Page 39 - Cyber Defense eMagazine for July 2020

Organizations: It’s Time to Rethink How You Protect

Environments from Within

By Richard Melick, senior technical product manager, Automox

Many of us have made the shift to virtual with our work, school and social lives, as we all aim to protect
ourselves and the community during this uncertain time. As such, it’s important to understand that with
new virtual workflows comes an expanded attack surface for hackers to potentially exploit.

In particular, many organizations are struggling with securing and hardening new and existing endpoints
against critical vulnerabilities, an issue that has been exacerbated as remote work policies are enacted.
Automox’s recent Cyber Hygiene Index surveyed 560 IT and security professionals and uncovered that
less than 50 percent of organizations can patch vulnerable systems swiftly enough to protect against
critical threats and zero-day attacks.

Endpoint hardening is a critical component of any security strategy, and if not properly managed, can
pose a major threat to an organization's infrastructure. Attackers only need to find one way in to victimize
a system or device – and an endpoint that isn't equipped with the latest patches and security
configurations is likely to be ripe with exploitable vulnerabilities. It is essentially leaving a door unlocked
with a welcome sign out front for attackers.

Is it possible to lessen devastating data breaches within enterprises? Yes, but effective cyber hygiene
measures must be put into place, especially during transitional and uncertain times like today.

Cyber Defense eMagazine –July 2020 Edition 39
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