Cybersecurity Awareness Month: The endpoint security issue

<p>October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, as well as awareness month for many other — arguably more important — causes, such as breast cancer, depression, domestic violence, Down syndrome and, not to be overlooked, squirrels.</p>
<p>Because endpoint security continues to become more and more complicated, I thought I’d share three eye-opening findings from my <a href=”https://research.esg-global.com/reportaction/515202052/Marketing” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>recent research</a> to mark the occasion.</p>
<p>The research, which focused on the consolidation of teams, tools and processes to increase operational efficiency and improve endpoint management and security, was an update of a 2023 study that was in the works when I joined Enterprise Strategy Group, now part of Omdia. Thus, we were able to get meaningful comparisons over time. It focused on IT and security professionals across enterprise (85% of respondents) and midmarket (15%) organizations.</p>
<section class=”section main-article-chapter” data-menu-title=”Key finding 1: Endpoint management and security are hard”>
<h2 class=”section-title”><i class=”icon” data-icon=”1″></i>Key finding 1: Endpoint management and security are hard</h2>
<p>Roughly 40% of organizations said that endpoint management and security are more difficult today than in the past, compared to roughly 27% in the 2023 study. This increase in complexity is driven by things that are both not surprising and alarming at once: device proliferation, remote and hybrid work, and a complex threat landscape.</p>
<h3>Device proliferation</h3>
<p>Factors related to device proliferation, diversity and patching account for half of the top 10 drivers of increased complexity in endpoint management and security.</p>
<p>Let’s start with the number of devices per user. On average, users conduct work from three or four devices on a regular basis. This might sound like a lot, but it’s pretty easy to get to three devices: Phone, home machine and work machine come to mind. Throw in a tablet and you’re at four. Even if it’s three, that’s still a lot of devices. Think about it, a 500-person organization might have to deal with 1,500 to 2,000 endpoints. Each of these devices, if managed, needs its OS and apps patched, and each expands the security footprint — and attack surface — of an organization.</p>
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