This article provides a quick review of the Endpoint Protection Magic Quadrant report and the vendors it covers. Of course you are also encouraged to read the entire report from Gartner .
Key Takeaways from the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant
The Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection covers solutions that help protect enterprise endpoints from attacks and breaches.
In the report, researchers assess the strengths and weaknesses of solutions they consider to be the most important in the market. The reader is provided with a graph, known as the Magic Quadrant, which shows vendors based on their ability to execute (Y-axis) and completeness of vision (X-axis).
According to Gartner, skills and practices in the endpoint protection field are influenced by two trends:
The growth and increasing stealth of endpoint attacks
The sudden surge in remote work
Today, Gartner views endpoint protection as an essential digital security hygiene component needed to protect against malware. However, researchers also note the importance of investing in more advanced features to extend protection against more stealthy, sophisticated, or unknown threats. Gartner predicts that by the end of 2021, over 95% of deployed EPPs will be provided as a cloud offering.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-based solution that centralizes EPP, EDR, and threat hunting capabilities. It offers management through one console and a data lake for the information. It includes Defender Antivirus for Windows, as well as Linux and macOS protection capabilities. Defender also covers Android and iOS devices.
CrowdStrike Falcon offers an EDR product that helps detect, respond, and remediate advanced threats. It also includes file-based malware prevention and behavioral machine learning to help protect against known threats. Additionally, CrowdStrike offers advanced firewall management and mobile device protection.
Trend Micro
Trend Micro provides various capabilities via the Apex One platform and an XDR add-on that integrates other Trend Micro security tools. Trend Micro supports all operating systems and provides versatile deployment options for on-premises, cloud, and hybrid setups. Additionally, Trend Micro offers an XDR platform and cloud and container security tools.
SentinelOne offers an XDR solution, called Singularity, that adds third-party integrations to existing threat hunting and EDR. It is hosted on a new cloud platform and data lake and automated mitigation via the Storyline Active Response features. It also offers IoT discovery and protection capabilities via Ranger.
McAfee
McAfee MVISION is an XDR solution. McAfee’s standard solution offers native operating system capabilities and advanced protection features, such as ransomware rollback. The premium MVISION EDR package includes the MVISION Insights solution that can prioritize threats and countermeasures for responders.
Sophos Central offers EPP, EDR, and MTD via a single console. It provides visibility, management, and threat detection for all endpoint types. Sophos Central can also manage disk encryption, firewall, email gateways, and server protection. Sophos Central’s cloud-hosted solution includes Live Response, device discovery data, and forensics features.
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ESET
ESET offers various endpoint protection products. ESET Endpoint Security offers EPP capabilities, Enterprise Inspector offers EDR, and Dynamic Threat Defense provides sandbox features. ESET PROTECT Enterprise includes browser anti-tampering, cloud management, and Apple FileVault 2 encryption management.
Kaspersky offers various protection capabilities. The Kaspersky Anti Targeted Attack (KATA) Platform covers detection and response functionality at the network and gateway levels. It provides a cloud-based management console for enterprises and fileless malware and advanced persistent threats (APTs) detection.
VMware offers Carbon Black for endpoint, network, and cloud workloads protection. It integrates with a diverse partner ecosystem, offering Next-Gen SOC Alliance with SOAR and SIEM vendors. Carbon Black is incorporated in existing VMware virtualization. It also works with VMware’s security tools via a single cloud-based console and data lake.
Symantec
Symantec offers various solutions, such as Symantec Endpoint Security Complete (SESC) and Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise (SESE). Symantec solutions share a cloud console, allowing integration between this ecosystem of tools. It also partners with a global network of vendors to offer services to small and midsize businesses (SMBs).
Cisco offers an XDR platform called SecureX (formerly Cisco Threat Response). It provides investigation and response capabilities and integrates with Cisco’s EPP and EDR tools to offer centralized security analytics, threat intelligence, and threat hunting. SecureX is cloud native and integrates with various third-party solutions.
Cybereason
Cybereason Defense Platform offers cloud native EPP and EDR capabilities. Cybereason also provides managed detection and response, incident response services, and a mobile threat defense solution. The vendor employs an AI hunting engine and automated SOC activities to improve efficiency and productivity.
In my experience, here are tips that can help you better evaluate vendors in the Endpoint Protection Magic Quadrant (MQ):
Look for deep integration with SIEM and SOAR platforms Ensure the vendor’s EPP or EDR integrates seamlessly with your existing SIEM or SOAR tools. This will enable faster detection, response, and automation of security processes, reducing mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to respond (MTTR).
Evaluate vendor support for XDR adoption If your organization is exploring Extended Detection and Response (XDR), focus on vendors that have native XDR capabilities or strong XDR integrations. XDR unifies data from multiple security layers, offering more advanced detection across environments.
Assess real-time response capabilities Look for vendors offering real-time or near-real-time response options such as automated mitigation, threat isolation, and live response features. SentinelOne’s Storyline Active Response is a good example of fast response capabilities.
Verify low resource consumption on endpoints Ensure the solution has a low resource footprint (CPU, memory) on endpoints to minimize performance degradation. High resource consumption can lead to user frustration, system slowdowns, and operational inefficiency.
Consider managed detection and response (MDR) options If your internal SOC is limited in resources or expertise, look for vendors offering managed detection and response (MDR) services. MDR providers can augment your security team’s capabilities, improving threat monitoring and response efforts.
Eyal Gruner is the Co-Founder and CEO of Cynet. He is also Co-Founder and former CEO of BugSec, Israel’s leading cyber consultancy, and Versafe, acquired by F5 Networks. Gruner began his career at age 15 by hacking into his bank’s ATM to show the weakness of their security and has been recognized in Google’s security Hall of Fame.
Endpoint Protection With Cynet 360
Cynet 360 is a holistic security solution that protects against threats to endpoint security and across your network.
Cynet’s intelligent technologies can help you detect attacks by correlating information from endpoints, network analytics and behavioral analytics with almost no false positives.
With Cynet, you can proactively monitor entire internal environments, including endpoints, network, files, and hosts. This can help you reduce attack surfaces and the likelihood of multiple attacks.
Cynet 360 provides cutting edge EDR capabilities:
Advanced endpoint threat detection—full visibility and predicts how an attacker might operate, based on continuous monitoring of endpoints and behavioral analysis.
Investigation and validation—search and review historic or current incident data on endpoints, investigate threats, and validate alerts. This allows you to confirm the threat before responding to it, reducing dwell-time and performing faster remediation.
Rapid deployment and response—deploy across thousands of endpoints within two hours. You can then use it to perform automatic or manual remediation of threats on the endpoints, disrupt malicious activity and minimize damage caused by attacks.
In addition, Cynet 360 provides the following endpoint protection capabilities:
NGAV —providing automated prevention and termination of malware, exploits, Macros, LOLBins, and malicious scripts with machine learning based analysis.
User Behavior Rules —detecting and preventing attacks using compromised credentials through the use of behavioral baselines and signatures.
Deception technology —planting fake credentials, files and connections to lure and trap attackers, mitigating damage and providing the opportunity to learn from attacker activity.
Monitoring and control —providing asset management, vulnerability assessments and application control with continuous monitoring and log collection.
Response orchestration —providing manual and automated remediation for files, users, hosts and networks customized with user-created scripts.