Introduction
Malicious software has become more and more sophisticated in recent years. It seems like it used to be enough just to be worried about malware and equipment failure. Now, organizations are being victimized by targeted cyber-attacks every day across the world. Unfortunately, it seems the global market outlook for cybercriminals is only improving.
What's At Stake Anyway?
Nearly half of all cyber attacks are able to steal or destroy data, according to a study by the Ponemon Institute. As if that wasn't bad enough, a business which does not secure its data correctly risks being heavily fined according to GDPR regulations. In short, quite a lot.
Information security has never been more important in our modern, digitized world. In most cases, a small business won't have the IT personnel on staff to manually monitor all of the different types of security concerns that could occur. Fortunately, there's a new system of advanced threat protection that can help even small businesses stay secure despite the growing incidence of cyberthreats.
Endpoint Detection and Response
Endpoint Detection and Response tools are software that can detect, contain and eradicate threats with minimal disruption to the organization's workflow and productivity. Along with a suite of other security measures, such as a strong antivirus solution, a Security Information and Event Management solution, and System Operations Center monitoring, Endpoint Detection and Response software is a key tool for organizations to protect themselves against hackers.
What Is Endpoint Detection and Response?
While many security solutions address and repair damage after it's been done, EDR solutions constantly monitor the activities of the system even before any threat is discovered. By monitoring various functions present in a system such as registry keys, process calls, drivers loading, and so on, EDR software will proactively identify problems, and notify users about suspicious activities within their system on the endpoints in the system.
What are endpoints? Endpoints are desktops, mobile devices, printers, network drives, etc. EDR monitors network traffic, memory access, disk access, and other security related events for unusual behavior.
Monitoring For Suspicious Behavior
Suspicious system behavior will trigger an alert, and appropriate actions will be taken in a moment to neutralize even advanced threats before they spread. EDR also includes the ability to understand content from emails, documents and databases to identify issues before they cause harm. It then creates an incident report on suspicious activity and sends it to the monitoring server for review, and actions are taken
Does My Business Really Need It?
Not every organization uses EDR software, but every organization should.
After all, who wouldn't like to use a technology that makes it possible for security professionals to identify and contain attacks before they cause damage, as well as proactively monitor the entire environment so that cyber threats can be stopped before they impact a company's network?
Encryption
What about encryption and other cybersecurity solutions, such as firewalls? EDR solutions can work together with other data protection tools in its ecosystem to protect computer systems against ransomware. EDR systems are agents that collect files from every endpoint on the network, providing detailed information about what happened during an attack to help bolster your incident response plan.
EDR Hardware Appliances
Larger organisations often utilise dedicated hardware that serves a large office or system of offices. Endpoint Detection and Response hardware appliances offer a hardware solution for IT security that runs independently of a company's network.
EDR hardware appliances offer enterprises that need strong monitoring capabilities to handle high volume and data-heavy workloads a hardware solution that more effectively addresses their considerable EDR needs.
EDR Software
Smaller organisations and companies that wish to limit their hardware footprint, yet still implement good IT security measures, often find that EDR software is the best option for them. EDR software is software that can be installed on endpoints and servers to detect and eradicate threats with minimal disruption to the organization's workflow and productivity.
Of course, even a hardware-based EDR solution will require a software component, but it's good to know that businesses of all size will be able to protect their business operations and resources without having to purchase expensive equipment.
What is SIEM?
SIEM, or Security Information and Event Management, is an essential element of Endpoint Detection and Response software. It's the part of EDR software that is able to log, store and monitor IT security events.
SIEM uses various data analytics techniques to analyse the data reported by the clients to monitor for suspicious behavior, including behavioral analysis.
What Does A SIEM Tool Do?
A SIEM tool can accomplish a number of tasks, including:
• Collect and aggregate security data from all endpoints;
• Monitor and analyze data that includes network and log data, vulnerability scans and system events;
• Correlate information to identify and address threats;
• Produce reports and monitor trends to identify threats and intrusions, and produce meaningful and useful information;
• Identify security gaps and mitigate risk.
