When an endpoint connects to your company’s network, you want to make sure it’s secure and won’t introduce malware or viruses into the system. Most companies scan every endpoint before it’s allowed to connect, but what happens when an endpoint isn’t secure? How can the company still protect itself while allowing everyone to connect?
That’s where endpoint remediation comes in, allowing you to “fix” endpoints before they connect to your network and introduce vulnerabilities to the system. But without a well-defined remediation process, just one vulnerable endpoint could lead to a data breach.
What Is Endpoint Remediation?
Endpoint remediation is the identification, isolation, and remediation of “issues” on every endpoint on your network, including laptops, mobile devices, and servers. “Issues” can include known vulnerabilities that need a patch, removing malware, updating outdated software and third-party applications, and bringing misconfigured devices in line with current operational configurations.
Ultimately, the goal of endpoint remediation is to get every device back to a secure, compliant, and functional state to ensure every device runs efficiently and remains secure.
Why Endpoint Remediation Is Critical
Controlling every endpoint that connects to the network is challenging, no matter where staff work. Monitoring and ensuring every endpoint complies with current configurations and requirements takes time and resources, and endpoints can drift out of compliance when an update or patch is missed or skipped for any reason, increasing your attack surface.
For example, let’s say your system automatically scans any company-issued endpoint that connects to the network to check its settings and configurations. A remote employee comes into the office and connects, and their laptop is flagged because it’s missing a critical security patch that addresses a zero-day vulnerability.
In this case, the endpoint remediation could mean deploying and installing the patch as quickly as possible and letting the end user know what’s happening via an automated message. If the patch doesn’t install, the IT team is notified, and they may have to manually address the situation by isolating that endpoint until it’s remediated. In both instances, remediating the issue secures the endpoint and the entire network.
How Endpoint Remediation Works
The endpoint remediation process has three basic parts: detection, decision, and action. However, each step doesn’t operate independently. One part feeds into the next, and the next, often requiring the coordination and communication between teams and tools.
Identify the Problem
First, you have to identify the problem (or problems) on an endpoint. This information comes to IT teams when:
- A monitoring tool finds something suspicious on an endpoint
- A patch management system flags an endpoint that’s missing an update
- Regular security scans find misconfigured endpoints or identify vulnerabilities
- The end user has “issues” with their endpoint and asks for help.
Assessment
Once an endpoint is flagged, the team identifies the particular vulnerability or issue with that endpoint. Not all vulnerabilities are equal, so IT assesses each risk and evaluates the threat. Is this a known vulnerability or something new? Does it impact a single device, or has it spread? Does the endpoint belong to someone who works with sensitive or critical data, like HR, finance, or engineering?
The answers to these questions (and others) help IT determine how critical the threat is and how quickly they need to deploy a fix.
Containment
If the issue could spread or has already spread to other endpoints, containment is critical. Disconnecting the affected endpoint from the network, isolating it in a sandbox, or blocking communication with external systems will contain the threat and prevent damage to the network.
Remediation
Severe threats are often remediated as soon as possible, while less serious threats can wait for the next time patches are deployed to users. No matter the threat level, vulnerabilities are usually “fixed” by:
- Installing patches
- Rolling back an update
- Removing bad files
- Updating device configurations
- Restoring a backup
Remediation can be an automated or manual process. Automated remediation is generally used for low-risk fixes, like installing a patch that’s been thoroughly tested or updating the operating system. Manual remediation is often used for higher-risk fixes, such as handling sensitive data or a new vulnerability.
Validation
Once the fix is deployed and applied, it’s critical to scan and monitor the endpoint to ensure the remediation works and the endpoint is no longer at risk. The team may run additional scans, review logs, or monitor the endpoint’s behavior to ensure the vulnerability is remediated. Without validating the fix, the threat may remain on the endpoint.
Review and Report
Finally, reviewing the incident helps the team understand what happened, why it happened, and how long the remediation took. Documenting and discussing the process helps the team refine workflows, identify security weaknesses, and provides a paper trail for any regulatory or compliance audits that may happen.
Manual vs. Automated Endpoint Remediation
As noted above, endpoint remediation can be a manual or automated process. Many companies integrate both methods into their endpoint remediation strategy as each is suitable for some, but not every, situation.
Pros and Cons of Automated Endpoint Remediation
Many companies use automated endpoint remediation to monitor and repair endpoint vulnerabilities, largely because it frees the IT team to focus on more impactful tasks. Automated tools are faster and more scalable than manual remediation processes. They can scan multiple endpoints at once and work around the clock, ensuring they are up-to-date and protected as quickly as possible. As the company grows, most automated tools scale with the growth, handling the increased headcount and endpoints with ease.
However, automated endpoint remediation is generally less flexible than manual remediation. The tool “follows the rules,” meaning it will only do what it’s programmed to do. So, while most automated tools can be set to align with and enforce your configurations and settings, when faced with a situation that falls just outside those “rules,” the tool may not be able to make a nuanced or context-based decision, leaving the endpoint vulnerable.
Similarly, automated endpoint remediation tools are excellent for handling known threats and vulnerabilities but don’t perform as well when encountering a new or novel threat. It may flag something that’s harmless as critical, wasting time and resources, or ignore a serious vulnerability, increasing your attack surface.
Pros and Cons of Manual Endpoint Remediation
One of the bigger cons of manual endpoint remediation is that it’s slow, requiring one or several people to stop what they’re doing, investigate the threat, and then remediate it. The slow nature of manual remediation is also difficult to scale. Depending on how quickly a company grows, IT could do nothing but manually remediate endpoints all day.
However, manual endpoint remediation still has a place in your cybersecurity strategy. Not every threat is critical, and not every patch is appropriate for your endpoints, but an automated system may not be able to make that distinction. A human being is far better at assessing the nuances of a threat and making a judgment call about the impact any action will have on the end user or the business’s needs.
What’s more, a human is better at figuring out when a vulnerability is new. An automated system can only identify what it knows or is familiar with. It may fail to realize that something is a new threat and miss it. A human can look at a vulnerability, identify it as a novel threat, and act accordingly.
What to Look For in an Endpoint Remediation Tool
Ultimately, a sound endpoint remediation strategy uses manual and automated remediation strategies. People can make decisions tools can’t, while tools are good for speed, scaling, and handling known threats.
Real-Time Detection and Response
The tool should integrate with your existing security measures and detect threats and issues as they happen, allowing for quick remediation. The tool may deploy and install a patch or notify the team that manual intervention is necessary.
Automated Remediation
Automatically deploying patches and updates is important, but so is the ability to quarantine a device or reset an endpoint’s configuration without manual intervention. The faster an endpoint is remediated or quarantined, the less likely it is that a threat actor exploits the vulnerability.
Control and Customization
Though automation is likely why you’re investing in a tool, all automation should be customizable. Human oversight and the ability to fine-tune what the tool does gives the team the ability to set different rules for different situations and intervene when necessary.
Remote Support
Whether employees are fully remote, hybrid, or work at home on the weekends, look for a tool that remediates a device even when it’s off the network, using a VPN, or when it connects from home. The tool should be able to remediate the endpoint without interrupting the user, like when bandwidth is limited, and maintain communication through cloud-based agents, ensuring the remediation still happens even when the user isn’t directly connected to the network.
Let Adaptiva Automate and Remediate
Adaptiva’s suite of products helps IT patch and manage endpoints at scale. OneSite Health monitors and remediates every endpoint on the network, remediating out-of-compliance systems immediately, while OneSite Patch rapidly and autonomously deploys patches. Contact us today and request a demo to learn how Adaptiva can help you automate endpoint remediation.
