`

WatchGuard Endpoint Risk Monitoring

Understanding the impact of security risks

Cyber risk incidents can have operational, financial, reputational, and strategic consequences for your organization, all of which come at significant costs. Security misconfigurations and software vulnerabilities are often the root cause of these incidents, which leave the door open for cybercriminals to exploit these weaknesses.

According to Verizon (DBIR), 82% of breaches involve the human element, misconfiguration, and misuse. Implementing the best-in-class endpoint security solution with advanced capabilities doesn’t guarantee 100% protection. A security setting within an endpoint that violates a configuration policy, or has been left insecure or misconfigured, can cause unintended behaviour, putting the entire system at risk.

The challenge: common mistakes that lead to security risks

Not keeping up with patches
Outdated software can leave systems exposed to known vulnerabilities, which may have already been patched. To ensure patches are effective, they must be applied on time. Otherwise, hackers will take advantage of vulnerabilities.
Security misconfigurations
Attackers are actively looking for holes in security to sneak into the network. To be truly effective, protection settings must be properly configured and enabled to avoid hackers exploit protection setting weaknesses.
Lack of visibility into indicators of attack
In living-off-the-land (LotL) attacks, intruders use legitimate software or tools available in the victim’s system to perform malicious actions. Implement a security solution that includes anomalous behavioural analysis and detection of IoAs.
Accidentally leaving unprotected endpoints
A cybercriminal only needs one device to compromise the security of the whole organization. Deploy an endpoint security solution in every single system. Protection is only as strong as its weakest link.

Identify and mitigate the impact of your security risks

Cyber risk can have a direct impact on your systems if the endpoint solution is not properly configured. This makes existing protection measures less effective, forcing IT teams to assess their security posture continuously. So, how can risk incidents be prevented?

Security admins need to understand their cyber threat risk posture and reinforce security solution controls so they can prevent and minimize the chances of getting infected and disrupting their business. Strengthen your security posture with risk monitoring and discover vulnerabilities and security configuration weaknesses across endpoints where WatchGuard Endpoint Security solutions are implemented.

Manage and monitor unprotected endpoints, indicators of attack, security misconfigurations, OS and third-party software vulnerabilities, and missing patches to proactively safeguard your network before a breach occurs.

Key endpoint risk monitoring features

All our WatchGuard Endpoint Security solutions include risk monitoring capabilities. Monitoring and identifying risk immediately are extremely useful to improve your security posture with actions that can be deployed in real time in a quick and easy way. For every endpoint, you will have a brief health overview, including Windows, macOS, and Linux, as well as Android and iOS devices.

As hackers try to find the weakest points, which are most likely to be broken, it is mandatory to reduce the risk level in every computer. As many IT teams don’t have the time or resources to do it, it is crucial to continuously carry out a health risk assessment to minimize your infrastructure security risks.

Risk dashboard
Get real-time risk monitoring and status of overall device health with a single metric. Drill down to view the main risk detected on specific computers to improve security posture.

Risk detection & configuration
Risk scoring can be configured. Risk criticality is based on the urgency-level action required, relying on the protection status, misconfigurations assigned, whether an indicator of attack is detected, and if critical patches not applied are detected.

Risk executive reports
Maximize risk control, getting general risk status insights and risk evolution on endpoints, most detected risks, top computers with higher risks, etc., so you can quickly see that the main risk incidents are adequately overseen.

Risk level accessible via RESTful API
Implement tailored integrations with your own dashboards, ticketing system, etc. Deploy zero-trust policies by not allowing endpoints with high or critical risk levels to connect to the corporate network or applications with sensitive data.

Want to find out more?

Discover how secure your organization is with our powerful, free Endpoint Risk Assessment tool. Why take chances with your business’s security when you can get a clear evaluation? Want to see how it works? Request a sample report today or contact us for a no-obligation consultation tailored to your business needs.

Author

Neil MacGregor

Category

Cyber Security

Date

October 8, 2024