How has it helped my organization?
With its behavior forensic, advanced threat hunting, integrated response, and Threat Hunter capabilities, it provides good control over security and improves the security posture.
Symantec is a known name in the market for endpoint and server security. The baseline of their products would always be the same, and with the evolving threats, they are also changing the technology. For example, with ransomware or zero-day threats, you don't have any already-known bad files. So, you don't have a signature for those files. They need to be identified based on behavior. If any file is misbehaving, Symantec Endpoint Security can handle it. This proactive approach or IPS is a part of it. Another example would be that you download a PDF file, and this PDF file has a built-in script. When you open the PDF file, in the background, the script starts, but nobody knows that. If you install Symantec, it will see the behavior of the file. If any file other than the required file is being executed, it will detect that and protect the system from that. Recently, a bank had a breach. There was an attempt to copy a file, which was blocked. With threat analysis, we could see that the system was protected but the bad guy had already passed through or gotten inside the network.
Their Threat Hunter team helps out to know what exactly happened and the type of breach. For example, you clicked on a link that copied malware on a system. Your system is infected but nobody knows how many systems are affected after you. The Threat Hunter team is very good and professional. They would check its footprint on every system. If you have a breach in your environment, you have to contact them to find out what exactly is happening.
Nowadays, people bring their own devices. Most of the time, you don't know what's installed on these devices, which is the biggest threat to the environment. Symantec provides protection based on the analysis of your application, its behavior, and the type of data being sent and received. Sometimes, when you connect your mobile to any other wifi, such as free wifi or hotspot, if there is anything malicious, it can stop the traffic.
It allows you to choose the policies that you want to implement. There are around 7,000 SCSC policies, and of course, you are not going to enable all of them. You can choose the policies that you want.
It has various components that help you at various stages: pre-attack, attack, breach, and post-breach. It reduces the attack surface. There is a component for breach assessment, device control, application control, behavior analysis, and isolation. All these are a part of its attack prevention capabilities. It also protects Active Directory. There is a tool called Active Directory Defense to stop an attacker from taking control of a user. It detects credential theft and stops intrusion, which is something no other vendor is currently providing. It also allows you to auto-manage policies, and IPS and IDS are also already there.
What is most valuable?
It is a complete and the best solution if your use case is small and you need more productivity and more security. With a single console, you get control over Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android. This control is most valuable.
It provides complete protection with machine learning, behavior learning, and Global Intelligence Network (GIN). The threat intelligence generated by Symantec’s GIN is now a part of the solution. For any file that they find, they get the reference from GIN, and based on the value of their sensors, they are going to say whether it is a bad file or an okay file. This capability is very important.
What needs improvement?
If there is a suspicious file, it is put into a sandbox where Symantec does an analysis. After the analysis, Symantec marks the file as a risk, but it doesn't blacklist or block the file. If a file is already known to be harmful, I would like them to automatically block or blacklist it to reduce the damage. It will stop the attack by at least 50%. Sometimes, administrators do not see the console on a daily basis, and sometimes, they assume that Symantec will block and delete the file, which is not the case. I would like it to block the file so that you won't be able to open the file.
Another improvement area is reporting. Its reporting is more technical. As a technical person, it gives me 100% value, but if someone from the business staff wants to see what exactly is going on, you cannot give them these reports, and they won't get the value out of it. Currently, the data is not presentable for any C-level person.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for the last four to five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
They have been a leader for the last couple of years. There is no question about its productivity. It is a good name in the market. Every six and seven months, they are adding a new component or feature. If they see any gap in the product, they fix it.
How are customer service and support?
Their support is good. I would rate them a seven out of ten. Their response time varies. If your case is assigned to the India side, they take extra time. They will ask you for the log files, and the next day, they will do a remote session. Sometimes, the client gets frustrated because this is a security component, and they want to resolve the issue as soon as possible. If the case is assigned to someone on our side and we get a highly qualified person, they can handle it within a day.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I got a chance to work with other products, such as Carbon Black, Palo Alto, and McAfee. They all are very good products. No product is bad because they are coming after so much R&D. They all are investing their time, money, and people to enhance productivity, but Symantec has been there from the start. The way they design their solutions is very important, and now, they have GIN, which is very important.
I once deployed Cylance in a bank. It had endpoint protection and EDR, and two agents were installed on the system. One was for protection and one was for recording the incident on EDR. It would capture so many files, which Symantec doesn't do, and mark them as harmful or not. Based on what I was told, it decided that based on the virus total. When they get the file hash, in the back end, they would run a script, scan it, and then give a report based on the virus total. They don't do any technical evaluation of file structure or file behavior. I found Java files to be a big problem with that solution. Symantec is comparatively a much more mature solution, and their support is also very good. They provide support for the whole product and not just a component.
How was the initial setup?
It offers flexible management and deployment options. You can install it by watching a video on YouTube, but for the implementation design, expertise is required. For example, if you are implementing it in a big bank where you have 5,000 to 6,000 endpoints and multiple branches, you need to have an implementation strategy and see how to take care of the database, replication, and other things. At that time, your expertise is going to be used for designing the solution.
It takes about 30 minutes to implement the server and the policies. The rest of the things are going to be installed by the agent, which is dependent on the network. In the same building, if you have SCCM or another deployment tool, it is a one-hour job, and it can be done by one person.
In terms of maintenance, you have to take care of your server and download the updates on a regular basis. This is only for Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager (SCPM). If you are a cloud site, you don't need that. Symantec will do it. For on-prem, you need a person to log in and do the updates, and there might also be a little bit of maintenance of the database.
What was our ROI?
You get the ROI within the licensing period. It is also in terms of the reputation of an organization. Especially if you are a financial institution, your environment needs to be secure. Last year, a bank in Nairobi, Kenya had an issue with the system. When I inspected it, five systems were already breached. I didn't find their cybersecurity team competent enough. So, I told their CIO to buy this product and enable all the policies. They don't need to log in daily. When required, they can log in and get all the information. They are very happy with it. The only issue is that when a file is identified as a risk, it is not blocked.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is normal. If you are an educational institute, they give you a very good discount. If you are coming from the banking side, they may or may not give you a discount. I'm working with seven companies, and normally, they get a 65% to 70% discount on everything.
There are various components. You have to know what exactly you want. If you are just going to protect your endpoint, you won't buy Symantec Endpoint Security Complete. You would buy the Endpoint Enterprise, which is on the lower side. Symantec Endpoint Security Complete is on the higher side because you can also manage your mobiles and other devices. EDR is also a part of it, whereas, with the enterprise version, you don't get EDR. Overall, the price depends on the number of security components you want.
What other advice do I have?
When evaluating a solution, I would advise seeing the simplicity of deployment and usage. Some products are cheap, but the operational cost is much higher, and they are a lot more complex.
If your organization is small and you have a constraint on your system administrator or security administrator, then the cloud is the best solution for you. If you are a larger bank and you don't want your data to be on the cloud side because most countries don't allow you to share your data on the cloud side, you can install Symantec Endpoint Protection, which is then connected to a Symantec Endpoint SCSC. It will be a hybrid solution. Some components are going to be managed from on-prem and some components are going to be managed from the cloud. Feature-wise, if you're going to the cloud side, you can leverage EDR. Otherwise, you have to install an EDR server on your data center.
I would rate it a 10 out of 10. It is a wonderful product.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner