Key Benefits of WatchGuard Endpoint Risk Monitoring

Posted November 15, 2022

We know that corporate networks are increasingly under attack by bad actors. In 2021, corporate networks witnessed 50% more attacks each week compared to the prior year. Due to this increasing threat, the cybersecurity landscape is constantly evolving. Criminals are continually searching for new ways to compromise enterprise systems and scanning for weaknesses in networks. Attempting to mitigate risk, security teams are constantly trying to plug gaps and stay a step ahead of the latest threats. Enterprise businesses with significant budgets are often targeted for large ransomware payouts and vast data but small businesses with limited security resources are feeling the brunt of the attacks. According to Accenture’s Cost of Cybercrime Study, 43% of cyber attacks are aimed at small businesses, but only 14% are prepared to defend themselves.

Of the most prominent attack vectors, insider threats and phishing are two of the largest threats. According to data from Verizon in their 2022 Data Breach Incident Report, 20% of data breaches involved an actor internal to the organization. And smishing attacks (SMS Phishing) were the most commonly reported type of cyberattack in 2021 as reported to the U.S. Internet Crime Complaint Center and Statistia. Defending against these human vulnerabilities requires a well-honed and comprehensive security implementation.

Regardless of whether attackers used an insider, social engineering (including phishing), or exploited a technical vulnerability, the result of these increasing attacks has been rising costs to victim organizations. In 2021, the US witnessed ransomware attacks on the IT Management Software company Kaseya with the ransom alone reaching $70mm, the IT consulting and services company Accenture also paid out $50mm, and CNA Financial paid $40mm in ransom. Those costs don’t include any downtime, forensic, remediation, or reputation costs. The large ransoms make great headlines, but smaller and more frequent ransoms are crippling mid-sized businesses. Average ransomware payments have been on a sharp rise from $220,298 in Q4 2020 to an average of $925,162 in 2022.

The rapidly rising cost of attacks due to ransom, downtime, and potential loss of intellectual property is driving incredible growth in the cybersecurity market. Forecasts from Grandview Research indicate the global cybersecurity market could grow from nearly $180bn in 2021 to more than $370bn by 2028 as companies simply have to spend more to protect their business. A persistent global concern, cybersecurity affects every organization from large enterprises to small local businesses across all industries. And industries affected include everything from government, education, healthcare, services, technology, manufacturing, retail, and finance.

These attacks are often enabled and left unidentified due to the difficulty IT professionals have in assessing and visualizing the health of complex IT ecosystems. An effective security implementation must enable IT staff to have real-time visibility allowing them to determine whether devices within their network have vulnerabilities that require critical patching, are not adequately protected, have weak or insufficient security settings, or whether any inappropriate or anomalous behavior within the systems indicates that complex attacks are underway. These security blindspots are often the result of non-integrated security solutions resulting in disjointed and overlapping systems. Ad-hoc security installations assembled through disparate vendors with incompatible security solutions can leave holes allowing attackers to exploit.

As hackers try to find the weakest link in your network, it is essential to reduce the risk level in every device. Security misconfigurations and software vulnerabilities are often contributing causes of attacks and can leave the door open for cybercriminals to exploit weaknesses. WatchGuard Endpoint Risk Monitoring provides the integrated visibility you need to monitor and secure every endpoint. The key benefits of Endpoint Risk Monitoring are:

Monitor endpoints constantly to strengthen cybersecurity posture and mitigate risks.
Discover laptops, computers, and servers with unpatched vulnerabilities that could be exploited.
Gain visibility into device protection status across endpoints and understand each individual risk level.
Decrease incidents by identifying risks and addressing them immediately, making the security posture more efficient.

The WatchGuard solution allows for real-time risk monitoring and the overall health status of all devices on the network running WatchGuard endpoint security solutions. In addition, on-demand executive reports provide an overview of risk status allowing security administrators to gain visibility into the exposed devices and respond before incidents escalate. Contact us to learn more.

Scott Anderson

Scott Anderson is Partner / CTO of Verus Corp. He works with mid- and large-sized companies to ensure that all of their managed IT service needs are met to their highest standards. Scott knows that giving customers exactly what they need requires flexibility and patience. He works with each department to carry out documentation and the processes of providing managed IT services. Every position that Scott has held has been largely focused on customer service. This expertise and experience means that you’ll be getting a holistic and customer-centered experience from Verus Corp, from installation to troubleshooting. Scott has provided services that have helped Verus Corp be named a Cisco Select Partner and WatchGuard Partner of the Year. Most recently, Verus Corp was named the second best place to work by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. Scott has a Bachelor’s in Speech from St. Cloud State University.