Top Endpoint Protection Solutions for Windows, Mac, and Linux

Securing a mixed fleet of Windows, macOS, and Linux devices requires more than traditional antivirus solutions. Today’s endpoint protection platforms combine next-generation antivirus with behavioral analytics and endpoint detection and response, enabling you to prevent, detect, and remediate threats across every device from a single console. If you’re looking for cross-platform options, leaders frequently include Deel, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne Singularity, Cisco Secure Endpoint, and Cortex XDR—each providing strong Windows, Mac, and Linux coverage with centralized policy control.

If your organization also needs HR-aligned workflows for onboarding/offboarding and audit evidence, Deel IT Endpoint Protection helps unify device security with workforce data.

This guide walks HR, IT, and operations leaders through a practical, layered approach: inventory everything, harden each OS, deploy a cross-platform EPP, enforce policies with UEM, automate patching, and continuously monitor and test. That workflow reduces breach risk, streamlines compliance for global teams, and supports scalable operations.

Understanding Endpoint Protection and Its Importance

An endpoint protection platform is an integrated security solution that monitors, detects, and blocks threats on laptops, desktops, servers, and IoT devices. EPPs combine next-generation antivirus, behavioral analysis, host firewalls, and automated response to secure devices in real time, often with cloud-delivered intelligence and a centralized console.

Solutions such as Deel IT align these technical controls with HR device ownership and geo-compliance workflows, helping global teams operationalize EPP faster.

Key components you’ll encounter:

• Endpoint detection and response for deep visibility, rapid investigation, and containment
• Next-generation antivirus for signatureless, behavior- and ML-driven prevention
• Centralized dashboards to manage policies, alerts, and reporting across OSes
• Compliance support and cross-platform compatibility for Windows, macOS, and Linux

Legacy antivirus vs. modern endpoint protection:

Business impact:

• Reduce breach likelihood and impact through early detection and automated containment
• Simplify compliance evidence (device status, patch levels, policy enforcement)
• Centralize control for consistent security across distributed and remote teams

Step 1: Inventory and baseline your devices

Start by knowing exactly what you need to protect. A current, automated inventory uncovers unmanaged assets, outdated builds, and shadow IT—common root causes of inconsistent controls and audit gaps.

Establish secure configuration baselines—such as CIS Benchmarks—for each OS and device role. Baselines let you detect drift, standardize hardening, and speed up onboarding.

Practical flow:

1. Discover all endpoints (corporate, BYOD where permitted, servers, VMs).
2. Flag unmanaged or legacy devices; prioritize remediation or replacement.
3. Document and apply secure configuration baselines (per OS and role).
4. Track ownership and criticality; link devices to users and business units.
5. Set up continuous inventory sync with your UEM/CMDB.

Helpful tools:

• Unified endpoint management (UEM) platforms for automated discovery
• Lightweight agents or network scans to identify unknown devices
• Asset tagging and ownership metadata for HR and IT alignment

Deel IT extends this by tying device records to employment status and location, improving ownership accuracy and offboarding speed across regions.

Step 2: Harden Windows, Mac, and Linux systems

System hardening reduces the attack surface before you add advanced controls. In practice, that means disabling unnecessary services, enforcing secure boot, encrypting drives, locking down admin rights, and standardizing secure configurations.

Recommended hardening by OS:

Step 3: Deploy a cross-platform endpoint protection solution

Choose an EPP that provides NGAV, EDR, and preferably XDR coverage for Windows, macOS, and Linux devices. Core must-haves include a single management console, behavioral analysis, policy enforcement, real-time cloud lookups, and rich telemetry.

Representative cross-platform options:

Centralized dashboards unify policy, updates, and investigations across Windows, macOS, and Linux endpoints—critical for consistency and audit readiness.

If you already use Deel for HR, Deel IT Endpoint Protection extends that source of truth to your device fleet, streamlining deployment, policy governance, and audit evidence in one place.

Step 4: Enforce security policies with unified endpoint management

Unified endpoint management (or mobile device management for mobile-first fleets) enrolls devices, applies configs, and enforces policies automatically—improving compliance and reducing time-to-secure. Typical functions include zero-touch enrollment, compliance rules, conditional access (e.g., MFA, device health checks), OS patch scheduling, app whitelisting, and role-based access.

Examples:

• Microsoft Intune for cross-OS enrollment, compliance, and conditional access
• ManageEngine Endpoint Central (formerly Desktop Central) for patching and policy automation across platforms
• Jamf Pro for deep macOS management
• VMware Workspace ONE for broad device coverage

For a closer look at capabilities and selection tips, see Deel’s guide to the best MDM solutions for device security.

Suggested mapping:

Step 5: Automate patch management and continuous remediation

Patch management is the process of identifying, prioritizing, testing, and deploying updates for operating systems and applications. Automation shrinks the exposure window, lowers manual workload, and standardizes compliance—especially vital for teams spanning time zones. Many endpoint platforms automatically install OS and third-party app updates remotely and integrate with isolation workflows to contain risk during outbreaks.

