Page 73 - Cyber Defense eMagazine December 2022 Edition

1. ABP = Always Be Patching

Managing software updates — and specifically patching endpoints — helps secure an organization from
known threats. A recent study showed that 60% of breach victims cited a known but unpatched
vulnerability, where the patch was available but had not been applied, as the reason for a breach. This
lack of action often stems from the sheer volume of emerging attacks combined with the large number of
patches being released across today’s IT ecosystem, and a lack of a comprehensive patching strategy.

The appearance of new endpoint types, such as Internet of Things (IoT), Bring Your Own Device (BYOD),
and other operating system and software vulnerabilities, has resulted in a tidal wave of patch releases
over the last 5 years. Staying ahead of threat actors means patching all the time.

2. Seek Out All Endpoints

Think about a company network and how many endpoint devices there are. Hundreds? Thousands?
Tens of thousands? Endpoint compromise accounts for most of today’s security breaches. In fact,
estimates put the number around 70 percent. If you can’t identify and track these devices, how can you
secure them? The easiest way to do so is with a comprehensive discovery and configuration compliance
audit. This process can have multiple steps, but it typically involves:

• Discovering and taking a thorough inventory of all hardware, such as servers, laptops, virtual
machines, mobile and networking devices.
• Ensuring all systems are configured in line with applicable compliance standards and internal
security policies.
• Continuously monitoring those configurations for inappropriate or unwanted changes and
mitigating configuration drift.

Ensuring you have a running tally of your endpoints is critical to securing them.

3. Stay Current on Innovations

Hackers and threat actors are constantly upgrading their technology and approaches. To stand against
them, you and your organization must do the same. Whether utilizing patching, compliance, or security
solutions (or better yet, all of those in a single platform), it’s important to regularly evaluate new
technology innovations. Advancements around automation, machine learning and more, are streamlining
endpoint security, reducing the false positive rates, and enabling IT and security teams to do more with
less resource.

4. Be Active

All quality security programs require both a proactive and reactive approach to endpoint vulnerabilities.
One key proactive approach is the continual active scanning of network devices to identify weak points,

Cyber Defense eMagazine – December 2022 Edition 73
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