No More Cyber Solution Alphabet Soup
One of the top drivers impacting the infosec community is how dynamic the threat landscape continues to be. A key way to stay ahead of its changing nature is to invest in security solutions that are agile enough to evolve alongside new threat groups and their attack methods. This means focusing your attention on D&R capabilities – namely, solutions that provide advanced threat detection and response.
However, even when we’ve narrowed down the focus to D&R-centric solutions, organizations are still met with an abundance of similar-sounding acronyms. MDR, EDR, XDR – it’s alphabet soup! What’s more is that you’re expected to figure out which security technologies would best fit your specific business needs as they all offer differing services and approaches to managing, detecting, and responding to cyberthreats. This is as much a challenge as staving off your attackers.
IT leaders need a clear breakdown of these solutions to understand what they need to defend themselves and their clients. This blog post will cover what you need to know about MDR, EDR, XDR, SIEM, and SOAR and, most importantly, where they stand in providing the services you need.
Managed Detection & Response (MDR)
When you hear “MDR”, think:
24/7 continuous monitoring by highly specialized security analysts
Immediate, active response before lateral spread – a crucial phase of the hacker timeline
Eliminating long-term alert fatigue and time spent on false positives
Fully managed security service built to be agile and responsive to advanced threats
MDRs provide great value to businesses that require a fully managed approach to their security. MDR services are defined by achieving specific security goals and outcomes on your behalf. They are unique in that they leverage a streamlined technology stack and expertise to continuously monitor your environment and provide effective, active response to cyber threats.
Increasingly, businesses are investing in MDR to tackle a widening IT skill/talent gap, long-term alert fatigue, and lack of coverage outside of regular business hours. MDRs ensure you have 24/7 access to security specialists that provide deep visibility and granular protection. By partnering with an MDR provider, organizations see significant cost savings returned when compared to maintaining an equivalent in-house SOC.
Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR)
When you hear “EDR”, think:
Monitoring activity on endpoint devices rather than the network
Providing alerts and information needed to protect endpoints
Isolating threats and understanding their behaviour for future, similar events
Storing data for use during investigative efforts and root-cause analyses
An endpoint is a point on the network that grants access to authorized users. EDRs are dedicated to securing your endpoints through a predictive cyber strategy that combines threat intelligen