5 Tips for Picking Your Endpoint Security Software

By
IntelligentHQ

As a business, it is crucial to implement a structured approach to endpoint security in this current cybersecurity landscape. 

With the number of successful cyber attacks increasing every year, businesses and organizations are getting to realize the importance of a structured cybersecurity approach, with endpoint protection a vital part.

Organizations must evaluate their vulnerabilities, and fashion a profound solution to tackle the believed vulnerabilities.

Let’s say you want to ensure maximum security for the users on your network or perhaps you have teams working remotely, and you don’t want them to encounter any problem gaining access to your company network, then you need to be on the lookout for endpoint security software and vendors to benefit from the all-round protection against cyber threats they offer.

Like any other software purchase, it’s quite daunting to pick the right endpoint security vendor to go with from the limitless number of considerations out there on the internet. For you to navigate swiftly through the world of security vendors, we’ve put together a list of things to consider when picking endpoint security software.

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Evaluate your needs and wants

This is the first step in picking the right endpoint security software for your company. Your business does have unique needs and it is best to talk with your managers and other decision-makers to understand what your business needs are and what you want from endpoint security vendors.

  1. The bigger your organization, the larger the number of endpoints. Making capacity and scalability factors to consider, because your endpoint security software must be able to handle a large number of users if you run a large organization.
  2. The sector to which a company belongs may also influence their choice of endpoint security software. Each sector has specific regulatory requirements when securing data.
  3. Budget is also a factor to consider when evaluating your wants. Many companies are forced to compromise security features when making budget considerations. While medium and small-sized companies make a small budget that will accelerate their growth and enable them to overcome business challenges, large companies on the other hand often have the financial ability to invest heavily in securing their endpoints. 

Understand Basic Features

When considering endpoint security solutions for your business, you just have to make sure you have all the requirements so you can know what to look out for. Below are the options you should look out for when trying to pick a vendor.

  1. Policy management: This feature allows you to establish user hierarchies and a baseline for security across all the devices connected to your network.
  2. Threat detection: One of the simplest features of endpoint security software is threat detection. This tool detects and blocks cyber-attacks coming from websites, emails, software applications, social media platforms and the likes, ensuring that the company network is safe for its users at all times.
  3. Admin portals: This tool serves as the command centre for your network’s protection. It simply lets you know who, where and the devices that are connected to your network. In short, this feature puts you in control.

Evaluate the types of endpoint protection

Before picking an endpoint security solution, it’s important to evaluate the software’s capabilities, how it works and the types of threats it protects against. Below are some of the available solutions and how they protect against cyber-attacks.

  1. Application Control: While making use of its features like blacklisting, whitelisting and greylisting, application control controls what an application can do.
  2. Network Access Control: Network access control leverage a set of protocols to implement policies for controlling what devices and users can access on the internet.
  3. URL Filtering: This usually helps prevent end-users from accessing untrusted websites or websites full of potentially unsafe content.
  4. Anti-virus: This is the most basic protection you can provide for your end-user devices. They are designed to detect and protect devices against malicious applications.

Decide between cloud-based or on-premise security option

Trying to choose between a cloud and an on-premise security solution can be daunting since they both have substantial benefits. 

Cloud-based security option offers security management from a device that has full internet connectivity. Cloud-based security option offers flexibility and is much easier to manage, while an on-premise option, on the other hand, has all its data hosted in a place. So, if you need a faster and responsive transmission or perhaps the security policy of your company wants more control over the data and process, and on-premise security option may be the right solution for you.

Test and Compare products

Comparing endpoint vendors should be the last step to take when trying to choose the right endpoint security for your security needs. Most endpoint security vendors offer the free version/trial of their product. It is essential to test the software before you make a purchase.

Running the trial version of the software allows you to determine the effectiveness of the security solution. Some software solutions, after protecting your business from cyber threats, do compromise on business continuity. However, it is important to compare products and also look out for customer testimonials while testing them.

Final Thoughts

Implementing a structured cybersecurity solution is a key step to ensuring maximum protection for your organization’s endpoints against possible cyber threats. However, picking your endpoint security software can be quite daunting, because there’s a limitless number of options out there. Just carefully examine the tips laid out so you can stand the chance to choose the right vendor for your endpoint security needs.

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