Over 50% of organizations experience a security incident each year, putting their assets, compliance posture, and brand reputation at risk. Businesses realize that traditional security tools are not adequate to detect and stop modern threats that mutate to evade detection. Organizations often receive notification via law enforcement or a credit card processor that a data breach has occurred. Reducing dwell time – the time attackers spend in an organization – and detecting incidents sooner can significantly limit adversary movement and data theft. Defense in depth is a security strategy that defends against an attack using multiple coordinated methods to buy time, delay compromise, or create enough roadblocks to deter adversaries using a layered approach to cybersecurity.
Endpoint detection and response (EDR) capabilities are one of the newer layered defense tools in the endpoint battle that block known malware and unknown, or zero-day attacks, to protect organizations from costly data breaches. Maximizing endpoint security by anomaly detection is a crucial step to prevent, detect, respond to threats and predict them. EDR also supports threat hunting by pinpointing attacks in progress and isolating impacted endpoints or servers, while minimizing false positives that waste valuable time.
EDR deployment is also seen in one of two approaches: as self-managed software, or as a managed service. Do-it-yourself (DIY) implementations of EDR may encounter implementation complexity that outstrips internal capabilities and can cause dissatisfaction with EDR. Critical success factors for EDR include training staff fully, possessing malware expertise, and allocating enough time for endpoint policies and daily operations. A managed EDR service overcomes these challenges by augmenting internal expertise with external malware and incident response experts.
Key Capabilities and EDR Benefits
With data breach counts increasing and mitigation costs rising, it’s important to strengthen endpoint security as part of an overall defense in depth security strategy. Layering endpoint security with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions is one way to strengthen defenses and keep organizations safe.
Improve Visibility and Endpoint Threat Detection
- Most threats enter an organization’s infrastructure from the endpoint. “Always on” devices extend an organization’s network perimeter and make it challenging to monitor and manage for compliance.
- Better endpoint visibility detects and blocks threats sooner, especially when integrated with a SIEM solution that correlates large amounts of data and suspicious activities in real time.
- A proactive approach to endpoint security can stop unknown malware to ensure that only approved programs, applications, and processes that meet an organization’s policies can run.
- Legacy devices or unpatched systems that hold valuable company data can also be protected by EDR solutions.
- EDR prevents the lateral spread of attacks by combining endpoint and SIEM-enabled behavior observations across the entire network that is effective against mitigating zero-day and mutating threats.
Save Time and Money
- EDR catches threats early as they enter an organization, thereby reducing the need to spend valuable time re-imaging workstations that become infected.
- A joint deployment of EDR and SIEM enables visibility from one console with a “single pane of glass” that increases cybersecurity efficiency and effectiveness.
Increase Operational Effectiveness
- A layered defense with EDR detects suspicious insider actions and reduces lateral movement that allows adversaries to use “low and slow” techniques such as Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs).
- EDR enables a single network administrator to manage over 10,000 systems with several modes to achieve endpoint policies ranging from allow to deny.
- Although EDR increases overall log volume, integrating EDR with SIEM and a managed service helps reduces false positives and prioritizes events worthy of incident response actions.
EDR is transforming endpoint protection by securing sensitive data found on workstations and servers for organizations of all sizes, from small-to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to multi-branch businesses and enterprises. What’s in it for you as a service provider? Many Managed Service Providers (MSPs) are looking to expand their revenue by adding security services to their portfolio. Organizations are more familiar with EDR use cases and benefits, facilitating rising customer adoption rates. EDR, therefore, provides fast time-to-value for providers by solving highly-visible endpoint security challenges.
Partnering with Netsurion enables you to expand your portfolio with a proven partner who understands endpoint technology and addresses the modern threat landscape. Today’s adversaries use mutation to avoid detection by traditional security tools, like anti-virus, leaving gaps that can lead to a costly data breach. EventTracker EDR closes these gaps with a defense-in-depth strategy that enhances endpoint security to contain threats early and reduce dwell time across all stages of the threat chain. Netsurion’s EventTracker EDR also earned a AAA rating, or the highest level of security product protection, from the SE Labs Independent Testing Firm. Offered as a 24/7 managed service, EventTracker EDR augments your staff with hard-to-find cybersecurity analysts in a global Security Operations Center (SOC), allowing you to provide a comprehensive service to your customers.
Blog courtesy of Netsurion, which offers the EventTracker security platform. Read more Netsurion guest blogs here.
