October is Cybersecurity Consciousness Month, in addition to consciousness month for a lot of different — arguably extra vital — causes, reminiscent of breast most cancers, melancholy, home violence, Down syndrome and, to not be neglected, squirrels.
As a result of endpoint safety continues to grow to be an increasing number of difficult, I believed I might share three eye-opening findings from my latest analysis to mark the event.
The analysis, which targeted on the consolidation of groups, instruments and processes to extend operational effectivity and enhance endpoint administration and safety, was an replace of a 2023 examine that was within the works after I joined Enterprise Technique Group, now a part of Omdia. Thus, we had been in a position to get significant comparisons over time. It targeted on IT and safety professionals throughout enterprise (85% of respondents) and midmarket (15%) organizations.
Key discovering 1: Endpoint administration and safety are arduous
Roughly 40% of organizations stated that endpoint administration and safety are harder right now than up to now, in comparison with roughly 27% within the 2023 examine. This improve in complexity is pushed by issues which are each not shocking and alarming directly: machine proliferation, distant and hybrid work, and a posh risk panorama.
Gadget proliferation
Components associated to machine proliferation, range and patching account for half of the highest 10 drivers of elevated complexity in endpoint administration and safety.
Let’s begin with the variety of units per consumer. On common, customers conduct work from three or 4 units frequently. This may sound like so much, nevertheless it’s fairly straightforward to get to a few units: Telephone, house machine and work machine come to thoughts. Throw in a pill and also you’re at 4. Even when it is three, that is nonetheless quite a lot of units. Give it some thought, a 500-person group may need to take care of 1,500 to 2,000 endpoints. Every of those units, if managed, wants its OS and apps patched, and every expands the safety footprint — and assault floor — of a corporation.
As for unmanaged units … properly … put a pin in that. We’ll get to it in key discovering 3.
Distant and hybrid work
Within the analysis, distant and hybrid work had been tied for second place on the checklist of things driving complexity. Regardless of all of the return-to-office information, the fact is that until all work from all customers is carried out in an workplace setting, organizations should take care of hybrid or distant work. It could be too bombastic to declare that return-to-office applications do not enhance endpoint administration and safety, however the actuality is that in virtually each state of affairs, organizations should take care of — and have a technique for — distant or hybrid work.
Advanced risk panorama
It isn’t simply the variety of units or the place they’re — the threats themselves have gotten harder to take care of.
Whereas AI gives a glimmer of hope, the fact is that unhealthy actors are utilizing AI too, which exacerbates the suggestions loop of cat-and-mouse. Couple this with a rise in endpoint vulnerabilities and the aforementioned machine range, and we will see precisely how complexity is growing.
Key discovering 2: Unmanaged units may be OK, however typically aren’t
Within the earlier analysis, we requested what number of managed and unmanaged units had been in organizations. Whereas it wasn’t shocking to study that 44% of organizations had between 1,000 and 10,000 unmanaged units, we stopped there. In our latest analysis, we requested not solely what number of units had been unmanaged, but additionally why they had been unmanaged and in the event that they had been secured by another means — for instance, VPN, zero belief, SASE, id or validated configurations.
This time, we discovered that a median of 32% of units in a corporation are unmanaged, and fewer than half of these units (41%) are secured utilizing various means — one thing I have been calling “strategically unmanaged.” This implies greater than half of unmanaged units (59%) are “unintentionally” unmanaged — a quantity that’s as scary as it’s eye-opening.
Key causes for units being unintentionally unmanaged revolve round restricted visibility into machine existence, technical limitations that stop administration, contractor or third-party units, and that recurring bugaboo: fast machine proliferation.
Useful resource constraints and complexities ensuing from many groups, instruments and processes consider as properly, however to be trustworthy, it does not matter how we obtained there. Unintentionally unmanaged units that are not secured by even the best means are a huge legal responsibility due to the unknowns they characterize: unknown units, unknown configurations, unknown states, unknown functions and unknown customers.
No marvel issues are extra complicated.
Key discovering 3: Group maturity issues
The ultimate key discovering holds a mirror as much as anybody who says endpoint administration and safety are simpler right now. We requested what number of organizations had skilled an assault resulting from “unknown, unmanaged or poorly managed endpoints,” and, shockingly, the numbers had been down considerably from the prior analysis. In 2023, a mixed 77% of respondents stated they’d skilled a number of cyberattacks, in comparison with 54% in 2025.
Earlier than we congratulate ourselves on a job properly accomplished, the info tells a special story. If we have a look at these organizations that reported having skilled an assault via the lens of crew consolidation — an indicator of crew, software and course of maturity — we see that extra mature operations usually tend to detect assaults (78%). Those who haven’t undergone consolidation and are much less mature had been considerably extra more likely to report no assaults (35%).
Whereas that is extra correlation than causation, the purpose is sound: Lack of visibility brought on by exploding machine counts, distant and hybrid work, unintentionally unmanaged units and a confounding mixture of groups, instruments and processes can lead to a literal false sense of safety.
Consciousness achieved?
I hope this will get you desirous about how your group can do higher. It isn’t all doom and gloom, regardless that it could really feel that manner when the info reveals an awesome improve in complexity.
I select to have a look at this as a optimistic: Changing into conscious of your group’s vulnerabilities allows you to improve and enhance visibility. And the continued convergence of endpoint administration and safety, the place I spend most of my time, helps to unify the groups, instruments and processes that had been as soon as separate and unaccountable to one another. If there’s any takeaway from this, it is to take inventory of your present groups, instruments and processes and what number of “single sources of fact” you might have and search for methods to optimize.
This analysis comprises a lot helpful info, together with a have a look at the way forward for endpoint administration and safety: autonomous endpoint administration. I plan on writing extra concerning the findings within the coming weeks and months.
Gabe Knuth is the principal analyst overlaying end-user computing for Omdia.
Omdia is a division of Informa TechTarget. Its analysts have enterprise relationships with expertise distributors.
