As the coronavirus pandemic has changed the world around us, organizations have had to adapt to a new, remote way of working, and in response, many have shifted to focus on cloud-first strategies. To streamline this transition, ESET is launching ESET PROTECT, which provides a single pane of glass to gain centralized visibility, management, and insight across the security of your endpoints. The ESET PROTECT platform is available either in the cloud to accommodate businesses looking for affordable and easy deployment, or on-premises for increased control.

Recognizing the move away from standard software and traditional forms of licensing, ESET PROTECT empowers users with the flexibility of a subscription-based service. As an organization grows and changes, so too do its security needs – and with a wide range of subscription bundles, ESET can protect your business throughout its entire journey.

Save, save, save As some businesses find their budgets increasingly squeezed in the face of renewed lockdown restrictions, optimizing the use of your money is even more necessary. It may be tempting to leave security aside but moving to the cloud can provide the much-needed savings on cost.

ESET PROTECT Cloud, for example, takes away the typical cost of server provisioning required for on-premises solutions. Instead, imagine getting rid of hardware – physical servers, backup servers, failover clusters – and not worrying about software updates – server software updates, software component updates, console updates – because that’s all handled by ESET.

Continue to imagine that your business doesn’t need a team of IT administrators to set up and maintain your servers, databases, software and other on-premises infrastructure. Applications that are known to have common vulnerabilities, and which require diligent patching, are no longer your problem.

As a simple, cloud-based subscription, ESET PROTECT Cloud needs just one IT administrator sitting at the console to quickly deploy an entire suite of advanced security solutions that can protect your business from attack.

Seamless, convenient, flexible Aside from financial benefits, ESET PROTECT offers a wealth of other benefits. With an easy and quick setup process, admins can log in the console and start protecting machines in a matter of minutes. ESET PROTECT’s live installers and wide range of deployment methods enable organizations to install endpoint protection seamlessly across all devices in even the largest corporate network.

Adjusting to each customer’s individual needs, the solution is scalable, allowing businesses to enlarge or reduce the coverage according to the size of their workforce, whether this is in-house or remote. Convenient, customizable reports allow IT admins to communicate effectively and can be adapted to fit the dynamically changing needs of large or small organizations. All this is achieved without the need for specialized IT personnel, extensive training, or additional hardware – and ESET specialists are on hand to provide additional support whenever necessary.

Everything you need in the same place Not all businesses are the same, and ESET is offering a selection of business subscriptions that ensure businesses of all sizes are equipped with the right solutions.

Figure 1: ESET business subscriptions

ESET’s business subscriptions all include an endpoint management console – either cloud-based or on-premises – along with endpoint protection by default. ESET PROTECT Mail Plus covers the needs of organizations looking for an advanced mail security solution.

Providing endpoint protection against ransomware and zero-day threats, alongside data protection via full disk encryption, the ESET PROTECT Advanced subscription is perfect for SMBs and MSPs. The solution is designed to detect suspicious encryption-like activity commonly employed by ransomware and can run machine learning analyses on high performance machines in the cloud to more quickly discover novel malicious software aiming to evade detection by endpoint security products.

For large organizations, the ESET PROTECT Enterprise option provides comprehensive visibility right down to the techniques commonly used by advanced persistent threat groups. This is because the subscription offers a highly sophisticated endpoint detection and response solution with rule-based detection, threat hunting and remediation capabilities. By subscribing to ESET PROTECT Enterprise, enterprise customers get all the benefits of ESET PROTECT Advanced plus endpoint detection and response.

For more information on ESET PROTECT, and other security offerings from ESET, visit our website here.

On March 15, 1962, President John F. Kennedy called on Congress to enact legislation to protect consumer rights – he was the first world leader to formally address the issue. Since 1983 this date has been marked as World Consumer Rights Day. The consumer movement uses this day every year to mobilize action on important issues and campaigns, including digital marketplaces, plastic pollution, and fair mobile phone services. Simply put, celebrating World Consumer Rights Day is an opportunity to demand that the rights of all consumers be respected and protected, and to protest against market abuse and social injustice that undermine those rights.

As the world becomes increasingly digitalized and consumption moves online – with 61% of consumers worldwide shopping online, more often now than they were before the pandemic – the digital aspect of consumer rights is more important than ever. Tech development, from IoT devices to financial technology (FinTech) to new online marketplaces, has a huge impact on consumer rights. As Consumers International notes, digital has become the default way of working for the majority of businesses – and with it comes consumer rights issues, including data protection, privacy, and online scams.

When consumers are online, businesses collect and store data about their purchases and behaviors. This can be convenient, with companies recommending what you’re interested in, sharing discounts, and even reminding you when you need to buy a birthday present. Unfortunately, the downsides can be far more troubling. Organizations may have access to information that helps to influence your decisions, removing some of your free choice without you even realizing. Also, big caches of data – including personally identifiable information (PII) – are attractive to cybercriminals. If breached by hackers, the information stored by online outlets can put you at risk of identity theft, phishing attacks, and scams. This may to contribute to the fact that less than one-third of global consumers (29%) feel very secure when shopping online.

Knowing who has access to information about you is an important step in protecting your data. Mark this World Consumer Rights Day by checking where your information is stored – and what you can do to limit it. According to ESET’s new research into data security and financial technology, consumers around the world are not always aware of how their data is treated. Of those consumers who use free FinTech apps around the world, 50% do not know if these apps sell their data. Seemingly, consumers in different countries have vastly different attitudes to this. Brazil and the UK have the lowest levels of awareness, with over 60% of consumers in both countries not knowing if FinTech apps are selling their data (Brazil 62%, UK 63%). In contrast, far more FinTech users in the US are in the know about how free apps use their data – less than a third (31%) do not know if their data is being sold.

Knowing who has access to your data and how it is being used is a key aspect of protecting your consumer rights online. In President Kennedy’s words, consumers – both online and in store – deserve “the right to safety, the right to be informed, the right to choose, and the right to be heard.” To find out more about World Consumer Rights Day, visit the Consumers International website. For more information on ESET, how to keep your data safe online, and our global FinTech research, click here.