As the need for telecommuting continuously increases, securing remote and hybrid workforces has become a mounting issue. Previously, companies used trust models that relied on aspects of many features of on-premise offices. They only permitted company-managed devices on the network, required a keycard to gain physical access to the building, and approved a limited number of approved apps allowed on devices, for instance. Unfortunately, many of these security measures can’t be duplicated in a remote work environment.
Since March 2020, 90 percent of global businesses have reported that a phishing attack has impacted their organization, with nearly 30 percent admitting that they were successfully phished. While this led to an increase in security budgets, 81 percent of business leaders report that they feel pressure to lower their security expenses following the pandemic. This has left many organizations wondering how to overcome security threats without overspending.
Microsoft has provided an answer for your Endpoint protection with their Microsoft Defender for Endpoint service, which promises automated threat protection to businesses. However, Defender alone may not provide the highest standard or protection for your remote and hybrid working business. Let’s look at what Defender for Endpoint is, and how you can augment it with a Security Operations Center (SOC) to create a fortified remote work environment.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, also known as DFE, is described as a complete cloud-powered threat detection and protection system that delivers preventative protection from security threats, post-breach detection, automated investigation, and more. Upon signing up for and deploying Defender for Endpoint, organizations will receive a vulnerability assessment to help them find any gaps in their current endpoint security configuration, and gain access to an automated security platform that can monitor and flag user behavior that may indicate a breach has occurred.
The automated security measures are exceptionally valuable to a business. When Defender for Endpoint detects a security issue, it will immediately send an alert to your SOC team and begin to remediate the issue within minutes. This lightning-fast security feature scales with the size of your business, ensuring that your business is secure whether it’s large or small. Overall, this intelligent security solution offers several cutting-edge measures that will help provide round-the-clock protection for your hybrid workforce.
A Security Operations Center, also known as a SOC, is composed of highly trained Security professionals who are able to analyze and respond to various security incidents, while ensuring that your general network architecture is as secure as it should be. Typically, this team works in tandem with several advanced cyber security tools. While tools like Microsoft Defender for Endpoint provide an incredible level of automated threat detection, your SOC team provides the first (and sometimes only) line of defense against new attacks that solutions like Defender for Endpoint aren’t yet equipped to deal with.
When Defender for Endpoint creates an incident, your SOC team should immediately examine this and see if any additional actions are needed to ensure your network is secure. They’ll inspect if any data was deleted or stolen, find out how the attack happened, devise methods to prevent a similar attack from happening again, and more. In essence, they do everything that is necessary to sure up your cyber security – and while Defender for Endpoint provides constant coverage and automated detection, your SOC team handles everything that an automated solution cannot.
SoftwareOne offers access to SOC experts that will work around the clock to ensure cloud applications are secure, with special expertise for Microsoft 365 services. While in-house SOC teams clock out at the end of a 8 hour workday and only respond to pressing concerns, our SOC teams are located in offices around the globe, including India and Colombia, ensuring that someone is ready to respond to a threat the moment they emerge. Not only that, but every security service coming out of SoftwareOne carries ISO 27001 certification to help you meet the highest security and compliance standards.
We not only find gaps in your security, but take every measure possible to fix those gaps to ensure your workplace is as secure as possible. We begin by conducting a security maturity assessment, a risk assessment, or any other security assessment necessary to help you understand the current state of your security effort. Then, we’ll define policies and controls that will keep threats out of your organization by guiding the behavior of your employees. Finally, we will help your team implement the policies and controls and begin monitoring your network alongside your chosen security solution – whether it’s Microsoft Defender for Endpoint or an alternative.
Think about cyber security threats like mosquitos and consider the measures you take to prevent mosquito bites. Would you wait for them to land on you so you can swat them, or would you rather apply a strong repellent and swat the few mosquitos that make it through the repellent?
With Defender for Endpoint, you’re only going to be able to crush visible cyber security issues as they emerge – which means that sometimes, there may be a small number of threats that bypass your automated solution. However, an SOC team provides that additional layer of defence that will repel security threats before they begin by monitoring, analysing, and responding to threats – sometimes before the threats even become apparent. If your team invests in both, you’ll be on the right path to repelling and squashing threats, ensuring the security of your hybrid workforce.
Let our Managed Security Services help protect your team from the ever-increasing threat of cyber attacks.
Let our Managed Security Services help protect your team from the ever-increasing threat of cyber attacks.
