It’s Time to Look Differently at Device Security

It’s easy to write blogs about the challenges we face in our industry. They are pretty easy to name – fragmentation, complexity, the need for a holistic defense strategy that is cohesively managed. As the sprawl of new types of connected devices widens, the challenge of protecting them seems to only grow more complicated. But I am a person who likes to see positive in any situation, and I think it’s time we looked at some of the issues facing the security as opportunities instead.

Opportunity 1: It’s time to invest differently in additional security

You may have noticed that some modern devices now include enhanced security controls where adding signature-based anti-malware is no longer required, just like you do not need to buy aftermarket seatbelts for a new car.  But there could be advanced security defenses you do want that are not included.  It’s all in how you invest in additional security.  Modern operating environments, like Microsoft Windows 10 or Amazon Web Services (AWS), now include good baseline security defenses.  The best strategy is to actively leverage and manage these native security controls and augment them with advanced defenses specifically targeting evolving threats that evade the baseline security.

Opportunity 2:  It’s all about your viewpoint, and it needs to be centralized

The future of device security isn’t going to be just about the specific tech du-jour that you can cram onto the device.  It’s going to be about achieving a management and risk analytic experience that delivers a centralized point of understanding and action. Even if you have the best collection of endpoint products, having to log into different consoles to manage native security, next-gen protection, mobile, servers, clouds, etc. adds a layer of complexity you don’t need.  With a mix of both modern and older legacy devices in your environment, the investment in security shifts to how you can efficiently manage the variety of security products and controls across all devices in your environment.

Opportunity 3: Staying up-to-date doesn’t have to be a burden

Outdated software is more likely to have flaws that can be exploited.  Security gaps are often more prevalent in older software, which may not even be supported anymore by the vendor.  We all have or know someone that keeps repairing a car and it gets to a point that it is time for a new car.  The same goes for software – new models come out, and while developers may “patch” old versions for awhile, they come to a point that they stop and focus on new versions.  Managing and updating old software can put a strain on even the best IT team.  However, ensuring that you are always up to date doesn’t have to be a burden.  The shift to SaaS security eliminates the need to maintain complex on-premise infrastructure and provides better choices to keep client products up-to-date, automatically or in a scheduled upgrade plan.

These are just some of the opportunities we are bringing to our customers.  We’re leading a new way forward with McAfee MVISION, significantly simplifying cyber defense by instrumenting both native security controls and McAfee-developed countermeasures across a broad variety of device types. We are also integrating management of multiple devices types into a single threat protection workflow, and enabling always up-to-date security with our new MVISION ePO SaaS service.

The McAfee MVISION portfolio allows you to adopt modern devices without unnecessarily duplicating their built-in base security functions or requiring multiple consoles. It also gives you a single point of visibility and control to defend your critical assets and older devices that require more comprehensive defenses. And it’s doing this across more than just traditional OS-based endpoints; it also includes mobile, servers and embedded IoT. The result is an optimized security, performance and management experience where you have the flexibility to deploy the countermeasures that meet your specific and evolving needs.

Ready to learn more? Watch our webinar: Business Resilience Requires a Defensive High Ground.

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Story added 20. August 2018, content source with full text you can find at link above.


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