With the increasing number of devices connected to corporate networks, ensuring the security of these endpoints is essential to protect sensitive data and maintain business continuity. This blog will explore how endpoint protection works, the importance of endpoint security, and the key elements involved in securing modern endpoints using Microsoft solutions.

What is Endpoint Security?
Endpoint security is the cybersecurity approach to defending endpoints — such as desktops, laptops, and mobile devices — from malicious activity. An endpoint protection platform is a solution used to detect and prevent security threats. It also provides investigation and remediation capabilities needed to respond to dynamic security incidents and alerts.

What’s Considered an Endpoint?
An endpoint is any device that connects to the corporate network from outside its firewall. Examples of endpoint devices include:

• Mobile devices
• Tablets
• Laptops
• Point-of-sale (POS) systems
• Digital printers

Importance of Endpoint Security
An endpoint security strategy is essential because every remote endpoint can be the entry point for an attack, and the number of endpoints is only increasing with the rapid shift to remote work. According to statistics Canada, as of November 2023, the percentage of Canadians working most of their hours from home was about 20%.

The endpoint landscape is constantly changing, and businesses of all sizes are attractive targets for cyberattacks. According to the National Cyber Threat Assessment 2023-2024, ransomware incidents have become a top concern for Canadians, with essential services being disrupted and personal and financial data being stolen.. In 2024, over 85% of Canadian companies were affected by successful cyberattacks. The financial impact of these breaches has been significant, with the average cost of a data breach in Canada being CA$6.32 million. Additionally, 61% of Canadian companies now deploy security AI and automation to prevent breaches, which has helped reduce the overall costs and duration of these incidents

How Endpoint Protection Works
The terms endpoint protection, endpoint protection platforms, and endpoint security are all used interchangeably to describe the centrally managed security solutions that organizations leverage to protect endpoints like servers, workstations, mobile devices, and workloads from cybersecurity threats. Endpoint protection solutions work by examining files, processes, and system activity for suspicious or malicious indicators.

Endpoint protection solutions offer a centralized management console from which administrators can connect to their enterprise network to monitor, protect, investigate, and respond to incidents. This is accomplished by leveraging either an on-premises, cloud, or hybrid approach.

Microsoft Endpoint Security Solutions
Microsoft Intune: A cloud-based service for mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM). It helps manage devices and applications, ensuring security and compliance.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint: An enterprise endpoint security platform that provides advanced threat protection, including vulnerability management, next-generation antivirus, AI-powered endpoint detection and response, and automated investigation and remediation.

Windows 365: A cloud-based service that creates Cloud PCs for end users, providing a dedicated Windows device experience. It simplifies IT management and enhances the end-user computing experience.

Microsoft Defender for Office 365: Offers advanced threat protection for email and collaboration tools, including Safe Links, safe attachments, and phishing and malware defense across email, Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, and SharePoint.

Microsoft Entra ID: Provides advanced identity and access management features, including single sign-on, multi-factor authentication (MFA), conditional access, and identity protection. It helps manage user identities and enable access to applications and resources from trusted users, devices, and locations.

Endpoint Security Benefits
Some key benefits of endpoint security include:

• Endpoint Protection: As digital transformation pushes more employees to work remotely, protecting all endpoints has become essential to prevent breaches/
• Identity Protection: Identity protection is an important benefit of endpoint security because it protects employees and other stakeholders’ sensitive data by ensuring only authorized users have the right type of access to it.
• Threat Detection and Response: With the increasing number of adversaries trying to breach organizations using sophisticated cyberattacks, quickly detecting potential threats will help speed the remediation process and keep data protected.

Core Functionality of an Endpoint Protection Solution
Endpoint security tools that provide continuous breach prevention must integrate these fundamental elements:

1. Prevention - Next-Generation Antivirus: Traditional antivirus solutions detect less than half of all attacks. Next-generation antivirus closes this gap by using advanced endpoint protection technologies, such as AI and machine learning, to identify new malware by examining more elements, such as file hashes, URLs, and IP addresses.

2. Detection - Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR): Prevention is not enough. An EDR solution provides continuous visibility into what is happening on endpoints in real time. Businesses should look for solutions that offer advanced threat detection and investigation and response capabilities, including incident data search and investigation, alert triage, suspicious activity validation, threat hunting, and malicious activity detection and containment.

3. Managed Threat Hunting: Not all attacks can be detected by automation alone. Managed threat hunting is conducted by elite teams that learn from incidents that have already occurred, aggregate crowdsourced data, and provide guidance on how best to respond when malicious activity is detected.

4. Threat Intelligence Integration: To stay ahead of attackers, businesses need to understand threats as they evolve. A threat intelligence integration solution should incorporate automation to investigate all incidents and gain knowledge in minutes, not hours. It should generate custom indicators of compromise directly from the endpoints to enable a proactive defense against future attacks

Conclusion
Endpoint security is a vital aspect of an organization's cybersecurity strategy. By implementing robust endpoint protection solutions, businesses can safeguard their devices, data, and networks from cyber threats. As the threat landscape continues to evolve, staying ahead of potential risks and continuously improving endpoint security measures is essential for maintaining a secure and resilient digital environment.

Sources:
1. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-631-x/11-631-x2024001-eng.htm
2. https://www.cyber.gc.ca/en/guidance/national-cyber-threat-assessment-2023-2024
3. https://www.packetlabs.net/posts/the-biggest-cyberattacks-in-canada/
4. https://madeinca.ca/cyber-crime-canada-statistics/
5. https://www.insuranceinstitute.ca/en/Insights-And-Publications/CanadianUnderwriterArticles/items/2024/08/07/Data-breaches-cost-Canadian-financial-services-millions-in-2024
6. https://www.insuranceinstitute.ca/en/Insights-And-Publications/CanadianUnderwriterArticles/items/2024/08/07/Data-breaches-cost-Canadian-financial-services-millions-in-2024