Filling the Endpoint Security Gap with Proactive Data Protection
Breaches are commonplace in the world we live in today, and as a result, have helped criminal organizations illegally profit by monetizing theft, corruption, denial, and deletion of business data. Despite attackers employing new, sophisticated cyber tactics, a frequent initial root of attacks still remains a business’ endpoints. Consequently, many organizations invest in endpoint security solutions and perimeter defense systems to combat this problem – yet, bad actors are still getting in.
The stem of endpoint breaches are generally associated with constant changing networks and digital workspaces, inconsistencies in asset and data management, and human error of any kind. Proactive data protection mitigates these risk factors by acknowledging the new normal of ever-evolving work environments and tackling the problem from the inside outwards – thus, starting with the attackers’ target (the data) and safeguarding the data’s path until the perimeter.
Endpoint Security Solutions
Endpoint security comes in many forms, such as data loss protection (DLP), antivirus/-malware, application control, firewalls, intrusion prevention/detection systems (IPS/IDS), or endpoint/extended detection and response (EDR/XDR). The latest endpoint solutions that pinpoint malicious actions and rogue processes have become the standard when it comes to security protocols to ward off endpoints being compromised. If an attacker tries to initiate or execute command-and-control measures, these solutions spot the pattern and thus try shutting down the session. The presumption that attacks show a predictable pattern is a common base to identify threats, which is why so much data is needed for correlating patterns and learning about tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) of threat actors. Consequently, endpoint solutions tend to be used by security as the last barrier of defense to protect the network and organizational data from malicious intended activity.
Bypassing Conventional Defenses
Endpoint Security follows suite of perimeter security strategy – defending compromise from the outside inwards. To understand the effectiveness of perimeter defenses we have to take two aspects into account: firstly, adversary strategies continue to evolve and constantly new ways to go around single pointed security measures. Secondly, implementing and maintaining endpoint security for the entire surface area is expensive and can be breached by just one open loophole. Weaknesses in the line of perimeter defense give threat actors an entrance to attack unprotected items across the network.
Relying on one outside layer of defense increases the risk and impact of a single breach; operating multiple layers of data protection around mission critical workloads and assets result in effective risk mitigation. Although perimeter security solutions are designed to solve specific business challenges, it fails to address its actual end users – the threats – by ignoring the end goal, reaching the critical data of organizations. “Defense in depth” a term introduced by Gartner talks about improving the overall security strategy and hardening to enhance endpoint safety rather than focusing on a perimeter centric strategy.
Defense in Depth with Early Warning
In cases of an endpoint breach, attackers commonly proceed to extend their foothold in the network in order to look for crown jewels – the data. This is where Metallic® ThreatWise™ provides the strategic advantage for data protection and data security – delivering an early warning into silent threats which unknowingly breached perimeter defenses. By placing threat sensors along the path of the data (a cyber criminals end target) – ThreatWise™ keeps mission critical assets intact while redirecting maliciously intended activity into fake environments and sending out high-fidelity alerts simultaneously. Rather than replacing SIEMs, DLPs, Endpoint Security platforms or SOC monitoring, Metallic® ThreatWise™ serves as an extra protection layer build up from the inside out to proactively safeguard your data before compromise.
Changing the game of Data Protection
Metallic® ThreatWise™ takes data protection from a reactive to a proactive approach through next generation deception. Using patented technology, ThreatWise™ sensors bait and expose bad actors to neutralize silent attacks and flag malicious intent and activity during all stages of an attack, such as recon, discovery, and lateral movement.
It is a lightweight, rapidly deployable, and highly accurate solution. By deploying decoys in bulk, ThreatWise™ quickly blankets vast surface areas and networks with threat sensors that look like and behave like real resources. Think of these sensors as trip wires that, when touched by a bad actor, signal immediate alerts to the business. ThreatWise™ decoys are also highly versatile and authentic to mimic a wide variety of resources including workstations, databases, network assets, IoT devices, or nearly any other highly specialized resources that’s unique to your organization or industry. This unrivaled realism tricks threats into compromising and interacting with false resources, while unknowingly exposing their presence and kick start remediation efforts before attacks reach their targets.
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