In the era of hybrid working, when the lines between the personal and professional are becoming increasingly blurred, your business’ endpoints have become more valuable targets than ever before. As employees benefit from increasingly flexible working models, transporting devices between home and the office, security is often sacrificed. As a result, Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) has become increasingly essential.
What is EDR?
Like Anti-virus, EDR is security software that is installed on each workstation, laptop, server and even mobile phone. These devices are called Endpoints (hence ‘Endpoint’ Detection and Response).
But for the most part, that’s where the comparison ends. EDR is far more powerful than Antivirus, and here’s why.
Antivirus software will only respond to threats it already knows and understands (kind of like your body’s immune system). It compares files on each endpoint against a library of threat ‘signatures’. If the file matches a signature, it will attempt to respond.
But if there’s no signature, then the threat will go undetected, and the endpoint will be compromised.
This is a serious problem. Today, many threats don’t target files, rendering Anti-virus powerless to protect. But more importantly, the vast majority of threats are ‘Zero Day’ – meaning they are largely unknown to the Antivirus product vendors (and thus, there are no signatures).
This is where EDR comes in.
EDR monitors everything on every endpoint in real-time. Then, EDR uses artificial intelligence and behavioural detection smarts to detect malicious behaviour and block threats – all with no prior knowledge, and without the need for a signature library – so you’re covered for fileless and even Zero Day threats.
Most EDR software is managed through a web-based administrative console. Here you can group your endpoints, set custom security policies, update policies, notification settings and more.
Whenever a threat is detected or eliminated, the administrative console can send email notifications to specific staff, or even service management software. As you can see, EDR is incredibly powerful. But like any other security solution, you can’t just install it and walk away. Someone needs to ensure its deployed to every endpoint, review notifications and keep on top of serious threats when they arise.
EDR needs to be managed.
What are Managed EDR services?
Managed EDR services add a human element to EDR technology. This is where a team of cyber security experts monitor and manage your EDR solution around the clock.
The team ensures the EDR software is up to date, reviews all the notifications created by the software and analyses the EDR data to decide which insights are useful and which aren’t.
Managed EDR services help to make EDR both more efficient and more accurate, ultimately aiding the threat detection and response cycle. Once the data has been optimised, the analysts can automate incident response, helping your business to tackle potential attacks faster.
At Tekspace, we carry out our Managed EDR services in 3 simple stages:
- Collect data from a business’ endpoints using EDR software
- Analyse the data to identify normal behavioural patterns and differentiate threat patterns
- Automate threat responses and notify the relevant security players
Why does your business need Managed EDR services?
A recent study from the Ponemon Institute reported that 68% of all organisations have experienced at least one endpoint attack that successfully compromised their data or IT infrastructure. As the cyber threat landscape continues to evolve, the only way to protect your business is to invest in proactive, intelligent security solutions.
As Managed EDR services streamline the detection and prevention of cyber threats, they naturally help your business to avoid the negative financial, reputational and operational consequences of an attack.
With Managed EDR services, you can feel assured that your employees, your data and your organisation are protected, even as you embrace the world of flexible working.
Getting started with Managed EDR services
Tekspace offer proactive, intelligent Managed EDR services that will fortify the defence of your business’ endpoints. We take the time to understand your infrastructure, your networks and your processes, making our service bespoke to you. We are committed to working in the way that best suits your business; you can either outsource the management of your EDR solutions completely to us, or we can work alongside your internal IT teams.
To start strengthening your cyber security with our Managed EDR services, get in touch with one of our experts today.
