Securing endpoints, part 1: Ensuring hackers don’t manipulate your browsers to carry out attacks

Securing endpoints, part 1: Ensuring hackers don’t manipulate your browsers to carry out attacks

Securing endpoints, part 1: Ensuring hackers don’t manipulate your browsers to carry out attacks

By Bhuvaneswari Kg

In a world of automation, computers and the data on them have become the backbone of many organizations. But data is a double-edged sword. It can be leveraged by organizations to improve operations, but in the wrong hands, it can be a deadly weapon for hackers. So how do organizations ensure their data is safe?

Securing data starts with every employee and every admin. Most organizations implement some form of security and might also use IT management software to make security more effective and effortless. But how do organizations both secure endpoints and simultaneously manage them? The UEM Edition of ManageEngine Desktop Central is an effective IT management solution that offers endpoint security features to make your work as an IT admin easier. Securing endpoints requires a series of steps, which we will look into one by one.

Browsers: A major security weakness

Every year, Pwn2own, a computer hacking competition, is held in order to highlight the flaws in everyday software products. This year, the results of Pwn2own 2021 show that browsers, one of the most used products in laptops and handheld devices, have become a potential prospect for hackers. A simple integer overflow in Safari was enough to destroy Apple’s security fortress. Almost every cloud application, like those developed by Google or Microsoft, are fortified with security measures, however it’s the end users that are targeted in phishing and malware attacks.

Even when using a secure connection, unsecured browsers can offer hackers a backdoor to the inside of the organization. An accidental click on a malicious ad or website can compromise the network or even expose confidential information. It’s important for organizations to leverage browser management tools to keep their networks safe.

With the pandemic prevailing for more than a year now, browsers have become our door to the outside world. Be it work, education, ordering food, essential services, or transferring funds, everything can be done online in just a few clicks. However, how safe are these transactions? Is our information properly secured when we log out of our accounts? Is window shopping safe?

Microsoft 365, Exchange Server, and Azure Active Directory (specifically corporate email accounts) are common targets for hackers. Working under the safety net of an organization’s on-premises network, emails are deemed safe. But the ongoing work-from-home scenario paints a different picture altogether, despite using security measures like VPNs. So how do organizations maintain security for remote employees?

How you can better secure browsers in your organization?

ManageEngine Browser Security Plus, with its numerous browser security tools, keeps networks safe and sound from browser-based attacked. What’s more? You can also add on Desktop Central and implement holistic unified endpoint management at an affordable price. Browser Security Plus secures browsers, updates them, manages and monitors browser add-ons, and blocks risky websites.

Browser Security Plus also offers these key features:

Browser isolation: Browser isolation, as the name suggests, isolates browsers and compartmentalizes them so that if any malicious ads are clicked, it would not affect the regular browsers used to open the organization’s sites.

Browser lockdown: Limit web access to only sites and applications trusted by the IT administrator to reduce the risks associated with browsers.

Download filter: Restrict and filter downloads like those from certain websites or downloads of certain file types to steer clear of impromptu attacks through downloads.

Browser customization: Customize your browsers by managing bookmarks, adding default browsers, and configuring policies to best fit your organization’s requirements.

Web filter: Filter out unnecessary websites by denying access to them.

Browsers are an integral part of work, but it’s equally important to secure endpoints holistically, including the browsers used on them. Manageengine Desktop Central provides endpoint management for organizations of all sizes. It offers patch management, software deployment, asset management, endpoint security, and much more! Manageengine Desktop Central offers complete protection to your endpoints under one roof, all at an affordable price.

** Optrics Inc. is an Authorized ManageEngine partner


The original article can be found here:

https://blogs.manageengine.com/desktop-mobile/desktopcentral/2021/08/19/securing-endpoints-part-1-ensuring-hackers-dont-manipulate-your-browsers-to-carry-out-attacks.html

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