Why Organizations Should Invest in Endpoint Hardening and Automation

Endpoint hardening, sometimes referred to as endpoint security hardening, is the practice of reinforcing security at the device level. Because securing endpoints is fundamental to every other security action you take, it’s important to invest as much as you can into endpoint hardening.

In this article, we walk you through the importance of creating an endpoint hardening strategy and how to automate some of the most critical security tasks to reduce risk, improve compliance, and free up IT resources.

Why is endpoint hardening important for cybersecurity?

According to Anne Neuberger, Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technologies, the projected annual cost of cybercrime worldwide will reach $23 trillion in 2027. This seems to track with our own research:

• Hackers can penetrate at least 93% of company networks (SMB cybersecurity statistics for 2025).
• More than 450,000 new pieces of malware are detected every day worldwide (Cybercrime & Cybersecurity Statistics).

Though endpoint hardening should be at the core of a good modern cybersecurity strategy, many organizations are not taking the basic steps they need to support comprehensive endpoint hardening. Without a solid foundation, organizations may find themselves spending more money and time trying to fix issues that could have been prevented.

Common endpoint hardening challenges and security gaps

In Microsoft’s Digital Defense Report 2024 (the most recent version at the time of the update), several alarming trends were revealed. Most notably, Microsoft’s customers are now facing an average of 600 million cyberattacks per day from threat actors, an indicator of the vastly expanding threat landscape.

The report also found that ransomware-linked encounters surged by 2.75x year-over-year, though the percentage of attacks that reach the encryption stage dropped more than threefold, thanks to improved automatic threat disruption capabilities. Notably, over 90% of these successful attacks began with unmanaged devices, underlining the importance of endpoint control and hardening.

9 Benefits of an endpoint hardening strategy

Taking the time to focus on endpoint security can have numerous benefits for both IT teams and the business as a whole. A well-executed endpoint hardening strategy provides the following advantages:

1. A more secure network

By strengthening the security of endpoint devices, organizations can reduce the risk of data breaches and cyber attacks. With endpoints hardened against common exploits, attackers face more barriers when attempting to gain a foothold inside the network.

2. Enhanced compliance with industry standards

Endpoint hardening can help organizations meet regulatory requirements and industry standards related to data security, such as HIPAA, PCI-DSS, ISO 27001, and NIS2. Having hardened devices also provides the audit-ready evidence that compliance frameworks and insurers now expect.

3. Greater efficiency

Organizations can reduce crashes, downtime, and support tickets by removing unnecessary apps, disabling insecure protocols, and enforcing consistent configurations.

4. Cost savings

By preventing data breaches and cyber-attacks, endpoint hardening can help organizations avoid the costly consequences of security incidents. With the average cost of a data breach topping $4.88 million in 2024 (IBM), proactive hardening is a smart financial strategy.

5. Improved visibility and control across endpoints

Establishing hardening baselines across all devices gives IT teams clear visibility into which endpoints are compliant, which are drifting, and which need attention. This is especially important in remote and hybrid work environments.

6. Higher IT employee satisfaction and retention

Constantly firefighting endpoint issues can become frustrating for IT staff. With hardened endpoints, repetitive security vulnerabilities and misconfigurations are reduced, giving employees more time for impactful projects and skill-building.

7. Stronger foundation for AI and automation

Consistent hardening policies facilitate the effective work of AI-driven security tools and automated remediation workflows. This reduces false positives, speeds up detection, and enables scalable security management.

8. Reduced attack surface and risk exposure

Endpoint hardening minimizes the number of exploitable entry points by eliminating unnecessary services, accounts, and outdated software. This reduces the company’s attack surface, directly lowering its overall risk profile.

9. Improved performance and scalability

Hardened, well-optimized devices run faster and require fewer resources. This not only boosts day-to-day performance but also makes it easier to scale IT operations across large, distributed environments.

Examples of endpoint hardening activities in 2025 & 2026

Endpoint hardening isn’t a single action; it’s a combination of policies, configurations, and monitoring practices that work together to secure devices. Below are the core areas every organization should address, with updated best practices for 2025 and 2026.

Account access protection

Controlling how users authenticate and what privileges they have is one of the most effective ways to reduce the risk of compromise. Weak or unmanaged accounts remain a top entry point for attackers.

