Staff working from home? Your endpoint security is integral, here’s five areas you need to address
As mentioned in our previous blog Ask These 10 Questions to Strengthen Your Cyber Security Measures, cyber security attacks are on the rise in Australia. The Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme saw a significant increase of 19 percent in reported incidents from the first half of 2019, to the period of July-December 2019. [1]
A big reason for this was the dominance of malicious or criminal attack instances, which accounted for 64 percent of those notifications. [2] The importance of combatting cyber-crime is only increasing. In mid-June this year, Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, announced that Australian organisations need to be alert to the risks posed by online cyber threats, a warning shot all Australian organisations should adhere to.
From malware and ransomware to some of the most sophisticated social engineering ploys we’ve ever seen, the landscape gets more challenging to manage by the day. And with your staff and devices now being utilised beyond the protection of the corporate firewall, your endpoint security has never been as important to your continued operations as it is now.
In partnership with HP and Intel®, here are five key areas you should look to address when it comes to making your work from home strategy a security success.
1. Your devices are everything
As we’ve said many times, the endpoint is your frontline of defence. We’re lucky to live during a time where hardware-enforced tools that can detect and recover from attacks exist. It’s important that your remote working staff are leveraging these available tools. HP have developed a range of embedded security tools that work to thwart potential attacks, and keep you alert to any changes in their security status.
HP Sure Recover is just one such tool that in the event of an attack on your device, will employ an automated recovery of your operating system to a previous version that was clean of any malpractice from an unknown agent, keeping you working and free from downtime.
2. Real-time protection is invaluable
Cyber risks are everywhere, they can pose a risk from an email, from a file or from a perceivably safe URL as well. It’s important that you have the ability to recognise potential risks in real-time that a traditional antivirus solution cannot. So that means your staff are using devices that can identify threats, and you have the ability to monitor the health of your entire device fleet in real-time also.
For example, HP Sure Click lets your workers click with peace of mind knowing that if the file, website or attachment poses a security risk, it will alert them to the fact so they don’t follow through with the action and potentially damage your organisation.
3. Analytics drive new levels of insight
In most instances it pays to be proactive rather than reactive, and endpoint security is no different. When you are informed on the current health and protection status of your devices, you are in a strong position to resolve issues before they develop into bigger problems. Additionally, if you have staff working remotely it’s in many ways the only means of you monitoring their device’s health.
Platforms like HP TechPulse Analytics give you access to data sets generated by predictive analytics that highlight a holistic view of your device fleets protection status, displayed in policies, reports and alerts that keep you on the front foot when protecting your devices and data.
4. Lack the time or resources internally? Consider a managed service
Even under normal circumstances, time is always at a premium across IT and executive teams. But when you add the extraordinary challenges that we’re currently facing, on top of an already global shortage for cyber security skills and there’s a good chance you neither have the time nor resources to correctly monitor and manage your device fleet’s health.
By working with the right partner, you’re both saving time for your team to invest elsewhere while also leaning on hard to find expertise. Counterparts provide peace of mind with our all-in-one Managed Service Agreements where all support and maintenance of your IT systems under management are handled by us under a simple fixed monthly fee.
As a trusted technology advisor and implementer with great pedigree in solving complex technical problems we can help you mitigate the threat landscape and ultimately improve overall business outcomes. By working with technology and providing comprehensive security services to organisations across Australia, we offer powerful, trustworthy solutions that not only address these four key endpoint areas, but excel to fit your unique business requirements.
Want to discuss your current endpoint security status? To find out more get in touch with the Counterparts Technology Cyber team.
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[1][2] Notifiable Data Breaches Report, July-December 2019, Australian Government – Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/notifiable-data-breaches/notifiable-data-breaches-statistics/notifiable-data-breaches-report-july-december-2019/[3] Scott Morrison’s ‘urgent’ hacking warning shot shows Australia won’t shy away from China’s cyber-attacks, ABC News, Andrew Probyn and Stephen Dziedzic, Sat 20 June 2020. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-20/why-australia-acted-on-china-hacking-cyber-attack-scott-morrison/12376700
[4] How to plan for endpoint security against ever-evolving cyberthreats, © Copyright 2019, HP Development Company, 4AA7-6415ENW, November 2019