How Companies Are Responding to Rising Cybercrime with Smarter Endpoint Security
Different studies indicate that up to 70–90% of successful cyberattacks originate at endpoints, which explains why businesses are investing in “smarter” endpoint security. Traditional antivirus alone can no longer cope. In response to rising cybercrime, companies are adopting advanced tools and strategies at the endpoint level – from stealthy residential proxies to AI-driven detection and zero-trust policies – to stay one step ahead of attackers.
Residential Proxies as Stealth Shields Against Fraudulent Bots
Bot-related security incidents have skyrocketed (rising 88% in 2022 alone) and now cost businesses up to $186 billion per year in losses. Alarmingly, attackers often route their bots through residential IP addresses to masquerade as legitimate users – recent reports show 21% of “bad bot” traffic now comes via residential ISP IPs. Using proxy services can be a great solution against this relatively new type of threat. In particular, residential proxies turn out to be very valuable in this regard.
Because residential proxy requests appear to come from real local users, they can bypass anti-bot filters to detect fraudulent ad clicks or malvertising that datacenter proxies would miss. Similarly, e-commerce platforms use residential proxies to research pricing on competitor sites or to run “honeypot” web pages that lure malicious bots, all without revealing their own network’s identity. In essence, residential proxy networks act like stealth shields – allowing companies to observe and outwit fraudulent bots without tipping them off.
To make this easier, some companies now offer ready-to-use residential proxy networks. For example, WebShare gives access to over 80 million residential IPs from 195+ countries, with strong uptime (about 99.7%) and flexible pricing based on how much data you use. These services let businesses use large numbers of real, clean IP addresses, helping their traffic blend in with normal online activity.
By using residential proxies this way, companies can better fight off bot-driven cyber threats — like fake web scrapers, account hacks, and fraud bots — without revealing their own systems.
AI-Driven Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
Beyond battling bots, companies are also overhauling endpoint security software itself with artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced analytics. The goal is to catch increasingly stealthy malware and hackers before they cause damage. Traditional antivirus, which relies on known virus signatures, is often blind to modern threats. For example, so-called file-less malware now makes up the majority of attacks – 77% of compromises in one study were file-less, and these attacks are ten times more likely to succeed because they leave little trace on disk.
Cybercriminals have even begun weaponizing AI to auto-generate phishing emails and malware that can slip past basic defenses. In this environment, companies are adopting intelligent Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR) solutions that can spot anomalies in behavior rather than just known bad files.
This proactive approach is crucial given that an estimated 80% of successful breaches involve new or previously unknown (zero-day) techniques. Advanced EDR systems don’t just detect; they also respond automatically – isolating an infected endpoint or killing a suspicious process in real time, often faster than a human could react.
Equally important, smarter endpoint security reduces the noise of false alarms. Over half of all endpoint security alerts turn out to be false positives, which previously led to teams wasting ~425 hours per week (about $1.37 million per year) chasing ghosts. AI-based EDR dramatically cuts down this alert fatigue by correlating data and only escalating truly suspicious events.
Zero Trust and Device Security Policies
Technology alone isn’t enough; companies are also rethinking their policies and architectures around endpoint security, notably by adopting a Zero Trust approach. Zero Trust principles boil down to “never trust, always verify” – no device or user gets blanket trust simply for being inside the network or holding credentials. This shift has been crucial as workforces become distributed and attackers find ways to steal legitimate logins. A stark statistic illustrates why: Microsoft found that 80–90% of successful ransomware attacks originated from unmanaged devices that weren’t under proper corporate security control. In response, businesses are enforcing strict device management and verification.
Implementing the principle of least privilege on endpoints is another smart strategy. This means limiting each user and device to only the data and systems absolutely needed for their role. By curbing broad access, companies reduce the blast radius if an endpoint is compromised. For example, if a finance employee’s laptop is breached, strict privileges ensure the attacker cannot jump to developer systems or databases unrelated to that role. Studies show that most cyber-attacks rely on abusing stolen user credentials, so containing what those credentials can do is vital.
One report noted an infostealer malware had siphoned over 4 billion passwords from unwitting users – a reminder that user login info is readily for sale on the dark web. To combat this, organizations are increasingly restricting access to critical data only from hardened, corporate-managed devices and accounts, and keeping admin credentials separate from regular user accounts.
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