• Enable and enforce MFA (including privileged and service accounts)
• Remove extraneous or unused accounts
• Change default admin accounts
• Enforce least privilege access across user accounts
• Block end-users from installing apps
• Enforce strong passwords with rotation policies

Device configuration

How a device is configured directly impacts its security posture. Misconfigured endpoints are often the easiest targets for attackers.

• Enable secure boot to prevent unauthorized firmware or OS loading
• Disable USB
• Encrypt disk
• Block net calls from applications (notepad, wscript, cscript, etc.)
• Reduce open port exposure through firewall configuration
• Enable and expand logging for security visibility
• Disable insecure protocols like SMBv1, Telnet, and HTTP
• Password-protect BIOS/UEFI and disable boot from external media
• Apply secure configuration baselines (e.g., CIS Benchmarks, NIST guidelines)

Software and application management

Every application on a device is a potential attack vector. Hardening includes removing unnecessary software and ensuring supported tools are up to date.

• Remove potentially malicious or unapproved apps
• Remove unsupported or end-of-life software
• Deploy and maintain antivirus/EDR solutions with AI-driven detection
• Deploy password management solutions across endpoints
• Enable built-in or third-party firewalls with centrally managed rules
• Remove or restrict execution of old or unused binaries/executables
• Prevent end users from installing unauthorized apps
• Apply application whitelisting/allowlisting for critical systems

Auditing and continuous monitoring

Regular auditing and monitoring ensure that controls remain in place and effective as threats evolve.

• Audit device hardening regularly against compliance standards
• Automate configuration drift detection and remediation
• Monitor logs for anomalies with SIEM or XDR platforms
• Track endpoint inventory across on-prem, cloud, and remote environments
• Report on compliance for audits and cyber insurance requirements

These examples are not meant to be an exhaustive list, but are a great place to jump off from as you look to expand your endpoint hardening strategy.

Endpoint hardening and compliance in 2025 & 2026 + How NinjaOne can help

Most regulatory frameworks demand that organizations have a robust endpoint hardening strategy, including maintaining audit-ready evidence. Let’s take a look at how endpoint hardening supports some of the most common compliance frameworks in 2025 & 2026.

• HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act): Requires healthcare organizations to protect patient data. Endpoint hardening helps by encrypting disks, enforcing MFA, and restricting unauthorized applications that could expose protected health information (PHI).

💡 NinjaOne supports HIPAA compliance with built-in automation for patching, logging, and security baselines across healthcare endpoints. In fact, NinjaOne is a top HIPAA-compliant cloud backup service. 

• PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard): Applies to any business handling cardholder data. Hardening measures such as disabling insecure protocols, applying strong passwords, and patching software reduce the risk of data theft and help pass PCI audits.

💡NinjaOne implements security controls that regulate authentication, authorization, and access, which prevent malicious acts. These controls are available for review in our SOC2 attestation. Take note, however, that at the time of writing, NinjaOne is not PCI compliant. 

• ISO 27001: This global standard emphasizes information security management. Enforcing least privilege, monitoring configuration drift, and maintaining endpoint baselines are essential controls that align with ISO 27001’s requirements.

💡NinjaOne is ISO 27001 compliant, providing centralized visibility, automated compliance checks, and detailed reporting.

• NIS2 Directive (EU): The updated NIS2 regulations expand security obligations across critical industries in Europe. Endpoint hardening provides the technical safeguards organizations must demonstrate for compliance.

💡NinjaOne is your ally in navigating NIS2 readiness. The platform helps IT enterprises meet NIS2 by ensuring consistent endpoint configurations, automated remediation, and audit-ready logs. 

• CMMC (Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification): Required for U.S. Department of Defense contractors, CMMC emphasizes endpoint security as part of protecting Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI).

💡NinjaOne supports CMMC by automating updates, enforcing least privilege, and documenting compliance activities for audits.

• FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program): FedRAMP requires cloud service providers to demonstrate strict endpoint security and configuration management. Endpoint hardening practices such as secure boot, logging, and EDR deployment are critical.

💡NinjaOne achieved GovRAMP Authorization and FedRAMP Ready designation with secure automation workflows, centralized logging, and endpoint visibility across environments.

