Endpoint Still a Prime Target for Attack

Most security professionals think the endpoint is the top priority for defense when it comes to security strategy.

Dark Reading’s State of Endpoint Security Survey finds 84% of security pros believe any attack will start with the endpoint. Yet only a quarter of respondents indicate their organization has made significant changes to their endpoint security approach. However, a handful of respondents (5%) considered their new strategy “radical,” survey data showed.

The survey also looked at changes security leaders are planning to make to endpoint technologies post-COVID-19 and found remote/home network connections were cited by 47% as requiring major changes due to the rapid shifts in working arrangements over the last year and a half. Other technologies that require changes include security awareness training (45%) and endpoint detection and response tools (41%).

“The lines are blurred now,” says Johnathan Hunt, vice president of security for software development services firm GitLab, who was interviewed as part of the Dark Reading report. “If we are all working remotely, everyone is leveraging a BYOD policy in some form. We are all working out of our homes, using our own Wi-Fi networks, and using personal devices for business, or business devices for personal use.”

Security pros who participated in the survey cited the following deployments to protect against attacks that use stolen credentials:

• Increased end-user awareness training: 70%
• Remote access management: 52%
• Privileged access management: 37%
• Endpoint detection and response: 37%

Read the full report here.