The weakest link in a chain is often the bit at the end. In the case of cybersecurity, the very weakest link is usually the human operating a device, but the device itself can sometimes come a very close second.
In technical terms, the device used by an end-user is known as an endpoint and these days endpoints can come in a whole variety of forms with mobile devices now joining the ranks of laptops and desktops as core business devices. This means that they are potentially vulnerable to a huge range of cyber threats.
Standard precautions such as installing security software and educating users are both necessary and helpful, but on their own, they are no longer enough, at least not in a commercial environment. This is why managed endpoint security services have become a major industry.
If you’re interested in using managed endpoint security services, here is a quick guide to what you need to know to choose between managed endpoint security services in Sacramento, CA.
First of all, make sure that any managed endpoint security service is in Sacramento, CA
When you are looking for a managed endpoint security service in Sacramento, CA, one of the earliest points you should check is that a company is actually (physically and legally) located in Sacramento, CA, or at the very least, near Sacramento, CA, rather than just offering services in the Sacramento, CA area. Staying local will ensure that you are your chosen managed endpoint security service will be operating to the same set of local laws and under the jurisdiction of the same set of local courts.
Secondly, make sure that a company has specific expertise in managed endpoint security
Managed endpoint security is a specific niche of managed IT security, which in turn is a specific niche of managed IT in general. This means that you may come across some companies which focus specifically on managed endpoint security and others that offer it as one of a range of managed IT security services. Neither of these approaches is necessarily better or worse than the other, what matters is that any given provider has the relevant expertise.
Thirdly, check what levels of service a given company can offer
A lot of the time, finding the right managed IT partner for your organization starts with you defining your needs and wants and prioritizing the latter. Choosing a managed endpoint security service provider is a bit different in that it’s already quite a specialized niche with relatively little room for variation. Having said that there is a difference between little and none, hence the importance of checking what any potential managed endpoint security service provider can offer.
For example, the core business of any managed endpoint security service is going to be monitoring endpoints and some managed endpoint security services may offer this as a standalone service. In this situation managed endpoint security services will work in a roughly similar way to standard managed IT security in that the managed endpoint security service will simply monitor for potential threats (albeit probably to a much higher standard than you could have managed yourself), but if they find anything, they will simply alert you and leave it to you to decide what (if anything) to do (or offer to help for an extra fee).
In many cases, however, managed endpoint security services can offer much more, in which case you will need to check whether or not they offer different service packages so you can choose the one which best fits your needs (possibly using add-on services to boost your protection as required) or if there is just one service package and you just choose what extra services you want to bolt on to it. Again, neither of these approaches is right or wrong, it’s all about choosing what works for you.
Typical examples of value-add services can include kill-chain visualization (basically a way to help identify the root cause of an attack and, if relevant, its movement across endpoints), user activity logging, data forensics, change management, and even lifecycle management.
For the sake of completeness, effective lifecycle management is crucial to endpoint security as there is a limit as to how often devices can be updated to support fixes to known vulnerabilities and to benefit from general improvements in security. Once this limit is reached, your security will become increasingly compromised unless you issue the user with a new device (or insist that they get one themselves if you’re operating a bring-your-own-device environment).
If you’re interested in learning more about managed endpoint security services in Sacramento, please click here now to contact Aperio.IT.
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