From remote access Trojans and ransomware to phishing and wiper attacks - the growing threat landscape and limited internal resources mean that many companies are now resorting to external security reinforcement. Managed Detection and Response (MDR) is a popular option, but with so many solutions, choosing a suitable provider can be difficult.
The main advantage of MDR is that it can provide companies with a full team of security experts overnight at a price they can afford. MDRs also give companies access to a wide variety of advanced cybersecurity tools and solutions that would otherwise be very costly. In addition, many MDR services enable fully customized implementations based on specific customer needs, which is often difficult even for the largest and best-equipped internal teams.
MDR is more than just detection
MDR not only detects threats, but also helps prevent and stop them. Every detected threat is first assessed for its authenticity in order to avoid false alarms and alarm fatigue. When a real threat is discovered, MDR providers work directly with the company to contain it as quickly as possible. As a rule, all MDR offers have the following characteristics:
- The services are provided using the technologies and tools of the MDR provider, but are deployed on-premises at the company.
- MDR relies heavily on advanced analytics and security event management
- MDR usually requires security professionals to monitor the target network around the clock, even if some automation is used.
Differences between MDR and Managed Security Services (MSS)
At first glance, MDR sounds a lot like Managed Security Services (MSS), but there are some clear differences. The first difference is the level of coverage: MDR service providers work with event logs that are automatically provided by their own or special vendor-supported tools that are installed on site and monitored remotely. Conversely, MSS can work with a much wider range of different contexts and protocols, but it is up to the customer to transmit the data to the MSS provider.
Tim Bandos, Chief Information Security Officer at Digital Guardian
Another difference lies in the scope of service when responding to incidents. With MDR, the remote incident response is usually included in the basic service, so that separate costs only arise if companies also want an incident response on site. In contrast, many MSS providers incur costs for both on-site and remote response to incidents. With an MDR solution, companies also have direct daily contact with security experts and analysts much more often. In contrast, most of the communication with MSS providers takes place via e-mail or special portals.
What to look for when choosing an MDR provider
An effective MDR provider should be able to monitor user, system, and data events to detect suspicious behavior, protect against malware, and prevent data compromise. He should provide extensive insight into the threat situation of critical systems. This includes, for example, the devices on which threats were detected, whether a third party represents the input vector for attacks, data exfiltrated or privileged user accounts abused for unauthorized access, as well as information on downtimes of production systems.
Check the provider's capabilities
Companies should thoroughly check the capabilities of the provider in practice in advance. To do this, they can create a list of documented use cases from the areas of visibility, remediation and response, and forensics that a provider should solve and test its services using services for penetration or threat simulation. This gives you a comprehensive insight into the range of technologies and services. A good MDR provider will be able to deal with advanced threats such as lateral hacking movements, credential theft, and C2 activity, but will also detect and stop less sophisticated attacks.
Supplement existing safety tools
With the multitude of different offers on the market, companies should also carefully check whether the selected service offers the type and level of security support required at a competitive price. The provider should also be able to complement existing security tools and technologies instead of completely replacing them, and be able to comply with local and sector-specific data protection regulations in order to meet all of the company's compliance obligations.
As the threat landscape continues to evolve, many organizations find themselves increasingly unable to continue the battle with internal resources alone. The right MDR solution can be a good way of strengthening corporate security quickly and cost-effectively.
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Via Digital Guardian Digital Guardian offers uncompromising data security. The data protection platform provided from the cloud was specially developed to prevent data loss from insider threats and external attackers on the Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems. The Digital Guardian Data Protection Platform can be used for the entire corporate network, traditional endpoints and cloud applications. For more than 15 years, Digital Guardian has made it possible for companies with high data volumes to protect their most valuable resources using SaaS or a fully managed service. With Digital Guardian's unique policy-less data transparency and flexible controls, organizations can protect their data without slowing down their business.