting user endpoints (desktop workstations, laptops, and mobile devices) from threats such as malware, ransomware, and zero-days. That’s on us, as an industry-too often, the explanation of what we do and why it’s important devolves into a stew of acronyms, assembly code, and other bits of poorly-explained jargon. Information security is a topic that often resists understanding by laymen.
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