October is Cybersecurity Consciousness Month, in addition to consciousness month for a lot of different — arguably extra vital — causes, resembling breast most cancers, despair, home violence, Down syndrome and, to not be ignored, squirrels.
As a result of endpoint safety continues to change into increasingly sophisticated, I believed I would 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 research 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 onerous
Roughly 40% of organizations stated that endpoint administration and safety are harder in the present day than previously, in comparison with roughly 27% within the 2023 research. This enhance 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.
Machine proliferation
Elements associated to machine proliferation, variety 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 gadgets per person. On common, customers conduct work from three or 4 gadgets frequently. This would possibly sound like rather a lot, however it’s fairly simple to get to a few gadgets: Telephone, residence 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 loads of gadgets. Give it some thought, a 500-person group might need to cope with 1,500 to 2,000 endpoints. Every of those gadgets, if managed, wants its OS and apps patched, and every expands the safety footprint — and assault floor — of a corporation.
As for unmanaged gadgets … 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 listing of things driving complexity. Regardless of all of the return-to-office information, the fact is that until all work from all customers is performed in an workplace setting, organizations should cope with hybrid or distant work. It is perhaps too bombastic to declare that return-to-office applications do not enhance endpoint administration and safety, however the actuality is that in nearly each scenario, organizations should cope with — and have a method for — distant or hybrid work.
Complicated risk panorama
It is not simply the variety of gadgets or the place they’re — the threats themselves have gotten harder to cope with.
Whereas AI provides 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 variety, and we are able to see precisely how complexity is growing.
Key discovering 2: Unmanaged gadgets might be OK, however usually aren’t
Within the earlier analysis, we requested what number of managed and unmanaged gadgets had been in organizations. Whereas it wasn’t shocking to be taught that 44% of organizations had between 1,000 and 10,000 unmanaged gadgets, we stopped there. In our latest analysis, we requested not solely what number of gadgets had been unmanaged, but in addition why they had been unmanaged and in the event that they had been secured by another means — for instance, VPN, zero belief, SASE, identification or validated configurations.
This time, we realized that a mean of 32% of gadgets in a corporation are unmanaged, and fewer than half of these gadgets (41%) are secured utilizing different means — one thing I have been calling “strategically unmanaged.” This implies greater than half of unmanaged gadgets (59%) are “unintentionally” unmanaged — a quantity that’s as scary as it’s eye-opening.
Key causes for gadgets being unintentionally unmanaged revolve round restricted visibility into machine existence, technical limitations that forestall administration, contractor or third-party gadgets, 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 would not matter how we bought there. Unintentionally unmanaged gadgets that are not secured by even the best means are a huge legal responsibility due to the unknowns they characterize: unknown gadgets, unknown configurations, unknown states, unknown functions and unknown customers.
No surprise issues are extra advanced.
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 in the present day. 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 executed, the info tells a special story. If we have a look at these organizations that reported having skilled an assault by the lens of workforce consolidation — an indicator of workforce, device and course of maturity — we see that extra mature operations usually tend to detect assaults (78%). People who haven’t undergone consolidation and are much less mature had been considerably extra prone 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 gadgets 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 excited about how your group can do higher. It is not all doom and gloom, regardless that it will probably really feel that means when the info reveals an amazing enhance in complexity.
I select to have a look at this as a constructive: Turning into conscious of your group’s vulnerabilities lets you enhance 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 have got 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 in regards to the findings within the coming weeks and months.
Gabe Knuth is the principal analyst protecting end-user computing for Omdia.
Omdia is a division of Informa TechTarget. Its analysts have enterprise relationships with expertise distributors.
