Undetected threats can cause irreparable damage to the daily flow of operations for many businesses. The ever-expanding digital footprint of modern organizations is causing business owners to rethink their security technology stack to address sophisticated new threats. To better manage cyber risk, businesses are evolving and reframing security practices in preparation for the future of cybersecurity.
The painful reality is that all organizations are under attack, whether opportunistic or targeted. The threat landscape is continually changing while the attack surface increases and the perimeter dissolves.
Cybersecurity is vital to any organization and managed detection and response (MDR) can help mitigate damages caused by cybercrime. Exploding in popularity, managed detection and response answers the challenge to rapidly identify advanced threats and contain them before business-disrupting damage can occur.
Unfortunately, the number of vendors and the variety of coverage has resulted in industry-wide confusion. While most MDR vendors claim to deliver complete protection, the fact is many provide limited signal visibility and response, leaving you unprotected against critical parts of the attack surface. Endpoint detection and response (EDR), one of the most popular subcategories of MDR, is a prime example. It provides coverage at the host level (endpoint) while leaving the perimeter, user, application and data layer without critical visibility and response capabilities. The significance of endpoint protection is undisputed, but keep in mind, it is only one layer of a complete defense, in-depth approach. That’s why a multi-signal approach to MDR is so important.
What Is MDR and How Does a Multi-Signal Approach Help My Business?
According to Gartner, managed detection and response combines technology and human expertise to allow organizations to rapidly detect, analyze, investigate and actively respond with threat mitigation and containment. Using a multi-signal approach to MDR allows managed service providers or technology consultants to offer a turnkey experience, collecting data across multiple signal sources within your environment, rather than just relying on just one signal. To detect threats before they become a disruption to business, a predefined technology stack is used to collect data from multiple signal sources:
- Endpoint
- Security
- Network
- Cloud
These sources are constantly monitored to detect threats before they become business-disrupting events. To outpace the growing speed and sophistication of modern threats, an MDR solution is paramount to protecting the attack surface of your business from all angles.
It’s important to remember that MDR providers can only detect and respond to what they can see. For uncovered layers of the attack surface, security teams must have the people, process and technology to monitor, detect and respond to advanced and evasive threats. The critical decisions you must address are:
- What is the scope of our attack surface now and in the future?
- What level of coverage do we require across each layer of the attack surface?
- Do we have the resources to monitor, detect and contain attackers for areas that would be otherwise uncovered by an MDR provider?
Cloud adoption, business applications and remote users continue to expand at exponential rates. Ingesting network, endpoint, cloud and vulnerability data enhances the visibility of your attack surfaces 24/7 and drives deeper investigations that strengthen the speed and completeness of attack responses. In other words, whether your environment is in the cloud, on-premise or somewhere in-between, an MDR service provider will monitor your network around the clock, ensuring every asset is safe and secure throughout your entire IT infrastructure.
Build a Defensible Cybersecurity Posture with ATC
A sound security strategy provides unified and reliable protection of your assets from potential threats. Businesses face a demanding and evolving threat landscape. Today, every business is vulnerable to attack, not just major global brands. The consequences of being unprepared can be catastrophic.
At ATC, we’ve got the expertise, MDR solutions and technology providers in place to mitigate threats and protect you from existential risks. We partner with companies like eSentire, that believe a multi-signal approach is paramount to protecting your complete attack surface. They will leverage a proprietary cloud-based XDR platform and MDR services to identify and stop attackers anywhere your environment or end users reside.
Managed Detection and Response for You
For 24/7, cutting-edge protection, Contact ATC and get started with the right managed detection and response solution to prevent cyber criminals from disrupting your business.
