Effective Endpoint Management Is The Backbone of Modern Security

Endpoint management goes beyond updating PCs and peripherals; it secures every device that connects to the company's ecosystem. In today's complex, hybrid environments, managing and securing devices at scale is essential for business continuity and user productivity. Dell's purpose-built Endpoint Manageability Solutions help companies keep PCs updated and secure.

Why Endpoint Management matters for security

The link between endpoint management and device security is now clear: managing PCs is essential for keeping them secure. Yet some organizations never update critical firmware like BIOS, fearing BSODs (Blue Screen of Death) and user disruption. Modern automated tools simplify identifying and patching security risks, while ensuring policy compliance with minimal user impact. This matters because PCs and peripherals are primary entry points for cyberattacks. As Forrester notes in Endpoint Security Market Insights, Forrester Research, Inc., March 2025, "Endpoints (including computers, mobile devices, or IoT devices) are among the leading targets of external attacks for companies that have experienced a breach within the last 12 months." Every unmanaged or misconfigured device jeopardizes company data and identity information, elevates business risk and drains productivity.

As the Forrester chart shows below, from "2024 Breach Benchmarks, By Region," Forrester, March 2025, 60% of organizations in North America experienced at least one breach in the past 12 months, with a mean incident rate of 2.4 compromises per organization in that period. Other regions, such as Europe and Asia Pacific, face even higher incident rates.

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Chart Source: 2024 Breach Benchmarks, By Region", Forrester, March 2025.

Malware and ransomware attacks often originate from endpoint environments, and remote work can provide easier access for attackers than a protected office environment. In "Internal Incidents Cause Almost a Quarter of Breaches, With More Than Half Intentional", Forrester, March, 2024, the company found that 22% of security breaches stemmed from an employee's remote work environment (image below).

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Chart Source: "Internal Incidents Cause Almost a Quarter Of Breaches, With More Than Half Intentional", Forrester, March, 2024.

Automated patch management-including drivers, firmware, BIOS, and security updates for both PCs and peripherals-reduces the attack surface and helps organizations maintain compliance with evolving regulations.

Support user productivity with secure and compliant devices

Organizations with large device fleets rely on centralized, automated management of PCs and peripherals to minimize downtime and ensure consistent access to essential tools anywhere. Regular patching is key to keeping PCs secure and updated. Automated management speeds up patching and reduces the risk of breaches from unpatched vulnerabilities. As Forrester notes in The Forrester Wave™: Unified Vulnerability Management Solutions, Q3 2025, Forrester Research, Inc., July 2025, "Unified vulnerability management teams still need strong patch management and commitment from IT, cloud, and development teams to reduce vulnerability and exposure risks." The firm continues in The Forrester Guide to The AI-Centric Service Desk, Forrester Research, Inc., July 2025, "UEM automates patch management to ensure that all devices are up to date with the latest security patches and software." These solutions - which are built into modern management UEM (unified endpoint management) systems like Microsoft Intune - provide better user control and improve efficiency and the speed of updating.

Timely management is a key component of ensuring compliance with government and organizational regulations. From the perspective of one such industry, financial services and banking, guidelines from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) Interagency require them to:

• Develop and maintain comprehensive information systems programs
• Regularly monitor and testing of key controls, systems, and procedures
• Include patch management and firmware updates as part of technical controls
• Provide oversight and accountability, document practices, and ensure up-to-date hardware and software inventory for patching and security

These regulations are applied broadly to all U.S. financial institutions (FDIC, 2023); Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, n.d.), and failure to comply can result in penalties. For highly regulated industries, governing bodies such as GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA require organizations to demonstrate secure management of all endpoints, including peripherals. Failure to do so can also result in fines, legal exposure, and reputational damage. Centralized dashboards - such as the ones found within Dell management tools and Microsoft Intune - provide real-time visibility into the health, compliance, and security status of connected devices for proactive issue resolution and compliance during audits.

Purpose Built Dell Endpoint Management Tools

Keeping endpoints secure doesn't have to be an onerous task. Dell Endpoint Management tools, optimized for Microsoft Intune, enhance customer value with features tailored specifically for Dell PCs and peripherals

Dell Management Portal is a cloud solution integrated with Microsoft Intune, optimized for managing Dell PC fleets. It simplifies IT tasks like managing BIOS passwords and BitLocker keys, viewing device info organization-wide, and publishing updated Dell apps to Intune. Learn more here.

Dell Client Device Manager is an on-device integrated application deployable through Microsoft Intune that simplifies how IT admins update BIOS, firmware, drivers and secure their fleet of Dell PCs. Learn more here.

For Dell customers, this ecosystem means fewer disruptions, increased operational efficiency, stronger security, and more agile IT environments, allowing them to focus on growing their business.

Dell can help bring it all together. Learn more about Dell manageability and security solutions at

https://www.dell.com/en-us/lp/dt/endpoint-management

https://www.dell.com/en-us/lp/dt/endpoint-security

References

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. (n.d.). Interagency guidelines establishing information security standards. https://www.federalreserve.gov/supervisionreg/interagencyguidelines.htm

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. (2023). Guidance on developing an information system patch management program to address software vulnerabilities (FIL-43-2003). https://www.fdic.gov/news/financial-institution-letters/2003/FIL0343a.html