Explained: Unified Endpoint Security (UES)

Ditch siloed tools and manual workflows! Learn how Unified Endpoint Security simplifies threat detection and response across all your devices. Maximize protection, boost efficiency, & cut costs.

Unified endpoint security (UES) is an evolving approach focused on converging multiple endpoint security capabilities into a single, integrated platform. UES is designed to enhance endpoint security management by streamlining the remediation workflow. After an attack has been detected, the platform can automatically take steps to remediate the threat and address the underlying issues that made it possible.

To accomplish these goals, UES combines capabilities from multiple endpoint security solutions. These include endpoint protection platforms (EPP), endpoint detection and response (EDR), and mobile threat detection (MTD).

The Need for Unified Endpoint Security

Endpoint security has become an increasingly complex challenge for most organizations. Modern companies have diverse endpoints to protect, including laptops, servers, mobile devices, and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. Additionally, the rise of cloud computing and the growth of remote work mean that these devices are increasingly distributed. These factors combine to increase the difficulty of managing endpoint security. As a result, companies have a growing number of insecure endpoints in their networks.

UES helps companies to keep up with the growing endpoint security challenge. Integrating endpoint security functions and centralizing management provides useful context and reduces inefficient manual processes that slow endpoint threat detection and response.

Key Features of Unified Endpoint Security

Unified endpoint security integrates the security capabilities that organizations need to protect their endpoints. This includes integrating the following three solutions:

• Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP): EPP solutions are designed to identify and block various threats targeting corporate endpoints, such as ransomware and other malware. 
• Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR): EDR solutions provide security teams with enhanced visibility into endpoints and offer the ability to investigate successful cyberattacks against an organization’s endpoints.
• Mobile Threat Detection (MTD): MTD provides cybersecurity for mobile devices, offering protection against threats exploiting unique features and risks.

Benefits of Unified Endpoint Security

The primary goal of UES is integration – bridging the gaps between an organization’s various endpoint security products. This provides multiple potential benefits to an organization, including the following:

• Improved Endpoint Visibility: UES integrates security across an organization’s entire fleet of diverse endpoints. By centralizing device management and threat detection, UES provides more comprehensive, cohesive visibility than is possible with an array of point security solutions. 
• Enhanced Endpoint Security: Unifying multiple endpoint solutions in a single tool eliminates potential security gaps and silos. With more consistent coverage, an organization can better detect and remediate potential cyber threats to its endpoints. 
• Greater Efficiency: UES reduces an organization’s reliance on manual processes by combining multiple endpoint security functions into a single solution. Doing so enhances the efficiency of the corporate security team and enables them to manage an expanding workload more effectively. 
• Reduced TCO: UES can reduce both CapEx and OpEx for a corporate endpoint security program. Solution integration eliminates the need to acquire multiple independent point security products, and the improved efficiencies gained via UES reduce operational expenditures. 
• Mobile Security: Many endpoint security products are focused on traditional endpoints and may not support mobile devices. UES integrates MTD, enabling an organization to monitor and secure mobile systems from the same platform it uses to manage the rest of its devices.

Unified Endpoint Security (UES) vs. Unified Endpoint Management (UEM)

Unified endpoint management (UEM) and UES are designed to centralize endpoint device management. However, they have different capabilities and areas of focus. UEM solutions are designed for general endpoint management. These solutions enable organizations to configure and manage their fleet of endpoints at scale.

UES borrows some of the management capabilities of UEM but focuses more on security. These solutions aim to identify and block cybersecurity threats while using UEM management capabilities to address the underlying vulnerabilities and configuration issues.

Unified Endpoint Security with Check Point Harmony

Endpoint security is a vital component of any corporate cybersecurity strategy. Endpoints are a common target for cybercriminals and, with the growth of remote work and BYOD programs, represent a significant and expanding part of an organization’s digital attack surface.

UES provides corporate security teams the tools to address their expanding endpoint security duties. By integrating multiple key security capabilities in a single platform, UES eliminates inefficiencies and enables consistent threat detection and response across an organization’s endpoints.