Archive for the ‘endpoint security’ Category

Building an ROI Case for Endpoint Security Management

Thursday, August 13th, 2009 by clear-blue-security

Endpoint security management is the IT equivalent to ditch digging. Its dirty, sweaty, monotonous and thankless work better left to minimum wage earners with brawn, not maximum wage earners with brain.

OK, so maybe changing the ink jet cartridge is more depressing, but, endpoint security management doesn’t rank much higher.

IT organizations are working to get away from administrative tasks and would like to spend more time on analysis, end-user productivity and supporting strategic objectives of the business. Despite agreeing that jobs like endpoint security management are better left to automation, getting upper management to spend money on automation tools isn’t easy in the current economic environment.

How can an IT administrator justify implementing an endpoint security management solution?

In a study performed by the Aberdeen Group (as a disguised sales pitch for Symantec), it was determined that at least $243 per endpoint per year (26% of total cost of endpoint ownership) is spent on support costs; reinstallation, reimaging and recovery; endpoint security and compliance; and endpoint management.

There is a lot of room for cost savings by proactively managing endpoint security fundamentals and eliminating these events.

Get the full story here: http://networkresourcesblog.com/2009/08/securing-and-managing-the-endpoints-the-case-for-convergence/

One of the biggest gaps reported between ‘best in class’ companies and the industry standard was the ability to have centralized visibility and reporting of endpoint software and hardware configuration. Monitoring the security state of each endpoint is the first step in eliminating the root cause of security incidents.

Clear Blue Security made it easy to say “Yes!” to centralized endpoint security management as the worlds first 100% free endpoint security management solution.

Protect your endpoints today.  Download Clear Blue Security’s Endpoint Security management software for free.

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Are There Chinks in Your Endpoint Security Protection Armor?

Thursday, August 6th, 2009 by clear-blue-security

Being an Antivirus vendor is tough business. Even giants like Symantec have trouble keeping up now and then.

In a comparative lab test conducted by Virus Bulletin this month, 35 antivirus products were run through a battery of tests in a Vista SP2 testing environment including virus scanning and avoiding false positives.

Get the full story here: Virus Bulletin

12 products failed the test (~30%). Among the failures was the enterprise Symantec Endpoint Security protection product. The company described the failure as a rare and obscure virus that has not been reported by any customers. However, it raises questions about vendors being able to keep-up with an ever-changing list of environment updates.

Clear Blue Security is an endpoint security protection product that can work inside a heterogeneous antivirus network, avoiding the cost and commitment to a single vendor. And in times of uncertain performance, Clear Blue Security allows users to switch antivirus vendors without an expensive detachment process.

Protect your endpoints today.  Download Clear Blue Security’s Endpoint Security protection software for free.

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Without Automation is Endpoint Security Management Possible?

Monday, August 3rd, 2009 by clear-blue-security

The war cry of IT managers today is, “I want my team to provide services, not be mechanics.”

IT professionals are working their way out of the trenches as companies focus on leveraging technology to save money and deliver more solutions faster. But do company owners understand the soft costs of mis-managing the talent pool?

Using intelligent and expensive resources to perform rudimentary tasks seems counterproductive in most organizations. And, as the role of IT becomes critical path to the business mission, IT professionals are expected to continuously evolve and manage more with less.

Automation promises a way for the IT department to scale manpower and simplify laborious tasks that take away from design and implementation responsibilities. Endpoint security management is a good example of a task best left to an automated system.

It is impractical for most companies to assign a full-time resource to manually monitor every endpoint to ensure security compliance. By using an automated endpoint security management tool like Clear Blue Security, endpoints are monitored real-time even when outside the network.

In a recent survey conducted by Clear Blue Security on 125 small and medium sized businesses, 100% of the businesses exhibited critical security vulnerabilities on the network. A majority of the threats were “elementary” and could have been easily avoided if an effective monitoring and detection system were in place.

“Most small and medium sized companies have basic security measures in place. A firewall and antivirus are par for the course.” comments John Sirvydas, CTO of Clear Blue Security. “We find most problems in the configuration of endpoint security tools. An endpoint security management system is required in resource constrained and complex networks to ensure the tools are updated and running properly.”

Protect your endpoints today.  Download Clear Blue Security’s Endpoint Security management software for free.

 

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Endpoint security is critical for millions of businesses around the world. What about yours?

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 by clear-blue-security

What is endpoint security software?

