Updates
2024-01-23 Added a new section informing about the update schedule
2024-01-09 Added a new section to help guide existing users to the new location of menu items.
System upgrade schedule
This change will be deployed to elements.withsecure.com on 30 January 2024 at 10.00 (UTC), and no downtime is expected. The changes will take effect the next time the user logs into the Elements Security Center, or the browser page is refreshed. In case of problems, we advise users to log in again.
Background
As you may have seen from our recent Elements Quarterly infoshare, we are currently implementing some changes to the Elements Security Center. These changes will simplify our customer’s lives when managing their security portfolio, and the Elements Security Center is a key part of that.
A short history of WithSecure Elements
Originally, the products that make up WithSecure Elements were entirely separate, with each product having it’s own portal, separate users, and separate partner/company organization structures. This worked, but was certainly not in the most efficient way.
To address this deficiency, we created the WithSecure Elements Security Center, which unified all of these separate products under one umbrella, with a single login, and aligned users and organizations.
But that was only the first step on the road to unification. While everything is in one place, our ambition level is higher, and we want the Elements Security Center to be focused on the needs of the user, and not constrained by the product subscriptions the customer has purchased.
So what are we actually changing?
Based on our own experiences, and from taking feedback from our users, it is clear that unification of some tasks and actions is needed.
We will group and merge items that are related to the operational tasks of the Elements user
For example, detections. Previously, these were in one place for Endpoint Protection and one place for Endpoint Detection and Response, so the user had to actually check both sections of the Elements Security Center. By having these all these grouped into a single section, it makes the life of the user so much easier.
Another example would be user and device management. These are clear administrative tasks, and it makes good sense to have these handled in a uniform way. By aggregating these tasks into one area of the Elements Security Center, we can help the user be more efficient in their day to day work.
When will we see the results of these changes?
While we would love to be able to say exactly when all these visionary changes will be available, it’s simply not possible to give an exact date. We will implement the changes in meaningful phases for the user during 2024, starting already in January 2024.
Changes take time to make. Our development teams are amazing, but changes take time to implement, test, and deploy. We need to do different parts at different times.
More optimized user interaction.We want to make the user interactions with the Elements Security Center feel more natural and optimized, so that the user can work more efficiently. At the same time, we need to ensure there’s no loss of functionality compared to the earlier Elements Security Center.
We will initially focus on our Endpoint Protection and Endpoint Detection and Response products, as this will bring the best improvements to the daily user operations within the Elements Security Center. These changes will be released to our customers on January 30th 2024.
Changes for Endpoint Protection and Endpoint Detection and Response
New navigation menu
One of the most important parts of a user interface is the ease of navigation between different parts of the interface.
By grouping similar activities, we aim to speed up the daily work of our users, and present the items in a manner that is consistent with the typical user actions. For example, checking detections is an action that is the same across Endpoint Protection and Endpoint Detection and Response, so it makes sense for these to be grouped together
All images presented in this article are for demonstration purposes, and may change slightly in the final version we release.
Elements Home
When an administrator logs into the Elements Security Center, they’re first presented with the Home page. This page serves as the main starting page, and includes content that is informative, easy to navigate, and comprehensive. It provides the right insights on the current security posture, in one view.
[Click image to see at full size]
Elements Endpoint Protection Dashboard
One of the most common actions an administrator performs is to check the status of their devices in Endpoint Protection.
With the updated dashboard, we have made the important information stand out so the administrator has an overview immediately visible. At the same time, a list of actions or concerns is visible, ranked by severity, which will help the administrator prioritize their own work in addressing problems.
[Click image to see at full size]
Elements Reports
All of the Endpoint Protection and Endpoint Detection and Response reports have been placed together, enabling the administrator to access them from one convenient place.
[Click image to see at full size]
Elements Security Services
All of the additional Security Services available for WithSecure Elements are now shown in one place in the Elements Security Center.
The Security Services are additional services offered by WithSecure, to help our customers and partners when they may not have the expertise available to handle some situations themselves.
This section also includes information on the organization’s entitlement to use the services, together with the current usage status, for example the number of available WithSecure Elevate tokens.
[Click image to see at full size]
What about other Elements Products?
We won’t be ignoring the other products, and “behind the scenes” changes will be made to support this work as we move forward. Eventually, the other products that are part of WithSecure Elements, such as Vulnerability Management, Collaboration Protection, and Cloud Security Posture Management will also be seamlessly integrated to the Elements Security Center.
Will the APIs be changing?
There will be no changes to the Elements APIs related to these visual changes. This is purely about how things are visualized in the Elements Security Center.
Where to find the menu entries after the change
All old portal functionalities are available, but their locations may have changed. Please check the images below to help you find the new locations of the functionalities.
Although these changes look complex, we believe that our users will quickly be able to use the menus. The change is likely to affect our long-term users more, as they will have "muscle memory" from using the older structure for so long. Newer users are likely to adapt more quickly, as they haven't had the same amount of time to build this "muscle memory"
You can click on the images to see them at full size.
