Enterprise security has become more challenging today owing to the usage of multiple endpoint devices and the introduction of BYOD and WFH concepts, besides other sources of cyberattacks. Therefore, robust endpoint privilege management (EPM) solutions are essential to secure the network from unauthorized access and lateral movement that can result in network breaches.
Selecting the best EPM solution for enterprise environments: CISO's guide
BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), remote working, and WFH (Work From Home) have accelerated the growth of enterprise digital transformation and have opened up more avenues for cyber adversaries to exploit. With the continuous increase in cyberattack vectors making use of endpoint vulnerabilities, organizations are compelled to employ Endpoint Privilege Management (EPM) as a crucial cybersecurity strategy. EPM is a critical component of Privileged Access Management (PAM). It helps organizations manage and monitor user access privileges to confidential data and systems using the least privilege principle and application control. EPM solutions minimize the risk of security breaches by ensuring that no unauthorized users have access to critical information and resources. They also include features for auditing and reporting, which help organizations comply with regulations and security standards. This blog post focuses on why EPM is essential in today’s enterprise environment and how CISOs can select the best Endpoint Privilege Management (EPM) Solution for their enterprises.
EPM and PAM: Key Statistics
Below are recent statistics, trends, and predictions concerning EPM and PAM. These critical statistics help drive home the importance of EPM.
● A Ponemon Institute study shows that 68% of organizations have experienced endpoint attacks resulting in data compromise.
● A Forrester Report predicts that 70% of organizations will adopt PAM practices by 2023 to reduce the overall risk surface.
● PAM solution market value is expected to go up from $2,923.5 million in 2021 to $12,381.2 million by 2028.
● The IBM Data Breach Report 2022 estimated that a data breach’s average total cost increased to $4.35 million in 2022.
The Need for Effective EPM: Why is EPM More Relevant Today Than Ever?
Endpoint Privilege Management is a cybersecurity strategy that eliminates endpoint risks by combining least privilege access with effective application control. It helps mitigate risks while causing minimal disruption to user productivity. The below factors show why EPM is more relevant than ever in today’s enterprise environment.
- AI-Empowered Adversaries: AI is a double-edged sword. While it helps cybersecurity professionals identify and thwart the latest cyber threats, it can have fatal consequences if used by malicious adversaries to launch cyberattacks.
- Multiple Devices due to BYOD, Remote Work, and Work-From-Home: More users are accessing the internet today for official and personal work using multiple devices like smartphones, laptops, etc. Besides, organizations are encouraging concepts like BYOD and WFH that make information network systems more vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
- Increasing Insider Threats: Insider threats are increasingly becoming a critical attack vector for threat actors as they allow easy access and lateral movement in the information network.
- Inadequate Cybersecurity Awareness: Workforce shortages cause users to access multiple applications simultaneously for their daily operations. It can lead to following unhygienic cybersecurity practices and open doors for malicious actors to access information network systems.
Therefore, an effective Endpoint Privilege Management solution is the need of the hour. At this juncture, CISOs must leverage the best EPM to their advantage and secure the organization’s information assets.
How CISOs Can Select the Best Endpoint Privilege Management (EPM) Solution
An effective EPM solution is more than mere security. CISOs should look for the below aspects when selecting the best EPM solution for their organizations.
- Automation Capabilities and Productivity Enhancement: Automation helps improve the security team’s capability and productivity while helping elevate applications on-demand without requiring admin rights or any IT support, further enhancing your team’s productivity. In addition, it supports implementing least-privilege security on endpoints across the enterprise without disrupting any user’s productivity. It can also help eliminate local administrator privileges without impacting operational efficiency.
- Compatibility with Other Enterprise Solutions: Cyber attackers leverage multiple platforms to launch their malicious activities. Hence, the ideal EPM solution should be compatible with other enterprise solutions and work in various environments seamlessly.
- Ease of Implementation and Configuration: The best EPM solutions should be easy to implement and configure. It should be versatile enough to adapt to the organization’s necessities and ensure complete protection of users and data across multiple working environments.
- Compatibility with Multi-cloud and Hybrid-cloud Environments: In the current era of multiple-cloud environments, users need to switch access between multiple devices, servers, and clouds. Therefore, the best EPM solution should be compatible with multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud environments.
- Helpful for Organizations’ Zero Trust Journey: A comprehensive EPM solution must have PAM capability, DNS-based security services, and Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) feature to help build a complete zero-trust security framework.
- Support for Application Whitelisting: An effective EPM solution should restrict access to applications that are not necessary for the users. However, at the same time, it should support application safelisting, whereby it becomes possible to control which applications can be run with granular application control policies.
What to Look For in an EPM Solution Provider?
An effective Endpoint Privilege Management solution provides holistic endpoint protection and secures all endpoints while enforcing the least privileged access to all users without disrupting business operations. CISOs should look for the following features in an EPM solution provider.
· Robust Security: One should look for a product that offers multiple capabilities to secure remote access while delivering excellent performance and security.
· Integration: The solution should integrate easily with existing systems and processes to minimize disruption to the existing infrastructure.
· User-friendliness: An efficient EPM solution should be easy to configure and implement. At the same time, it should provide reliable security that organizations can trust.
· Support: An ideal EPM solution provider should provide prompt and reliable support whenever needed and regular software updates to ensure the solution remains current and effective.
· Scalability: An efficient EPM solution should be scalable to cater to the ever-increasing cybersecurity demands in today’s dynamically evolving enterprise environments.
· Cost-effectiveness: While providing the best endpoint security, the EPM solution must also be one that can go well with the budgetary constraints of the organization.
· Reporting and Auditing: The solution should provide comprehensive reporting and auditing capabilities to enable organizations to track and monitor access to critical data and systems.
Why SecureKi EPM is an Ideal Solution
Secureki EPM is the ideal EPM solution for today’s enterprise environment for the following reasons.
● It secures endpoint vulnerabilities by applying the least privilege security on all endpoints across the enterprise without disrupting regular business operations and user activity.
● It eliminates local administrator privileges while granting access to standard users, ensuring zero detrimental impact on operational efficiency.
● It uses application safelisting with granular application control policies to control the applications that users can access depending on their requirements. Thus, it safeguards information network systems against unauthorized users and malware.
● It is versatile and flexible because it allows the elevation of applications on-demand without requiring IT support or admin rights. Thus, it enhances visibility and overall operational productivity.
● One of the best features of Secureki EPM is the automation of password management activities that ensure the highest levels of security with greater efficiency.
● It works on the principles of Zero Trust to provide better security management and prevent network breaches by enforcing access control policies based on the principles of least privilege.
Final Words
Unrestricted access to critical information and admin privileges to those who don’t require them can prove fatal. Therefore, Endpoint Privilege Management solutions are vital to restrict access to the necessary applications alone while ensuring least-privilege access. It enhances user productivity while providing the best endpoint security for an organization. Secureki EPM helps organizations secure all business endpoints from vulnerabilities and protects their critical information assets from network breaches. Thus, it helps improve the security of an organization’s infrastructure while increasing its operational efficiency.