Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies and remote work have expanded the number of devices touching company networks far beyond the corporate perimeter. Every laptop, phone, or personal system that connects to business resources is a point that an attacker can try to exploit.
A recent survey revealed that 65% of remote work employees admit to taking cybersecurity shortcuts on their personal devices, and 36% of those say they routinely delay software updates. That reality is what makes endpoint security a critical component in protecting your organization’s data and network infrastructure from security threats and data breaches.
This guide will explore the critical endpoint protection strategies to help IT reduce risk and manage dispersed devices, strengthening your overall posture.
Key takeaways
- A complete endpoint inventory is the foundation for securing devices. Identify every endpoint, including managed, unmanaged, BYOD, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, to detect gaps and prioritize protections.
- Software solutions, like managed detection and response (MDR), help deliver real-time threat detection and response, while unified endpoint management (UEM) centralizes policy enforcement and device oversight.
- Implementing least privilege access and multi-factor authorization (MFA) can minimize the risk of compromised accounts by restricting permissions and requiring identity verification.
- Patch management and automation close common vulnerabilities and reduce response times by keeping systems current and streamlining remediation.
- Continuous employee training, incident response planning, and effective security policy implementation can strengthen defenses where technology alone cannot.
1. Perform an endpoint inventory
A solid endpoint protection strategy begins with IT asset management. Without full visibility into every device on your network, defending against threats is nearly impossible. Mapping your environment is the first step toward stronger security.
Start by identifying all managed and unmanaged endpoints across your environment. This includes company-issued laptops, employee-owned mobile devices (BYOD), IoT devices, remote desktops, and anything else connected to your network. Once you’ve mapped your assets, categorize them by risk level, user access, and criticality to business operations.
A complete inventory allows IT teams to prioritize software updates and perform proactive lifecycle management on all devices. This helps align operational and security goals and lays the groundwork for advanced solutions like an endpoint protection platform (EPP) or endpoint detection and response (EDR).
2. Use managed detection and response
MDR solutions build on EDR by adding 24/7 continuous monitoring, threat detection, and incident support for real-time threat mitigation and management. Unlike traditional antivirus tools that focus on known threats, MDR analyzes behavior to detect anomalies, which are often the first sign of suspicious activity. What’s more, managed EDR enables organizations to offload the burden of being the product expert. Security analysts responding to threats can fully leverage the solutions, offering IT providers peace of mind.
Beyond detection, MDR equips IT teams to investigate and contain threats quickly. By combining EDR features with a fully staffed security operations center (SOC), incidents can be addressed with deeper context, human-led triage, and accelerated response times.
3. Implement the principle of least privilege
The principle of least privilege (PoLP) limits each user, application, or process to the minimum permissions required to perform its job. This approach is a core component of an effective endpoint protection strategy because it reduces attack surfaces and contains potential data breaches.
When privileges are too broad, attackers can move laterally through a network or exfiltrate data far beyond the initial entry point. A practical safeguard is to deny administrative rights to standard users by default and grant them only when necessary. And even then, access is time-bound and tightly controlled.
Implementing solutions like privileged access management (PAM) identity and access management (IAM) software can be an effective endpoint protection strategy for IT teams looking to bolster security and operational efficiency via automated processes.
4. Utilize unified endpoint management
Managing today’s distributed device networks requires more than manual oversight. Unified endpoint management (UEM) centralizes the control of all endpoints into a single, cohesive solution. It’s one of the most scalable and effective endpoint protection strategies available to IT teams.
With UEM, IT teams can monitor device performance, enforce security policies, and automate critical tasks like patching and application updates, all without toggling between tools. This reduces time spent on manual work and frees teams to focus on higher-value initiatives.
UEM also supports proactive issue resolution by providing real-time insights into device health and usage patterns. Whether onboarding new devices, enforcing compliance, or scaling operations, UEM gives IT the control and consistency needed to protect endpoints at scale.
5. Automate patch management and vulnerability remediation
Outdated software and application patches are low-hanging fruit for cybercriminals, and the cost of ignoring them can be massive. In 2024, for example, Change Health suffered a $2.9 billion data breach traced to unpatched software. Vulnerabilities in commonly used software present a real risk to organizations of all sizes.
Automating this process via vulnerability management and patch management software allow IT providers to regularly scan endpoints for missing patches and known vulnerabilities, then prioritize remediation based on severity and potential impact. Automating this process can significantly reduce time-to-patch and lower the chance of exploitation.
