Endpoint security issues

Technological innovations have simplified data storage and access problems

largely. The adoption of technologies by businesses that drive them to higher

planes is at an all time high. Nowadays, businesses are moving towards

virtualization for seamless integration of data and saving costs and resources.

Portable communication and storage devices are not only being adopted by the

tech savvy executives, but have also become an integral part of the IT

architecture.

Today's businesses demand for real time access to data spread across multiple

sources has driven users to adapt and adopt the latest technologies. The use of

such portable storage devices pose a huge security risk to networks at the End

Points and securing these End Points has become a major area of concern for IT

Security implementers in Corporate as well as Small and Medium Enterprises. To

ensure security from all types of threats, enterprises need to incorporate

measures that can provide complete protection from Internal as well as External

threats. In such scenarios, the perimeter level security alone does not provide

foolproof security to the network.

Business Enterprises are investing heavily in network and antivirus software,

firewalls, emails, and Web content security in order to protect themselves from

external threats at the network perimeter. Most solutions miss the importance of

securing networks from internal threats. These internal threats are from the

natives working within the enterprise. Security at both entry and the exit

points of data allows preventing network security breaches from within the

organization.

Out of the various security solutions available, very few address Endpoint

concerns. The simplest forms of Endpoint security programs include firewalls or

anti-virus software that can be distributed throughout the organization and then

monitored and updated from a centralized point. As against the complex forms of

Endpoint security solutions, a simpler solution should make use of Network

Access Protocol (NAP), which authenticates a user before he/she uses any kind of

data access device. It should work when a device tries to establish contact with

the network. It should validate the user credentials followed by scanning the

device. Once, it is convinced that the user meets the specified norms of the

corporate security policies it allows access. The devices that are not relevant

to the policies are given limited or denied access to the system.

Securing the Endpoints does guarantee the security of the network. It should

be followed with implementing security policies at the organizational level.

Lack of security policies in organizations, is the reason why news of customers

data being leaked due to negligence at the security end has become an every day

bulletin. Such types of breaches affect thousands of individuals leading to loss

of intellectual and confidential data resulting in not only financial losses but

also affects the trustworthiness of the enterprise. These enterprises range from

financial institutions to BPOs, from where customer data is stored and accessed

in large volumes. These vulnerabilities can be dealt with effectively if the

security at the Endpoints is given top priority.

Necessity of endpoint security



When we talk about enterprises and their computing environment all the devices

are considered endpoint devices. In such a scenario, today's IT environment has

become vulnerable to threats that arise from internal as well as external

sources. IT implementers today must give top priority to safeguard the Endpoints

by creating policies that might curb such security breach instances as Endpoint

is the most vulnerable node in the enterprise network. Protection of network

resources has become virtually impossible with the number of people working from

various locations and using a variety of devices. This is the reason why

Endpoints have become potentially unsafe. The trend of demanding access to

network resources from any location has become necessary for today's businesses.

Here, enterprises need to focus on providing perimeter level security and

protecting Endpoints, which will help minimize security issues.

Spam or junk mails have also become an area of concern today. These

unsolicited emails hit the system in bulk quantities resulting in bandwidth

loss, productivity loss and lay the ground for Phishing attacks to succeed. The

need for a solution that has the ability to intelligently learn and classify

emails by the behavioral pattern analysis of the users comes very handy.

Securing endpoints



Most of the companies today rely on Internet filtering programs, intrusion

detection software, and firewalls, which prove to be useful only for protecting

networks from outside threats. Today companies are facing major problems from

threats at Endpoints. These Endpoints can be secured by making the right choice

of technology and implanting certain policies, which will help minimize the

security threats that arise due to use of portable storage devices. Similarly,

the need to communicate with individuals globally has made Internet an integral

part of businesses today. Use of Internet with negligence might affect your

networks adversely.

Internet is a major source of virus, rootkits, adwares and spywares that are

all set to infect the network the moment Internet is accessed. There are various

companies in the market, that promise complete protection from all types of

threats but only some manage to cope up to that level of protection. A

technology needs to be developed at the WinSock Layer, which will prevent

malicious content from entering the system well before it enters the application

layer. This prevention method is better, than healing the system after it is

infected.

In short, secure the network by securing the Endpoints too.

While enterprises plan to implement a new security technology for their

networks, they should judge the past, present, and future threats before taking

a step further. Such evaluation will help them to keep a pace at securing their

networks from all types of advanced and upcoming threats. Therefore, it is in

the best interest of Enterprises to think about the future and prepare

themselves to safeguard their networks from security breaches.

Govind Rammurthy, CEO and Managing Director, MicroWorld