Start-Up Secure

CHAPTER FOUREndpoint Protection

The quieter you become, the more you hear.

– Ram Dass

YOUR LAPTOP, DESKTOP, CLOUD ENVIRONMENT, smartphone, and tablet are integral parts to running a successful business. Checking email and social media, getting on conference calls with prospective clients and investors, and presenting your business plan to investors are just some of the critical tasks we use these devices for.

For any start-up, or even a one-hundred-year-old business, these pieces of technology are a requirement, not an option. Clients, investors, and vendors expect a prompt reply to an email or returned phone call for voicemail. The success of your business can hinge on a $200 smartphone and $80-per-month business Internet connection with Wi-Fi.

It is crucial to protect these devices as well as the data on them and the data they have access to. Threats today are well beyond the scope of traditional antivirus we all know well, like the Symantecs of the world. Antivirus as we know it has for the past 20 years been primarily based on simple pattern matching and heuristic analysis that could detect new viruses that may use similar components of software code as other viruses. This worked very well for years; however, the threats of today are far more advanced, skilled, and capable. These methods fall short to even protect against common ransomware. Figure 4.1 shows where endpoint security started several decades ago and where it is today.^1,2

FIGURE 4.1 Diagram Showing the ...