New research shows that cybersecurity threats are on the rise, but IT teams' confidence in their endpoint security solutions, processes, and staff is decreasing.
Adaptiva, in partnership with Cybersecurity Insiders, released The 2022 Endpoint Security Report to take a closer look at challenges and trends in endpoint security. The findings explore what organizations are prioritizing when it comes to cybersecurity protection investments and examines what desired capabilities rank high for endpoint security management.
The research paints a grim picture: 85% of surveyed companies expect a compromising security attack within the next 12 months, and many lack confidence in their ability to defend against incidents.
For most enterprise organizations, leadership and IT are on the same page. Their shared objectives? Protect company data, ensure endpoints remain secure, and keep end-users productive (in turn, reducing IT help desk calls).
Over the past few years, the rapid transition to remote and hybrid work has heightened the challenges of defending against sophisticated cyber threats, managing endpoint vulnerabilities, and scaling operations as organizations try to embrace flexibility.
Antiquated endpoint management and security products face many limitations
Endpoint management has long relied on physical server architecture. Centralized legacy systems have low resilience and are highly dependent on manual configurations. The report uncovered:
- 46% of organizations reported that previously installed legacy security products, including AV, NGAV, HIPS, and EPP are failing to stop an increasing number of evolving threats.
- 41% of organizations surveyed stated that though they believe they have solid tools and processes in place, there is still concern that threats are slipping through the defenses.
On top of the limitations of legacy models, there are several reasons for increased interest in upgrading to next-gen endpoint security solutions. Organizations are looking to gain real-time visibility, decrease rollout time for patches and incident response, improve compliance, and they want to be able to deliver critical content on-demand to fix endpoint vulnerabilities.
IT can’t act fast enough to address cybersecurity concerns
When it comes to the best line of defense against attacks, IT understands that maintaining compliance and patch systems, and managing endpoints to remove vulnerabilities is critical. But 44% of companies reported a cybersecurity skills shortage. There simply are not enough skilled, in-house resources to tackle endpoint security, management, and maintenance effectively. Companies face outdated, antiquated endpoint management systems while dealing with insufficient IT personnel (28% of organizations surveyed reported they lack detection and response capabilities).
In addition to the lack of manual capabilities:
- 79% of critical patches continue to take more than a day to roll out
- 29% of organizations say their biggest challenge is no visibility into their overall security posture
- 37% say their incident response times are insufficient
Successful endpoint attacks affect the whole business
So, what did the report reveal as one of the most significant consequences of a successful attack? Reduced productivity across the organization, with 35% of organizations reporting reduced employee productivity due to an attack.
Additionally:
- 47% of organizations reported end-user productivity as the most significant impact of endpoint attacks
- 40% recorded system downtime
- 39% experienced loss of IT productivity due to an attack
Faced with the challenges of preventing attacks and defending against new threats, organizations desperately need endpoint management tools that can boost endpoint security and match the flexibility of today’s workforce — not outdated and insufficient technology. IT needs a solution that can leverage automation, enhance security and compliance, and scale with the demands of the organization while keeping information safe.
To learn more about the cybersecurity issues facing organizations today download a copy of The 2022 Endpoint Security Report or go to adaptiva.com/2022-security-report.
