Unmanaged device usage is growing among enterprises and more than three-quarters of organizations report experiencing cyberattacks due to unknown, unmanaged or poorly managed endpoints, which is leading to organizations merging their endpoint management and security teams, according to new research from endpoint security firm Syxsense.
The Newport Beach, Calif.-based company’s “Endpoint Management Vulnerability Gap” report finds that only 43% of organizations are actively monitoring at least 75% of their endpoints, and 77% of organizations say they those poorly managed endpoints led to at least one attack.
Further, 34% said they have experienced several attacks due to poorly managed endpoints, and those organizations were more likely to have poor endpoint management practices, Syxsense’s study found, as organizations exceeding the 20% threshold in terms of unmanaged devices are nearly 11 times more likely than those with less than 5% unmanage devices to have experienced endpoint-focused cyberattacks.
However, research suggests that organizations think endpoint security and management are getting easier compared to two years ago. And 91% are consolidating some or all of the teams and individuals responsible for endpoint management and security.
The research also explored management and security tool sprawl, as 68% of organizations are using more than 11 tools for endpoint management and security. As organizations add more tools, they may be doing more harm than good, as half of organizations with more than 15 tools say more than 20% of their devices are unmanaged. However, only 5% of devices are unmanaged at organizations using fewer than five tools.
As a result of this sprawl, organizations are combining endpoint management and security teams to improve service levels, gain efficiencies, improve compliance, and reduce attacks.
Now, organizations are consolidating their teams responsible for endpoint management and security, with 55% saying they have completely merged those two groups. Another 36% say they do so to a limited extent.
Of the organizations that don’t completely have one team responsible for both endpoint management and security, 58% say they plan to merge the two in the future, while 36% say it’s too early to tell.
Syxsense CEO Ashley Leonard says the endpoint management and security market has changed due to distributed work and increased device usage, which are creating visibility gaps and increased risk.
“But this also presents opportunity for vendors to better consolidate functionality – for IT and security teams to work from a common view of asset inventory – to centralize endpoint management and security,” Leonard says. “And with the rise in app and desktop virtualization and IoT devices, there’s even further opportunity to ease the management burden of IT and security teams for endpoints.”
