Digitalization has given businesses the opportunity to add numerous devices, applications, and digital practices to optimize their daily practices. However, over the past two years, cybersecurity has become an increasing concern for businesses, regardless of size. The virtual age is shaping up to be an era of continual attacks and workflow shutdowns, as businesses struggle to defend against a vast array of cyber attackers.

Roughly 30,000 websites were hacked dailyi n 2021, with 64% of all companies experiencing some form of cyberattack during the last calendar year. While there was a 600% increase in cybercrime during the pandemic, the problem persists even as we move away from the COVID-19 restrictions and into a new era of working. Even 75% of small businessestoday feel as if they need to put more emphasis on cybersecurity.

The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, ENISA (The EU’s agency dedicated to achieving a high common level of cybersecurity across Europe), interviewed 249 European SMEs and shared their feedback on their state of digital security and preparedness for crises, such as COVID-19. The research identified that the greatest challenges for SMEs as “low awareness of the threats posed to their business by poor cybersecurity, the costs of implementing cybersecurity measures often combined with a lack of dedicated budget, the availability of ICT cybersecurity specialists, a lack of suitable guidelines aimed at the SME sector, and low management support.”

In the World Economic Forum global cybersecurity Outlook for 2022, Jaya Baloo, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Avast Software, Netherlands wrote, “Organic and inorganic growth of organizations has resulted in increased complexity and exposure to cyber risks, making organizations even more vulnerable to compromise. We have not been particularly successful in automating asset and data visibility as well as threat reduction at scale. Especially vulnerable are the SMEs in our digital supply chains and ecosystem. As a global community, we need to make sure that we provide solutions for the SMEs to better protect themselves against current and future cyber threats and shift the burden to the makers of technology rather than the users.”

Cybercriminals are by no means unique, targeting gaps and vulnerabilities in a company’s defense just like traditional criminals. With increased levels of connectivity, remote working, reliance on technology, and automation the risk of cyberattack has been greatly raised for businesses, which now have more openings in their networks than ever before.

Halis Osman Erkan, founder and CEO, DefensX, an endpoint security company working at the very edge of the network offering endpoint web protection and more, said “To combat against these new cybercriminals, who possess greater speed, volume, and sophistication, businesses of all sizes need innovative cybersecurity solutions that can keep their company and their customers’ data safe without becoming so expensive and onerous that they cannot afford the cost including lost productivity. Endpoint protection that is automated and intelligent has never been more important.”

Endpoint security refers to the protection of organization networks against threats that originate from on-premise or remote devices. An endpoint is any digital device, whether it be a PC, laptop, smartphone, or tablet, that allows access to an enterprise network, and are entry points for potential cyber attackers. With businesses adopting the remote work culture, mobile applications, and cloud services, their network perimeters have become even more vulnerable than ever before.

According to a Statista report, the global endpoint security market is projected to reach 11.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2021 and is projected to continue growing, amounting to more than 19 billion U.S. dollars in 2025. The cause for the major growth lies in the benefits that the practice has to offer to companies looking to bolster their cyber defenses.

“The most obvious benefit is the improved security and enhanced endpoint performance,” Erkan said. “Managing vulnerabilities drastically reduces the threat surface. Employing signature-based tools keeps endpoints safe from known threats. Implementing this layered strategy drastically drives down the risk of security incidents and data breaches that may arise from external or internal threats. Providing a simple way to protect end-users on their devices makes the most sense and is surprisingly affordable.”

DefensX creates a power coupling with EDR/XDR tools (such as SentinelOne and Crowdstrike) Erkan explained. “EDR tools add protection to the operating system, while we provide the same for the web browser and Internet browsing.”

For endpoints, eliminating superfluous privileges and hardening devices translates into fewer misconfigurations, incompatibilities, security incidents, and other issues that may cause disruption. Preventing malware infection or endpoint compromise by an unauthorized user also protects against endpoint instability. These traditional solutions are helpful, but Erkan says they are not enough.

“Apart from the undeniable boost in security, end-point security simplifies compliance and auditability,” Erkan said. “The more comprehensively an endpoint system is integrated, and the better the visibility across the endpoint universe, the more straightforward the path to compliance.”

Overall, the protection of endpoints is necessary to prevent, contain, mitigate, and remediate external and internal threats. As we venture further into a new digital age, solutions and strategies must scale to meet the growing diversity of devices whether on-premise or remote, employee, or vendor. For companies of all sizes, building endpoint security technology to stack with solutions that communicate and collaborate with a broader IT and security ecosystem is essential.

For the latest information about the cyber landscape, join MSP Expo 2022, delivering four days of education and networking specifically focused on the MSP community, including one full track dedicated to security, as well as the SASE/SD-WAN Summit, a one-day track focused on how SASE, SD-WAN, and Zero Trust all come together to protect businesses. MSP Expo 2022 takes place June 21-24, 2022 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and is collocated alongside the other #TECHSUPERSHOWe vents, including ITEXPO (News-Alert), Future of Work Expo, IoT Evolution Expo, The Blockchain Event, and more. DefensX will be exhibiting in Booth #864.

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