The new ESET Endpoint Security v.9 brings a stable build for Windows 10 on ARM and Windows 11 on ARM-powered devices
After half a year of beta testing, ESET has released a stable build of ESET Endpoint Security ready to help businesses protect their investments into Windows on ARM-based devices. Unlike simpler applications that may only require recompiling the source code for the new hardware platform, reengineering ESET’s endpoint protection technology for ARM-powered devices required intense effort from our development teams. A key contribution to this project was the invaluable feedback of beta product testers and Qualcomm, whom ESET would like to thank.
Starting with version 9, the ARM64 builds of both ESET Endpoint Security and ESET Endpoint Antivirus are now available alongside the x86 (32-bit) and x64 (64-bit) builds. The new builds come with an ARM64 build of ESET Management Agent, making the management and deployment of endpoint protection for a fleet of ARM-based devices easy via the ESET PROTECT console.
ESET PROTECT offers IT admins a unified endpoint management solution that now extends to the ARM64 platform with the same powerful management capabilities and experience. Current ESET business customers can use their existing subscriptions to license the new ARM64 builds.
While the current ARM builds are stable and fully supported by ESET, a few features are currently unsupported compared to the x86 and x64 builds. ESET is working on adding these features in future releases. Nevertheless, thanks to its multi-layered approach to protection, ESET Endpoint Security for ARM still offers a slew of prevention and detection technologies. These range from real-time file system protection that scans files for malicious code whenever they are created, opened, or run, to web access protection that monitors HTTP and HTTPS traffic for malicious software, all the way to anti-phishing protection that detects illegitimate websites attempting to steal passwords or other sensitive data.
Businesses looking to migrate employees to an “Always On, Always Connected PC” model should be prepared for the accompanying risks of employees being always connected to the internet and able to access sensitive data from anywhere—hence the importance of a mature security suite. The pursuit of business effectiveness and an improved customer experience with ARM-powered hardware in employees’ hands entails a twofold dependency:
- a sufficient growth of an ecosystem of high-performing native ARM applications; and
- a reconfiguration of security policies and system hardening for “always on, always connected” employees.
Thus, whatever your use case for adopting or experimenting with ARM-based devices—from real-time GPS tracking, to running mobile point-of-sale software, to enabling anywhere access to data for essential services workers—a critical component of your move to ARM should undoubtedly be endpoint security.
For consumers on the lookout for a security solution compatible with their Microsoft Surface Pro X, HP Elite Folio, Lenovo Flex 5G, or other ARM-powered device, ESET provides a beta version available in the ESET Forum.