Analysing The Data
Behavioral analysis looks at the reported data and determines if it normal or abnormal behavior for the particular endpoint. If specific patterns are detected, the system can then be used to raise an alert that can be studied by the organization in question. Machine learning helps the EDR system stay abreast of modern threats and discover new ones.
The Security Operations Center
Ransomware can involve enormously complex threats. While automated response is important in order to address an incoming malware threat quickly, it is important to have human review of issues discovered as well.
A Security Operations Center, or SOC, is an important component of an endpoint security solution. The SOC is a security team available online 24/7 to analyse complex issues as quickly as possible. After the system detects suspicious system behavior, a technician can then begin a review process to determine whether a threat exists. The response tools can also provide remediation suggestions to help mitigate attacks in the future.
Is Endpoint Detection and Response Important?
Yes! Endpoint Detection and Response is an essential tool to stop cyberattacks. EDR software protects your business in real-time when your system is being attacked and lets your security teams know what the attack vector is. The information provided by EDR enables security professionals to discover the nature of a compromise in order to determine how to respond, if any response should be made at all. EDR also helps with forensics, post-mortem examinations and other important security concerns.
The security capabilities of EDR prevent attacks from succeeding by blocking malware activities and dropping malicious data packets before they impact an organization. EDR software stops suspicious activities in their tracks and prevents breaches by increasing network visibility that enables your security team to analyze what is happening on the endpoint level.
What About Antivirus Software? Isn't That Enough?
Don't forget antivirus software, it's still important! EDR does not replace antivirus software, but complements multi layered IT security solutions that include it.
EDR works alongside antivirus because it detects unknown and known attacks that may fly under the radar of antivirus solutions by monitoring operating systems and network activity for suspicious behaviors in real-time. EDR capabilities make it able to detect attacks that even the best antivirus software software solutions may not catch.
What About Network Intrusion Detection Systems?
Endpoint Detection and Response can also be a valuable partner for network intrusion detection systems (NIDS) because EDR provides much of the same functionality as NIDS yet can collect more information, including monitoring behavioral patterns.
That means that just like with antivirus software, EDR can see, and therefore block or alert on, activities that are invisible to NIDS. It also complements other security tools such as SIEMs.
Can't I Just Restore Everything From Backup?
If your system falls victim to ransomware, Endpoint Detection and Response software provides a valuable record of the attack so that you can compare it with network logs to determine what was stolen. It will also restore affected systems and repair damaged files detected by ongoing monitoring.
While keeping a backup is an important method of protection against data loss, EDR offer a more complete protection schema that also guards against data loss, hacked networks, loss of service, and closes up other vulnerabilities in your network. Just like antivirus software, a backup is important, but it's not the only layer of protection your business should use!
Find Out What Happened
Endpoint Detection and Recovery data also enables IT security professionals to analyze security incidents after they happen, which is critical to understanding why attacks succeed and how to better block malicious activity in the future. Lightweight agents collect files from endpoint devices on the network, providing detailed information about what happened during an attack. This information can help bolster your incident response plan.
Endpoint Detection and Recovery - The Solution
EDR combines policy-based controls, file integrity monitoring, network behavior analytics, endpoint detection, malware protection, threat intelligence sharing, deep forensic analysis, incident response and other advanced security measures to protect what's important - your data and your business.
An EDR solution provides IT security teams the context they need to act quickly and decisively. EDR detects and alerts on suspicious activity no matter where it occurs in the network, while instantly correlating events across your enterprise for fast issue resolution - all without slowing down end-user experience or business productivity.
Your company can't risk an attack. Endpoint Detection and Recovery is the advanced IT security system that can combat advanced persistent threats, protect your endpoint data, and help your company comply with GDPR regulations.
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