Endpoint Security vs. Network Security: Why You Need Both

The Importance of Endpoint and Network Security

Think of network security like the walls of a building, and endpoint security like the locks, cameras, and alarms on its doors. One protects what's inside, and the other protects access to it, making them both fundamental to overall security. Even the most effective network monitoring can’t prevent malware from spreading if an endpoint is already compromised. On top of that, endpoint safeguards on their own—without a secure underlying network infrastructure—are ineffective.

Let’s explore each concept on its own before taking a closer look at how they work together.

What Is Endpoint Security?

Endpoint security solutions protect the devices through which users access the internet and your network—laptops, desktops, servers, mobile devices, and internet of things (IoT) devices. Tools like antivirus software, endpoint detection and response (EDR) systems, sandboxes, and more work to detect, block, and remediate threats like malware, ransomware, phishing, and zero-day attacks.

As remote work and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trends have grown, the number of endpoints accessing enterprise networks has surged. In turn, organizations' attack surfaces are wider than ever. Compromising an endpoint—often the weakest link in terms of security—can enable an attacker to move through the network with a great deal of freedom, gaining access to sensitive information and resources.

Read more: What Is Endpoint Security?

What Is Network Security?

Network security, in the traditional sense, protects the routes and pathways that enable communication and data exchange between endpoints. Traditional network security takes a perimeter-based approach to defense, shielding the infrastructure from outside threats via firewalls, virtual private networks (VPN), intrusion detection systems (IDS), and more.

As cloud adoption and remote work have taken hold, the needs of network security have changed. Users spend more time outside traditional office boundaries, accessing applications in the cloud instead of their organization's data center. In a sense, the conventional network perimeter no longer exists. As a result, many traditional network security solutions now offer incomplete protection.

To address these shifts, organizations are transitioning from traditional network security to cloud-based approaches. Decoupling security from the network enables stronger, more flexible protection for distributed workforces while reducing reliance on perimeter-based solutions that struggle to accommodate modern, decentralized environments.

Read more: What Is Network Security?

Endpoint Security vs. Network Security: Key Differences

While they are deeply interconnected, endpoint security and network security have distinct priorities, architectures, and technologies.

Key Cybersecurity Threats

Cyberthreats typically target endpoints or the broader network, with disruptions in either posing risks to overall security.

Endpoint-Specific Threats

Compromises at the endpoint level can quickly cascade and endanger the entire network:

• Phishing attacks can create gateways for attackers to infiltrate the network. Malicious links or attachments can deliver payloads that spread laterally, granting attackers access to internal systems and sensitive data stored on the network.
• Ransomware attacks can become network-wide disruptions as the malware spreads across connected drives, file-sharing systems, or other devices. This can lead to data loss, operational downtime, and massive costs if not isolated early.
• Vulnerability exploits of unpatched flaws in software or firmware create entry points for attackers to deploy malware, move laterally, or escalate privileges. This can compromise critical systems or sensitive data across the network, leading to breaches and data loss.

Network-Specific Threats

Network threats target the broader infrastructure, allowing attackers to destabilize systems and gain control over critical resources:

• Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks overwhelm a network's resources, causing slowdown or downtime for servers, apps, and services. This can stall operations, deny access for legitimate users, and leave the network vulnerable to secondary attacks.
• Man-in-the-middle (MiTM) attacks intercept and/or manipulate communications in a network. Attackers can use MiTM to steal data or inject malware, which can escalate system-wide as it traverses the network.
• Unauthorized access attempts exploit weak authentication, misconfigured permissions, or policy gaps to break into key network systems. Once inside, they can move laterally across connected systems to steal data, disrupt operations, or deploy malware.

Best Practices for Endpoint and Network Security

Building a strong security strategy requires integrating endpoint and network security. Here are a few basic best practices:

• Deploy multifactor authentication (MFA) to strengthen access controls for devices and network resources.
• Conduct regular vulnerability scans to identify weak points in hardware endpoints or network configurations.
• Provide user awareness training to ensure employees understand how to identify and avoid phishing and poor password practices.
• Monitor and inspect traffic in real time using AI- and ML-powered tools to get insights into network activity.
• Adopt a zero trust architecture that enforces strict access verifications for all devices connecting to network resources. We'll explore this one in more detail.

Combining Endpoint and Network Security Is Essential—But It's Not Enough

Endpoint security and network security alone are insufficient—but even together, they share a key weakness: they assume threats come only from the outside. To close this gap, organizations need to take a zero trust approach, built on the principle, "never trust, always verify."

To understand the role of zero trust, we can look back at the earlier analogy. If network security is a building's walls and endpoint security is the locks, alarms, and cameras on its doors, then zero trust is like the building's security guard detail, screening each user, device, and connection before granting any access. The zero trust architecture takes these steps for each connection request:

1. Verify the identity of the entity that requested access through MFA.
2. Confirm the entity's exact IT resource destination, rather than providing broad network access.
3. Calculate risk based on context (user identity, device security posture, location, and more).
4. Enforce policy and take the appropriate action (allow, block, isolate, deceive, etc.).
5. Grant an allowed entity direct access to the resource it requested, and nothing else.
6. Continuously monitor the entity and its activities, adapting policy enforcement if needed.

In this way, zero trust minimizes the risk that any entity—maliciously or accidentally—can endanger the network's assets. Only zero trust can adapt to today’s dynamic threat landscape, ensuring continuous evaluation and protection for all traffic, and every user or device.

Building a Comprehensive Cybersecurity Strategy

Staying ahead of attackers' constantly evolving tactics means using constantly evolving defenses. Uniting endpoint security and a modern approach to network security with zero trust enables you to build dynamic, adaptive defense against the ever-changing threat landscape.

Transform to a Zero Trust Architecture

The Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange™ is an integrated platform that enables zero trust security and network transformation for all users, workloads, and devices.

• Minimize the attack surface: Hide applications behind the Zero Trust Exchange, making them invisible to the internet.
• Prevent compromise: Inspect all traffic, including encrypted traffic, and block threats in real time.
• Eliminate lateral movement: Connect authorized entities directly to apps, not to the network.
• Stop data loss: Automatically identify and protect sensitive data in motion, at rest, and in use.