Rigorously keeping all systems (OS, applications, and drivers) up to date closes gaps that cybercriminals often use to gain a foothold within your network. When deployed with other strategies like MDR and UEM, patch management is vital to a defense-in-depth approach.
6. Implement strong access controls and multi-factor authentication
Even the strongest cybersecurity measures can’t prevent a compromised password from letting an attacker walk right in. That’s why enforcing access controls and layering in multi-factor authentication (MFA) is another potent endpoint protection strategy for any organization.
Access controls ensure users only have permissions relevant to their role, similar to least privilege. Segmenting access and requiring elevated privileges for sensitive systems enables IT teams to quickly minimize damage if any particular account is compromised.
MFA adds an extra layer of defense by requiring users to verify their identity through a second method, such as a text message, authenticator app, or biometric scan. Even if credentials are stolen, the extra step of MFA makes unauthorized access significantly harder and protects against phishing attacks or weak login credentials.
7. Mandate security awareness training
Technology and tactics alone won’t stop every attack. People remain a common entry point in your endpoint security. So much so that human error is tied to 95% of data breaches. That makes employee training an essential endpoint protection strategy.
Employees need to understand common threats like social engineering, unsafe downloads, and poor cyber hygiene. Routine role-specific training and testing promote a security-first culture that empowers your team to recognize risks and respond appropriately, reducing the chance of accidental compromise.
8. Leverage mobile device management
We’ve touched on how remote work and BYOD policies increase the number of devices touching company data. Mobile device management (MDM) is the practical countermeasure, bringing personal and portable devices under the same security umbrella as company-owned hardware.
With MDM, IT teams can remotely configure settings, enforce encryption, manage app permissions, and wipe data from lost or stolen devices. These controls extend endpoint protections into the mobile space, ensuring BYOD adoption doesn’t leave behind unmanaged gaps.
Incorporating MDM into your broader endpoint protection strategies allows you to extend visibility and control to the portable devices your employees use daily, closing a major attack vector in today’s hybrid work environments.
9. Leverage automation
Endpoint protection strategies require speed and consistency, two areas where manual effort alone often falls short. Automation addresses this by handling routine security tasks like patch deployment, incident detection, and remediation. The result is faster response times and fewer mistakes from manual oversight. Automating patch deployment and compliance checks reduces mean time to remediate (MTTR) and eliminates human error from routine security tasks.
Modern endpoint management solutions bring automation directly into daily security workflows. For example, tasks like enforcing compliance baselines or triggering alerts for anomalous behavior can run in the background, giving IT teams more bandwidth to focus on deeper threat analysis and strategic planning.
10. Incident response and remediation
No endpoint protection plan is complete without an incident response (IR) strategy. When an endpoint incident occurs, fast action can be the difference between a minor disruption and a full-scale breach. A comprehensive endpoint protection strategy must include a combination of proactive and reactive solutions for end-to-end data protection.
An effective incident response plan outlines clear steps for identifying, containing, and resolving security events. Typically, the first stage of your IR plan involves isolating affected endpoints. Next, build protocols for notifying stakeholders and conducting a root cause analysis to see how the attacker got in and what they did. Third, your plan will outline how to restore network systems safely.
Within these phases, your IR plan also defines the roles and escalation paths of key team members to ensure a coordinated response.
Unfortunately, cyber incidents can’t always be avoided. But every breach offers lessons. Folding those lessons back into policies, training, and technology helps reduce the chance of repeat incidents and steadily strengthens your endpoint protection strategies over time.
Layering endpoint protection strategies for maximum protection
There’s no single tool that can stop every endpoint threat. The most resilient defenses come from layering multiple endpoint protection strategies. A layered approach blends prevention and response across teams and technology, creating a security posture that’s both proactive and adaptable.
ConnectWise offers a comprehensive suite of endpoint management, cybersecurity, and data protection solutions, which combine to provide end-to-end protection across your entire IT infrastructure.
- ConnectWise RMM centralizes endpoint monitoring and management into a unified dashboard, combining powerful features like automated patch management, remote support, and network monitoring and management.
- ConnectWise MDR helps identify and contain attacks before escalation through a combination of 24/7 monitoring, threat detection, and human-led incident response, powered by our expert SOC team.
Learn more about how ConnectWise cybersecurity and data protection solutions provide IT with the critical tools needed to protect and detect endpoint threats.
