Trojans, worms, and spyware sound like elements straight from a summer blockbuster, but the kind of action/adventure they provide on your PCs, Macs, smartphones, and tablets make them more like a horror movie.
By deploying effective endpoint security, you can help prevent attacks and keep your users safe from viruses and other malware, such as spear phishing and advanced persistent threats. Today ’s state-of-the-art endpoint security has come a long way from its early roots in “antivirus” and has morphed into a complex suite of sophisticated protections against modern threats.
But good protection isn’t free; so, how can you save money, while still protecting your computers? Here’s how to reduce your investment...
Keeping users safe
In an ideal world, users would be perfectly security conscious. These mythical users wouldn’t:
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Click on suspicious links.
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Open file attachments emailed by criminals pretending to be their friends.
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Respond to phishing messages that appear to be from a bank.
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Disable software updates because warnings and reboots are annoying.
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Disable a security product because it slows down their PC.
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Install free software from an untrustworthy developer, because their friend “liked” it on Facebook.
Sadly, our world is less than ideal. Much, much less: A recent report said that 86 percent of U.S. businesses surveyed had lost sensitive data during the previous year.
Security Awareness Training helps, but it isn’t sufficient. That’s why your endpoints need securing. Doing so helps prevent your users from accidentally exposing sensitive business information, such as your banking credentials, secret-sauce recipes or future product plans.
Save time and money on endpoint security
Your challenge is to protect your users while minimizing costs: How do you save time and money while keeping your company safe?
Look for a modern endpoint security solution – not one thrown together from an old antivirus program and a fresh coat of paint.
How can you tell?
A start-of-the-art solution does the following:
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Works intelligently in the background, without bogging down the user’s computer
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Scans for malware in seconds, not hours
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Uses a reliable, built-from-the-ground-up cloud security service to identify malware, not a huge signature file that’s quickly out-of-date
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Works intelligently while offline, reconnecting with the cloud service to check changes made while disconnected
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Fixes infected PCs, if necessary, by rolling back the computer’s state to a known-good point
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Automatically monitors untrusted software executions to prevent infection
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Allows you to enforce certain policy settings, such as the use of USB ports, and prevents users from disabling security features
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Doesn’t fight with competing installed products, to allow you to test it safely
How does it reduce your investment?
A modern solution will reduce costs by being integrable, controllable and reliable. That means your operating costs are lower, and you won’t lose money from malware infections that only waste IT workers’ time and squander end-user productivity.
Purchase cost is, of course, a factor. However, in most analyses of total cost of ownership (TCO), operations and end-user productivity losses dwarf all other costs.
You have to first consider your budget realities, but it’s smart to benchmark yourself against what similar companies spend. There are free security solutions, but they don’t provide the control or sophistication to minimize your TCO.
Don’t Be Fooled
Keeping your company safe requires more than a warmed-over, 10-year-old anti-virus product. You need a state-of-the-art endpoint protection solution to safeguard your organization, in addition to user awareness, enforced policies and proper patch management.
The best solutions allow you to sleep soundly, knowing that you’ve taken the key steps to protect your systems while keeping costs low.
