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Saturday, September 11, 2010      

The issue of security breaches once again hit the headlines in 2007 with the security incident at TK Maxx and the Nationwide laptop loss. Despite the media constantly reiterating how damaging a security breach can be, incidents like these are just the tip of the iceberg.

These announcements have thrust the security policies of UK businesses into the spotlight again. Although security is now a major remit for every business and most enterprises employ layered network security approaches for their headquarters or large offices, branch offices can often be overlooked. At the same time, branch office architectures are also evolving, inheriting more applications, service features and functions usually deployed at corporate headquarters sites.

Organisations need to take steps to protect their intellectual property and customers’ personal records by re-assessing how they approach and manage their security. IT managers shouldn’t overlook how end users can easily threaten the security of the business by introducing harmful viruses and malware to the network without even realising it.

With mobile working on the increase and more organisations opening additional branch offices, protecting this important part of the workforce should become a priority for IT departments. Many IT managers believe they have done enough to protect their systems from hackers and viruses because their head office is secure and mistakenly believe their branch offices are secure too.

According to a report from Gartner two-thirds of critical business data resides on employee workstations or notebooks and not on company servers. In addition, the analyst house reported that approximately 90 per cent of mobile devices lack the necessary security to prevent hackers from gaining access.

Facts like these demonstrate just how critical it is for enterprises to employ an approach which not only addresses remote office security but also look at how it manages its branch offices and in particular endpoint devices – desktops, notebooks and tablet computers. Without the appropriate solution in place companies run the risk of losing control and sight of their endpoints and open themselves up to attack.

The responsibility for maintaining the security of branch offices always falls to IT managers who find it extremely time consuming and expensive to create a secure environment remotely as well as manage the relevant IT assets.

The best way to reduce the security risks associated with today’s branch office management is through enterprise endpoint management. The idea behind this approach is simple and solutions are available that can streamline and automate growing IT infrastructures as well as enable IT managers to remotely build and fix problems on PCs across all locations. By implementing an effective enterprise endpoint management system it is possible to deploy security, patch management and migration functions to branch offices as well as benefit from time and cost savings.

Security

An endpoint management system creates granular policies – as many as necessary for an enterprise’s diverse user groups – that are automatically downloaded to all endpoint devices and stored in encrypted form on each device. This policy distribution capability should be able to reside outside the corporate firewall. No SSL links should be required for secure policy transfer to improve accessibility and reduce performance issues.

The solution should be self-defending, making it impossible for an end-user with administrator privileges on their machine to bypass or defeat the security policy. This must include provisions for ensuring that the user cannot disable the policy enforcement engine.

Additionally, the endpoint security solution should keep track of policy enforcement actions, as well as attempted attacks and activities, reporting back to an auditing service to ensure compliance with corporate policy as well as regulatory requirements.


Patch management and migration

IT managers can also use endpoint management technology to proactively manage patches and software updates in branch offices by automating the collection, analysis and delivery of patches across the enterprise remotely. This means IT managers no longer need to physically visit each PC to install updates.

Once required, patches are identified and distribution wizards provide automated package and policy creation for easy and secure distribution of all patches and updates. The system will identify which PCs require patches and subsequently prioritise them based upon the severity of vulnerability.

By implementing this form of management, branch offices will be able to benefit from accelerated security processes and IT managers should see a reduction in the need for extended patch test cycles.

The solution can also be used by IT teams to plan future migration projects. The remote deployment functionality of endpoint management solutions can rapidly standardise all desktops and servers by automating the key processes involved in migration. It will capture and restore end users’ personality settings, reducing the average amount of downtime. The system is also perfectly placed to standardise PC configurations and systems management processes, ensuring that the branch offices are up to speed with the rest of the organisation.

Cost and time benefits

Endpoint management can also bring numerous cost and time efficiency savings to the business by consolidating security and systems management at the branch office. Organisations can benefit from the subsequent reduction in costs of administration, staff training and operations as well as improved communications and a more transparent view of the whole network.

With improved visibility of security in the branch office, IT managers can rapidly identify and react to security attacks. An enterprise endpoint management solution should effectively and efficiently balance security productivity for all users, regardless of whether they are connected to the internet or the corporate network via the head office or a branch office. On that basis, before IT managers find themselves faced with a major security threat from a branch office, they must have an endpoint management policy in place that is both secure and flexible enough to meet all future business demands.