4 ways your hybrid workplace model can protect endpoint devices

With hybrid work transforming the workplace into a collaborative space that operates beyond the traditional bounds of cities, states, and countries, the way your teams work has evolved. So too have the threats your users face. From hyper-targeted phishing campaigns to data harvested from home and public networks, it’s more challenging than ever for IT teams to ensure devices, users, and data are secure, regardless of location.

Traditional perimeter-based security models won’t keep your workers safe in a hybrid workplace. The tools you leverage will make the difference between having a strategy that effectively secures your business and one that fails to keep your sensitive data out of the hands of malicious actors.

To protect your hybrid users and endpoint devices, consider these four modern security solutions:

1. “Never trust, always verify” with Zero Trust policies

To quote French philosopher Jacques Derrida’s famous word pairing, in a Zero Trust environment, everything in your ecosystem is considered “always already” breached. It’s the onus of the user to prove otherwise before they can access your organization’s resources or services.

Zero Trust policies follow a “never trust, always verify” principle, intended to prevent stolen devices, users connected to a compromised network, or malicious actors disguised as employees from disrupting your operations or stealing sensitive information. You can enforce a Zero Trust model from the ground up to close gaps and vulnerabilities across all levels of your organization, from frontline teams to C-suite executives.

While 100% Zero Trust can be difficult to achieve for many organizations, you can adopt several tools that, when working in tandem, can advance you toward your security goals. These include:

• Identity and Access Management (IAM)
• Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)
• Data Loss Prevention
• Network Microsegmentation

The best way to start developing an effective Zero Trust model is with professional, holistic assessments of your environment and security posture. With the expert visibility unlocked by these assessments, you’ll have the insight you need to choose the right tools and Zero Trust policies to prevent worst case scenarios from becoming a reality.

2. Stomp out malware with next-generation antivirus (NGAV) software

A functioning hybrid workplace can’t depend on traditional antivirus (AV) software to protect users from modern threats. AV relies on reading malware signatures within a device’s files, and while this technique could often prevent users from executing malicious programs or opening compromised files, traditional AV can seldom stop threat actors from attacking other vulnerabilities within your organization’s network. Any threat that doesn’t introduce new files won’t be detected by traditional AV.

Luckily, the next generation of antivirus is here to tackle the sophisticated threats of today’s cybersecurity landscape. NGAV leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to prevent attacks that don’t rely on files, using data analytics to detect and thwart future attacks of similar origin.

3. Enhance your threat visibility with endpoint detection and response (EDR)

Providing real-time anomaly detection, forensic analysis, and attack remediation, EDR is designed to target threats that have breached your perimeter defenses. Deploying the right EDR platform can pair naturally with the AI-driven prevention of your NGAV software.

By recording every file execution and modification, registry change, and network connection across all your endpoints, EDR enables accurate identification of suspicious activities and stops attacks before they damage your organization.

4. Broaden your protection with extended detection and response agents (XDR)

To protect your endpoints in a hybrid world, you also need a solution that secures the gambit of applications your users depend on. XDR tools use automated and AI-driven processes to extend protection not just to your endpoint devices, but also to your servers, cloud applications, emails, and more.

Because XDR tools operate across so many mediums, they can unlock holistic visibility into your threat landscape and timelines of attack, so you can learn the who, what, when, where, why, and how of future breaches – all while automatically terminating malicious actions and flagging compromised users for review.

With XDR in your security toolbox, you’ll have the power to block foreign or compromised IP addresses and mail servers, quarantine endpoint devices, and identify attacks in real time.

Hybrid workplaces require hybrid solutions

When life changes the way your teams work, you need to change how you keep them safe. With the help of trusted security experts, you can create a hybrid workplace model that keeps your endpoints secure. By cohesively integrating Zero Trust, NGAV, EDR, and XDR, you can provide comprehensive, automated, and easy-to-manage protection for all your devices and users, no matter where they’re located.

SHI’s team of cybersecurity experts leverage industry best practices and decades of experience to help you build a security model that fits your hybrid needs and adapts to whatever changes the future may hold. Ready to secure your hybrid workers? Contact one of SHI’s security experts today.