Let’s say, for example, that you allow your employees to bring their laptops or other devices to the office and use them on your network. This puts you at risk in at least three ways:

1. You have no control over whether or not the employee is current will all security updates or AV updates. They could easily bring malware with them. Keeping systems fully patched is a first line of defense. Use network access control to make sure that any computer you allow on the network is fully patched.
2. A rogue application let loose on your network can degrade performance and cause no end of problems.
3. An infected thumb drive or other USB device completely bypasses your firewall and other filtering. Exercise some control over what’s allow to be plugged in. It’s easy enough to do.

Sophos has released a whitepaper that outlines at least eight threats that get past conventional AV. I suggest you check it out.

High-profile incidents that make big news might seem out of the ordinary. Yet businesses of every size face similar risks in the everyday acts of using digital technology and the internet for legitimate purposes. This paper outlines eight common threats that traditional anti-virus alone won’t stop, and explains how to protect your organization using endpoint security.

It appears as though Symantec is moving toward becoming  a one-stop security shop. As they said in their press release, “Encryption technology is an important element of an information-centric security solution, as critical information is increasingly on mobile devices and in the cloud. . . . By bringing together PGP and GuardianEdge’s standards-based encryption capabilities for full-disk, removable media, email, file, folder and smartphone, with Symantec’s endpoint security and data loss prevention offerings, Symantec will have the broadest set of integrated data protection solutions.”

That could be a good thing. . .or not. There’s nothing wrong with an integrated, comprehensive solution; often, that’s the best approach. But there have been some huge performance issues with Symantec’s Endpoint Protection.

Time will tell, of course.