Strong endpoint protection solutions combine these basic capabilities into a comprehensive platform. Since different EPPs come with varying feature sets, let's break down what you should expect from every endpoint protection platform:

• Anti-malware that detects and blocks known malware. Many modern EPPs also include behavioral monitoring and heuristic detection to protect against new malware variants.

• Application control rules that prevent unapproved applications from running.

• Device controls that restrict which external devices can connect to endpoints (limit risk from USB drops).

• Personal firewall rules that govern inbound and outbound traffic on an endpoint and block suspicious activity.

• Cloud-managed protection pulls threat intelligence from the cloud, rather than relying on periodic malware signature updates, and allows security teams to manage policies and endpoints from a central console.

EPP does more than block malware. This is what it can do for your security team:

• Automate threat prevention so your security analysts spend more time stopping sophisticated attacks and less time cleaning malware off endpoints.

• Standardize security policies across endpoints to eliminate holes in your protection that attackers can exploit.

• Make sure your critical endpoints aren't vulnerable to the kind of risky applications and misconfigurations that leave gaps in your defenses.

• Help you meet compliance requirements by providing prevention and generating logs for your audit trail.

An endpoint protection platform handles prevention, but it doesn't work alone. Here's how it fits alongside EDR in a complete endpoint security strategy.

You can think of a strong EDR solution as the eyes and ears your security team needs to catch advanced attacks inside your environment. Unlike EPP, which is focused on blocking threats, EDR tools are built to help you detect and remediate threats that are actively working against you. Key differences between EPP and EDR include:

• Where EPP blocks threats based on known signatures, policies, and rules, EDR detects suspicious behavior that might indicate a threat. This includes things like frequent file modifications, dangerous processes running, and unusual use of built-in, legitimate apps and tools, like powershell. 

• While EPP solutions are made to prevent as many threats as possible, EDR solutions focus on catching what those automated tools miss.

• EDR tools are built to work alongside your existing stack, including your EPP.

Most EDR solutions today are designed to layer on top of your existing stack seamlessly, but there's always an adjustment period whenever you introduce something new. When added to a solid foundation of prevention from your EPP, modern endpoint detection can help you discover attacks in progress quickly and streamline your security operations.

The right EPP depends on your environment, your team's capacity, and how well the solution integrates with your existing stack. When evaluating options, look for solutions that:

• Detect the widest range of attacks with high accuracy.

• Cover all the OSes your endpoints run.

• Integrate with your other security tools like SIEM and existing EPP.

• Lighten your security team's workload without bogging down your endpoints.

An endpoint protection platform is where strong endpoint security starts, but prevention alone won't stop today's most damaging attacks. Pairing your EPP with a detection and response solution closes the gap.