Endpoint security software is a centrally-managed software system that protects end-user devices such as laptops, PC’s, Smart phones, PDA’s, POS terminals and more. Endpoint security systems are hosted on a server or gateway, and installed on every endpoint or user device that connects to the business network.

Why is endpoint security software important?

Today’s business environment has changed drastically over the last decade.  As businesses expand, they require more and more users to access their corporate network.  Employees, contractors, strategic partners and others consistently access network data via remote locations, LANs or wireless connections.  These types of access points create a windfall of potential entry points for security threats to infiltrate the network.  This makes it increasingly difficult for IT managers to protect the network from worms, Trojans, spyware and other malicious code that can threaten business continuity, compromise data, jeopardize productivity and require costly and time-consuming incident remediation.

Clear Blue Security™ monitors your company’s endpoint security status and lets you know how to solve any problems it detects using the following agents:

  • Unapproved Software: Ensure that all software applications installed on your computer networks are approved by your company’s security policy.
  • Suspicious Traffic: Detect abnormal traffic on your network that could indicate an attempt to access or manipulate your computers.
  • Intrusion Vulnerability: Identify open ports or other undesired access points that could put your network at risk of intrusion.
  • Malware Protection: Protect your network by ensuring antivirus and other endpoint security software are installed, updated and functioning properly on all computers.
  • Updates & Patches: Assure all critical security updates and patches are installed, with Microsoft’s minimum protection.
  • Security Practices: Ensure all your computers are configured and used in accordance with best practices for network security.
  • Clear Blue Agents: Monitor your endpoint security status and lets you know how to solve any problems it detects.
  • Virtual Security Assistant: Provide 24/7 security for your entire network at a fraction of the cost of human domain experts.

Protect your network today. Download your free trial of Clear Blue Security’s Endpoint Security software.

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Posted in application security, clear blue security, computer network monitoring, computer security, data projection, endpoint security, intrusion detection, it security, network monitoring, network security monitoring, network vulnerability monitoring | No Comments »

How important is Endpoint Security?

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 by clear-blue-security

How important is Endpoint Security? A recent study shows that 100% of participating companies were infected with malware. What about yours?

A recent security threat assessment uncovered that active malware and threats reside undetected on corporate networks and endpoints on 100% of all participating companies from North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific. The participating companies average over 11,000 employees in industries like finance, healthcare, education, manufacturing and government.

The study, taking place between October 2008 and June 2009, performed over 100 assessments on enterprises worldwide and discovered that:

  • 100% were infected with active malware
  • 50% had at least one data-stealing malware hidden in their network
  • 45% had multiple data-stealing malware infections
  • 72% had at least 1 IRC bot
  • 50% had 4 or more IRC bots
  • 83% had at least 1 malware web download
  • 60% had more than 20 malware web downloads
  • 35% had at least 1 network worm

What caused these network security intrusions?  Without endpoint security solutions, network security intrusions are inevitable.  There are many ways for malware and other viruses to infiltrate corporate networks.  Here are a few examples:

  • Mobile users frequently log on and off the business network using devices that are already infected, compromising network security.
  • Businesses employ inadequate remote security solutions, lack onsite IT personnel, and fail to enforce security policies.
  • Employees use easily exploited technologies such as P2P, file sharing, streaming media and instant messaging.

Clear Blue Security™ monitors your company’s endpoint security status and lets you know how to solve any problems it detects using the following agents:

  • Unapproved Software: Ensure that all software applications installed on your computer networks are approved by your company’s security policy.
  • Suspicious Traffic: Detect abnormal traffic on your network that could indicate an attempt to access or manipulate your computers.
  • Intrusion Vulnerability: Identify open ports or other undesired access points that could put your network at risk of intrusion.
  • Malware Protection: Protect your network by ensuring antivirus and other endpoint security software are installed, updated and functioning properly on all computers.
  • Updates & Patches: Assure all critical security updates and patches are installed, with Microsoft’s minimum protection.
  • Security Practices: Ensure all your computers are configured and used in accordance with best practices for network security.
  • Clear Blue Agents: Monitor your endpoint security status and lets you know how to solve any problems it detects.
  • Virtual Security Assistant: Provide 24/7 security for your entire network at a fraction of the cost of human domain experts.

Protect your network today. Download your free trial of Clear Blue Security’s Endpoint Security software.

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Posted in application security, computer network monitoring, computer security, data projection, endpoint security, intrusion detection, network monitoring, network security monitoring, network vulnerability monitoring | No Comments »