Practical setup flow:

1. Classify devices by criticality and maintenance windows.
2. Enable automatic OS and third-party patch scanning; subscribe to vendor advisories.
3. Pilot updates with ring deployments; monitor for regressions.
4. Auto-approve security patches; schedule standard updates by risk/impact.
5. Enforce deadlines; require reboots when needed; notify users transparently.
6. Integrate with EPP to auto-quarantine compromised devices until compliant.
7. Report patch SLA adherence and audit exceptions.

Deel IT provides a consolidated view of patch SLAs across regions and business units, helping teams coordinate maintenance windows, communicate reboots, and demonstrate compliance by workforce segment.

Step 6: Monitor, hunt, and respond to threats proactively

Move beyond reactive blocking. EDR provides real-time monitoring and analysis to identify and respond to endpoint threats—including advanced persistent threats and fileless attacks—by correlating process, network, and memory activity. Threat hunting is the proactive search of telemetry (logs, memory, file metadata) for indicators of attacker presence or evasion techniques, a practice summarized in this cross-OS threat hunting guide.

What good operations look like:

• Map detections and investigations to MITRE ATT&CK to spot coverage gaps
• Use detection rules and behavior analytics tuned to your environment’s baselines
• Automate first-response playbooks: isolate host, kill process, block hash, roll back changes

Open-source tools that deepen investigations across OSes include osquery, GRR, and related frameworks highlighted in this guide to open-source EDR tooling.

Key telemetry to collect:

• Windows: Security Event Logs, Sysmon, PowerShell logs, Defender events
• macOS: Unified Logs, EndpointSecurity framework events (via EDR), process/file events
• Linux: auditd, journald/syslog, kernel/eBPF events, process accounting
• All OSes: EPP/EDR telemetry, DNS/HTTP logs, identity signals (MFA failures, privilege changes)

Step 7: Test your endpoint security and iterate for improvement

Validation keeps controls effective as threats and business needs evolve. Run periodic tabletop and red-team exercises, validate malware and script detection, measure agent impact on performance, and confirm policy enforcement across user roles and geographies. Tune detections to reduce false positives without sacrificing coverage, and review policies after every significant incident or OS release.

Track a small, durable metrics set:

• Mean time to detect, contain, and remediate
• Percentage of devices meeting baseline and patch SLAs
• Incident volume by severity and root cause
• Policy drift rate and time-to-enrollment for new devices

Deel IT helps teams report these metrics alongside device ownership and geography, making audit packages and executive dashboards easier to produce.

Deel IT endpoint protection: Solving cross-platform security pain points

Whether you’re in HR/People Ops, IT/SecOps, or Operations, securing a global, mixed-OS fleet requires more than an agent—your endpoint program must align with how you hire, equip, and offboard people worldwide. Deel IT Endpoint Protection is designed for that intersection.

Who it helps and how:

• HR and People Ops: Automate device assignment at hire, verify encryption and baseline status before day one, and trigger access revocation and device isolation at offboarding without tickets back-and-forth.
• IT and SecOps: Unify Windows/macOS/Linux protection in one console tied to workforce data; standardize policies, automate quarantine for noncompliant devices, and accelerate investigations with user, role, and location context.
• Compliance and Finance: Produce audit-ready evidence (patch SLAs, baseline adherence, device ownership) by legal entity or region; reduce tool sprawl and licensing complexity with integrated workflows.
• Operations and Procurement: Track assets globally with HR-linked ownership, coordinate shipping/returns, and enforce security baselines on day-zero through existing UEMs.

Common pain points addressed:

• Fragmented visibility across OSes and regions: Deel IT consolidates device posture, policies, and workforce context in one view.
• Slow onboard/offboard handoffs: HR events trigger automated enrollment, policy application, and access changes.
• Audit friction: Pre-built reports align device posture to compliance needs by entity, country, and team.
• Policy drift and exceptions: Continuous compliance checks with automated enforcement and exception workflows.

Getting started in weeks, not months:

• Integrate identity (SSO) and sync workforce data from Deel HR if applicable.
• Connect your UEMs and set CIS-aligned baselines per OS.
• Roll out in rings to a pilot group; measure MTTD/MTTR, patch SLAs, and policy adherence improvements.
• Expand fleet coverage and enable automated offboarding and conditional access.

Best practices for managing endpoint protection at scale

• Centralize visibility: manage device status, OS configurations, and compliance from one dashboard, with HR/IT alignment on ownership and policy exceptions.
• Drive policy-based automation: quarantine noncompliant devices, auto-roll out patches, enforce least privilege, and use role-based access controls for administrators.
• Invest in baseline fidelity: codify CIS-aligned configurations; block drift with continuous compliance checks.
• Leverage open-source alongside commercial tools for forensics and threat response (e.g., osquery, GRR).
• Integrate identity: require MFA and conditional access tied to device health and risk signals.
• Keep people in the loop: document runbooks, train response teams, and schedule regular control reviews.
• Tie device security to workforce events: use Deel IT to connect employment status, location, and role to endpoint policies, onboarding, and offboarding.

Defense-in-depth checklist: