Did you know that outdated software can be one of the most significant vulnerabilities in your security system? With the rapidly changing risk landscape, traditional security systems can’t keep up with the evolving cyber threat landscape. Modern and updated next-generation endpoint security systems can be your best friend to achieve a robust security environment in your organization.

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This Article Covers

• What Is Next-generation Endpoint Security?
• Why Traditional Antivirus Is Not Enough
• Key Capabilities
• Primary Benefits
• Top Trends
• To Sum It Up

What Is Next-generation Endpoint Security?

Next-generation endpoint security is a modern approach of combining user and system behavior analytics with AI and machine learning to provide endpoint security. These solutions are specifically designed to detect unknown malware and zero-day threats. Before and during the prevention process, the system can analyze fileless threats and halt an attacker’s actions.

Integration of AI and machine learning in next-generation solutions helps quickly detect and prevent advanced threats. Also, intelligence-driven methods with deep learning capabilities provide in-depth defense and proactive analytics. Other offerings include:

• Prevention Against Unauthorized Actions: Next-generation endpoint systems can identify and analyze unauthorized actions of users, network services and applications. Detecting these behaviors early in the process helps prevent any incident and unsolicited situation.
• Automated Data Processing: You can automatically process data using machine learning to detect malicious processes and files.
• Data Preservation: A ransomware attack can compromise your sensitive information by deleting your data or, worse, leaking it. Next-generation endpoint security software not only prevents data leaks but also rolls back data to its original state.
• Suspect Endpoint Isolation: Early detection capabilities help categorize endpoints and identify potential vulnerabilities. You can isolate these suspect endpoints to protect the rest of the system in case of an attack.

Why Your Antivirus Is Not Enough

Did you know that 450,000 new malware are detected every day? The rate at which malware spreads can be terrifying for any business. Also, attackers can change a known malware into an unknown threat simply by adding a few distinct characteristics to the file. These slight modifications can change the complete signature of the malware. Traditional antivirus features overlap with endpoint security but are inefficient in combating evolved malware attacks.

Traditional security solutions use a signature-based approach for threat detection. They rely on predetermined definitions of malicious threats by analyzing known bad strings. However, malicious files can easily evade antivirus detection by changing their signature. Also, cybercriminals nowadays use custom malware and spear phishing without creating any signature.

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Key Capabilities

Now that we have established what next-generation endpoint security is and why only an antivirus solution is not enough. Let’s look at the key capabilities of next-generation endpoint security.

AI and Machine Learning-driven Security

14 out of 16 U.S. critical sectors were subjected to ransomware attacks in 2021. These growing incidents demand a proactive and advanced approach to cyber security.

AI and machine learning integration can help manage sophisticated threats by automating threat detection, response and investigation. Automatic processes also maximize the efficiency of your security systems despite having a limited workforce.

Threat Prevention

There has been a drastic growth in not only numbers but also the sophistication of cyberattacks. These threats can easily bypass traditional security systems and web application firewalls. Next-generation endpoint security systems come with a prevention-first approach that focuses on preventing evolved cyber threats and minimizing the associated cost and impact.

Unified Security Systems

Using different stand-alone security systems can waste your time and resources. Security analysts lose visibility while switching between dashboards, thus impacting threat detection and response.

A consolidated security architecture can provide unified visibility into your infrastructure, increasing efficiency and reducing the total cost of ownership.

Cloud-based Security

Cloud-based deployment, or SaaS, is gaining popularity among businesses due to better flexibility, scalability, remote access and lower cost. However, with this growing popularity, cloud solutions are getting increasingly prone to cyberattacks. Next-generation endpoint security systems safeguard your cloud-based assets while operating efficiently on the cloud.

Threat Intelligence

Powerful threat intelligence capabilities with real-time visibility are the best weapons against advanced cyber threats. The threat intelligence system can investigate and analyze all threats to identify indicators of compromise (IOC). You can use IOCs to analyze incidents and malware behaviors and techniques.

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Primary Benefits

Equipping your business with next-gen endpoint security provides better protection, reduces cost and prevents over-burdening your security teams.

Better Visibility

Next-generation endpoint security maximizes visibility into your systems with a consolidated security approach. Several security systems working together and information displayed in one place help teams track suspicious activities effectively. This also helps in real-time analysis of all incidents across endpoints.

Reduced Cost

Investing in different security systems like Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) and VPN can be expensive and difficult to manage. A unified protection system helps reduce the total cost of security systems and minimize maintenance costs.

Secure Remote Working

The growth of remote work and BYOD policies is increasing cyber risks associated with endpoints. Each endpoint acts as an entry point for ransomware and phishing attacks. Cybercriminals can exploit these devices to damage your business assets and reputation. With modern endpoint solutions, you can manage these threats centrally and ensure better security for remote working environments.

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Top Trends

According to Statista, the IT security market size is estimated to grow from $75.5 billion in 2016 to $174.7 billion in 2024. To sustain in this growing market, you must be wary of the latest endpoint security trends.

Next-gen endpoint security solutions offer various technologies to keep up with key industry trends, making them popular worldwide. These include:

• AI and machine learning integration for automated response and prevention of threats. Automation reduces manual workload and alert fatigue and simplifies maintenance and operations.
• Self-healing endpoints are becoming more reliable and effective for security.
• Next-generation firewalls use deep packet inspection and comply with layer 7 policy. These systems can safeguard your devices without requiring external services like SD-WAN and URL filtering.
• Behavioral analytics and firmware-embedded systems are changing the endpoint protection game once and for all. They can identify and hunt threats in real time and offer quick remedies.
• Sandboxing is one of the hottest features in endpoint security systems that can detect unknown threats. The global sandboxing market size is estimated to accelerate at a CAGR of 26.3% between 2019 to 2030.

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To Sum It Up

With businesses constantly moving to the cloud, you can no longer rely on traditional security measures. To fight against advanced cyber threats, you must start redesigning your security environment and transition towards next-generation endpoint security systems. No defense can be ultimate, but modern solutions can minimize your risks to a great extent.

We recommend creating a requirements checklist to choose the best next-generation endpoint security for your business. The right system can provide three layered protections — cloud intelligence, digital forensics, and automated behavioral detection.

Which traditional security systems do you use to protect your applications? Which areas can you improve with the implementation of modern security systems? Let us know in the comments below!