While the traditional network perimeter has, for some time, been extended to include a large number of different endpoints, many organizations still struggle to put proper security protocols in place to protect them. And whenever security controls are lacking, attackers rejoice.

One study shows that a worrisome 30% of IT professionals don't know how many endpoints there are in their organization, and those who do know report an average of 750 endpoints. And that's only the average. Many organizations have a much greater number of endpoints—and maintaining visibility and security controls over each proves a difficult challenge.

Combine this with an uptick in attacks against endpoints, and we can see that traditional methods of endpoint security aren't working for current IT environments.

So what can organizations do to provide appropriate protection in this area? Let's find out.

What exactly are endpoints?

Endpoints are physical devices that are, you guessed it—the end points on a network. They are the connected devices that all of the users on the network use. Their numbers keep growing; more and more organizations use different devices to carry out different tasks, and with the current switch to working remotely and users accessing the network from all possible devices, both professional and personal, we don't foresee the growth of endpoints slowing down.

What is endpoint security?

Endpoint security refers to the practice of securing endpoints of end-user devices to ensure protection against cyber threats and risks. Endpoint security services include those commonly used in enterprise environments as well as those used in consumer and private network environments, such as antivirus solutions, firewalls and web and email filtering. Although these are all considered endpoint security services, endpoint security has evolved from those more traditional solutions to providing more comprehensive protection against advanced malware and zero-day attacks.

Endpoint security plays an important role in organizations of all sizes. It helps them protect critical systems and sensitive and proprietary information, and makes sure all users on the network, including employees and customers, are protected from cyber attacks. Endpoint security works by allowing security teams visibility into organization's endpoints, and is designed to defend against physical and digital attacks, analyze traffic and files shared to and from these devices in real-time, and detect, protect and prevent against different types of cybersecurity threats.

The most common attack vectors in endpoint security

Endpoints are vast and each of them can be a viable point of entry for attackers. Some of the frequently forgotten ones, like the fax machine, can be easily exploited, especially when they lack appropriate protection measures (as fax machines often do). And attack vectors in endpoint security are as vast as the number of endpoints themselves.

To increase your familiarity, here are some of the more common ones and what to do about them:

Employees

Your most valuable asset, your people, is also the most dangerous link in the security chain and presents a big risk to your endpoint security. Devices are endpoints and used by people, which means they can also be abused by them—whether with malicious intent or merely resulting from a moment of negligence. And as we mentioned above, one factor adding to the possibility of weak endpoint security is the involvement of remote employees. Remote employees log onto the organization's network from outside the premises, opening up more entry points for malware to get into the network.

The only sure way to get your team and all your employees to participate in endpoint security, and prevent them from overturning it, is to ensure they get appropriate cybersecurity training. Part of this is by maintaining a strong, sustainable cybersecurity culture in the workplace. This is achieved through showing what th...