Enhancing Your Endpoint Security: A Comprehensive Guide
Endpoint security has been a vital aspect of IT systems for decades, evolving to keep pace with the ever-changing cyber threat landscape. In 2025, the focus is on Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) and Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP), two technologies that offer robust protection against cyber threats.
EDR, developed as a response to the limitations of traditional antivirus, is an essential tool for organizations seeking top-tier endpoint security solutions. EDR can intervene and prevent the threat from executing if a detection is confirmed. It records critical activities on an endpoint and stitches those activities together to identify behaviours, including process executions, command line activity, running services, network connections, and file manipulation.
Contemporary EDR solutions have improved their ability to alert only on important detections and allow for in-depth alert tuning. EDR includes a series of analytics that run across recorded actions to identify behaviours deemed suspicious or malicious.
On the other hand, EPP, which builds off what was seen as the best aspects of both EDR and antivirus, monitors the endpoint for known-bad activity and uses a variety of detection approaches. EPP automates the prevention of endpoint threats, taking the burden off security and IT teams. Modern endpoint protection leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to identify previously unseen malicious and anomalous activity based on behaviour analysis.
The benefits of endpoint security are manifold. It protects all endpoints within a network or organization, securing devices in an age of hybrid and remote work. It offers more sophisticated threat protection, detection, and response. It protects users' identities or credentials which may be present on an endpoint, and it safeguards valuable data, operational functions, and access points to a broader network an endpoint offers.
In 2025, leading companies offering the most modern endpoint security solutions include Fortinet, CrowdStrike, Trend Micro, Seqrite, and Stellar Cyber. These companies represent the forefront of advanced endpoint cybersecurity technologies globally.
The strength of perimeter security has weakened in the age of "bring your own device" and "work from anywhere," increasing the importance of security on endpoint devices. With 84% of organizations surveyed currently utilizing next-generation endpoint security solutions, and 49% of organizations using more than one, it's clear that endpoint security is a crucial component of any tech stack and overall strategy.
The primary goal of endpoint security is to protect endpoints from cyber threats like malware, phishing, and unauthorized access. Endpoints, defined as devices beyond just desktops and laptops, such as servers, virtual machines, mobile devices, Internet of Things (IoT) technology, operational technology (OT), and more, are where most security incidents will land at some phase of the attack.
Zero trust models, which require ongoing verification of devices and users, are becoming central to endpoint security strategies. Having EDR in place can reduce the cost of a data breach by $185,533, according to the IBM Cost of a Data Breach 2024.
In conclusion, endpoint security is a vital aspect of any IT system, and EDR and EPP are key technologies in the fight against cyber threats in 2025. With the increasing complexity of IT systems and the evolving cyber threat landscape, these technologies are more important than ever.
