Top 6 Endpoint Protection Platforms and How to Choose
Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP) are essential to defend your organization’s workstations, mobile devices, servers and containers. Modern EPP solutions include advanced preventative measures, such as Next-Generation Antivirus which can block both known and unknown malware, and active defensive measures known as Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR).
In this page we’ll help you understand the criteria for selecting and evaluating EPPs, and review the top 5 EPP solutions, breaking down their capabilities into preventive and EDR features.
What Should You Look for in an Endpoint Protection Platform?
EPP solutions include the following features and capabilities:
Malware protection
Protects against known and unknown malware variants.
Protection from exploits
Prevents zero-day vulnerabilities and known software vulnerabilities
Email threats protection
Scans email attachments, detects and blocks malicious payloads
Downloads protection
Prevents unintentional user download of malicious files and drive-by downloads
Application Control
Enables whitelisting and blacklisting of applications on the endpoint
Behavior Analysis
Monitors behavior of the endpoint and uses machine learning techniques to identify suspicious activity
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
Provides visibility into security incidents on the endpoint and gives security teams the tools to investigate and respond to them
Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
Prevents insider threats focused on data theft and exfiltration attempts by external attackers
Top 6 Endpoint Protection Platforms
1. Cynet 360
Operating system support: Windows, Mac, Linux
Prevention features: Next-Generation Antivirus (NGAV) that blocks malware, exploits, LOLBins, Macros, malicious scripts, and other malicious payloads. Zero-day protection using User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) to detect and block suspicious activity. Asset management, endpoint vulnerability assessments and application control, with auditing, logging and monitoring. Deception technology lures attackers to a honeypot, gathering useful intelligence about attack techniques. Network analytics identifies lateral movement, suspicious connections and logins.
EDR features: Advanced endpoint threat detection predicts attacker behavior based on continuous monitoring of endpoints and behavioral analysis. Searches and reviews historic or current incident data on endpoints to help investigate threats and validate alerts, for faster remediation. Automatic response orchestration and manual remediation of threats on endpoints. Deployment across thousands of endpoints within two hours.
2. Symantec Endpoint Protection
Operating system support: Windows 7, 8, 10, Windows Server 2012, 2016, 2019, MacOS, Azure, Amazon Workspaces, VMware WS, ESX, ESXi, XenServer, Oracle VirtualBox
Prevention features: Antivirus, firewall and intrusion prevention, application and device control including file, registry and device access, application whitelisting and blacklisting, automated device erasure, enforcing policy on hosts, system lockdown.
EDR features: Offers Targeted Attack Analytics (TAA) with local and global telemetry, machine learning analysis of device behavior, threat intelligence. Assist with attack investigation, containment and resolution.
3. Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business
Operating system support: Windows, Linux, MacOS
Prevention features: Mobile threat defense, security policy management, role-based access control (RBAC), adaptive anomaly control, encryption management, vulnerability and exploit prevention, security for web gateways and email servers, ransomware protection, application control, whitelisting and blacklisting, operating system and third-party software installation.
EDR features (EDR offered as separate product):
- Library of automated responses to security incidents, such as wiping and reimaging endpoints.
- Proactive Threat Hunting with fast search for threat data, Indicators of Compromise (IoC) search, proactive scanning of endpoints for anomalies
- Central visibility and control of incident detection, forensics, prevention activity, and security alerts.
4. McAfee Endpoint Security
Operating system support: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10, Windows Server 2003, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2019, any virtualization platform running these operating systems.
Prevention features: Behavior classification for detecting zero-day threats, adaptive scanning for malware and other threats, next-gen anti-malware engine, safe browsing with web protection and filtering, prevents ransomware and grayware, integrated firewall blocks network attacks,
EDR features:
- Threat Intelligence Exchange offers intelligence from multiple external and internal security sources
- Dynamic Application Containment secures endpoints used as entry points for attacks
- Repairs endpoint to last known good state
- Actionable forensics helps identify infections and react quickly to contain them
5. SentinelOne Endpoint Protection
Operating system support: Windows, Linux, MacOS, Virtualization
Prevention features: Protects against trojans, worms, backdoors, fileless attacks, malicious documents (Office, Adobe, Macros, spear phishing), browser vulnerabilities (Java, JavaSCRIPT, IFrame, plugins), download protection, script-base attacks (PowerShell, WMI, PowerSploit), credentials-based and token attacks.
EDR features: Tracks all activity on endpoints, contextualizes and identifies suspicious activity in real time, enables rapid response and rollback to last known good configuration, advanced threat hunting with full context of security incident forensics.
6. Malwarebytes Endpoint Protection
Operating system support: Windows and MacOs
Prevention features:
- Hardens endpoints and applications, reducing vulnerability surface.
- Prevents command and control communication and blocks malicious websites
- Detects and blocks exploits targeting application vulnerabilities, blocks code execution
- Performs behavioral analysis to ensure applications are behaving as usual
- Analyzes binary payloads, combining heuristic and behavioral rules
- Prevents ransomware by blocking file encryption using behavioral monitoring
EDR features (EDR offered as separate product):
- Monitors and provides visibility into Windows desktops with tracking of file system, network, processes and registry.
- Isolates endpoints to prevent lateral movement, while safely keeping system online for further analysis.
- Rolls back systems affected by ransomware to restore files encrypted or deleted.
8 Tips for Actively Testing EPP Solutions
Don’t take vendor claims as a given. Take your EPP solution of choice for a spin before you by. Try some of these to test EPP capabilities for yourself:
- Run known malware, both on an off the network, and see if the platform detects and prevents them
- Check how much CPU and memory resources the platform consumers on the endpoint when idle
- Change policies and see how long the changes take to propagate to endpoints.
- Run a fileless attack such as Unicorn PowerShell to test both prevention and EDR abilities.
- Run suspicious shell commands and note if your activity is detected, and how much information is provided in the alert.
- See what it involves to deploy the platform on an endpoint and uninstall it.
- Test remote control and visibility features — get information on processes, downloaded files, try killing a process and quarantining the endpoint, and see if after quarantine network access is really blocked.
- Create a whitelist for files, websites or applications and check if they are really blocked