Challenges of endpoint hardening

Even with a clear checklist of best practices, an endpoint hardening strategy can still have its challenges, especially in complex or hybrid environments. For example:

1. Resource constraints in IT teams

Hardening devices requires time, expertise, and constant vigilance. Overloaded IT departments often prioritize putting out fires over long-term security hygiene, leaving endpoints under-protected.

2. Limited visibility into all endpoints

With hybrid work, bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies, and IoT proliferation, it can become difficult (and expensive) to maintain a complete, real-time inventory of endpoints. Unmanaged or shadow IT devices create blind spots that attackers can exploit.

💡Expert tip: We recommend reading this guide, BYOD Security Guide, for more information.

3. Compliance complexity

Different regulatory frameworks have overlapping but distinct requirements for endpoint security. Without centralized enforcement, meeting and documenting compliance can feel overwhelming.

4. Configuration drift and misconfigurations

Patches, updates, and user actions can unintentionally undo protections, creating silent vulnerabilities unless ongoing auditing and remediation are in place.

5. End-user friction and pushback

Restricting app installs, disabling USB ports, or enforcing MFA can sometimes frustrate employees, leading to workarounds that weaken security. Balancing usability with protection is a constant challenge.

These challenges make one thing clear: While endpoint hardening is essential, it can also be overwhelming for IT teams (especially smaller ones) to maintain manually. This is where automation can become a game-changer.

How automation improves endpoint hardening

There’s no doubt that investing time into securing endpoints can be a labor-intensive endeavor. It will require a lot of bandwidth, which can be hard to find within already overloaded IT departments. But, if an IT team has the means to invest in IT automation, the endpoint hardening process can be highly simplified.

Why IT automation matters for cybersecurity

If you are new to the world of IT automation or haven’t had the chance to invest yet, there are plenty of reasons why automation is such a powerful tool to have in your kit.

In IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach report, they found that organizations that had a fully deployed AI and automation program were able to identify and contain a breach 28 days faster than those that didn’t, saving roughly $3 million USD in costs.

However, it’s important to note that automation is not an all-or-nothing approach. Organizations with a partially deployed AI and automation program still fared significantly better than those without.

6 Ways automation improves endpoint hardening

So why is automation important, specifically in an endpoint hardening capacity?

1. Reduces the potential for human error

Unfortunately, no matter how many times someone runs the same process, there is still a chance that human error will come into play. Devices and vulnerabilities can be overlooked through a manual process, even with proactive monitoring. With automation, potential issues can be found and remediated ASAP.

2. Reduces the time investment in manual tasks

Manual tasks often take up the most time, but the good news is that these tasks are also the best candidates for IT automation. For example, rather than enabling a device firewall on each device individually, you could use scripts to automatically check for firewall status and enable it on any devices in which it was disabled.

3. Improves IT employee satisfaction

No one wants to spend days reviewing each individual endpoint and manually remediating issues. By implementing automation practices, IT employees can spend more time focusing on responsibilities that can help grow their careers. Not only will they spend less time on repetitive and tedious tasks, but they’ll also be able to expand their experience within automation and build important skills, leading to better employee retention.

4. Helps to support compliance

Depending on your organization’s industry, you may be subject to a number of compliance regulations. Automating compliance actions will help ensure that the organization remains compliant and avoids any potential penalties.

5. Enables real-time threat detection and response

Automation paired with AI-driven endpoint detection tools accelerates identification and containment of threats—even before they escalate—helping organizations keep pace with evolving attack methods.

6. Prevents configuration drift and ensures baseline enforcement

Automated monitoring ensures that hardened configurations remain in place by detecting and correcting deviations, reducing overlooked misconfigurations and silent vulnerabilities.

Building a stronger security foundation with endpoint hardening and automation

Strengthening security at the device level is a key step in creating a solid foundation, and using a dedicated automation tool is a great way to make the process more efficient and effective.

In our Endpoint Defense Playbook, you’ll find five detailed tutorials on how you can utilize Ninja’s built-in automation to deploy scripts, enable security tools, expand logs, secure passwords, and remove potentially malicious software.

And if you want to get your hands on a free trial, sign up here: https://www.ninjaone.com/freetrialform/