EDR sifts through endpoint telemetry and flags anomalies. It identifies and tracks threats in real-time, so you can manage attacks as they occur and minimize disruptions and financial losses.
It also reduces dwell time – the amount of time an attacker remains undetected in your network. To do this, it relies on advanced technology and analyst expertise.
Endpoint Detection and Response
Detecting, looking into, and responding to invasive cyber threats already entering your network is the fundamental function of EDR’s toolkit. It what is EDR does: EDR monitors all activity on endpoints to look for unusual behavior that might hint at an attack. Then analysts are automatically informed. The solution can coordinate a response after the analyst has determined that an alert is malicious. Depending on the threat kind and its position in the cyber death chain, it will perform a variety of measures. To evaluate a file in a secure environment, a sandbox may, for instance, separate it from the rest of your network.
An effective EDR solution should also include real-time visibility and forensics. It can help security teams understand how an attacker accessed the network and what information was stolen.
It should also have a variety of automated responses integrated into its system to act based on preconfigured rules that recognize when incoming data indicates a possible threat. It can prevent security teams from chasing false flags and save valuable time. It can also reduce “alert fatigue,” a friendly security team issue that can negatively impact morale and the longevity of your employees’ careers! Additionally, it should have various capabilities to detect and stop even the most advanced attacks without increasing analyst workloads or requiring highly skilled cybersecurity specialists.
Intrusion Detection System (IDS)
With the growth of remote work, employees access their networks through various devices and locations. These dispersed endpoints create an attack surface for malware and other threats to enter. Without continuous monitoring, these issues can slip past prevention tools and remain in the environment for weeks or months before the security team becomes aware of them. An EDR solution will help mitigate this risk by constantly monitoring the network.
As the name implies, an IDS is a system that detects intrusions by analyzing traffic passing across the network. By comparing the contents of incoming packets against a library of known attack signatures, an IDS can identify and alert administrators of suspicious activity. Many IDS solutions are signature-based, relying on a database of common intrusion patterns and identities that must be regularly updated to remain effective.
While detecting threats is critical to EDR, it’s equally important to investigate them once they have been seen and contained. It can provide valuable insights into how the threat penetrated the perimeter and compromised an endpoint. An EDR solution should include investigative capabilities. These capabilities allow security teams to “shoulder surf” an adversary in real time, observing how they use the tools to infiltrate the network and exploit systems.
Intrusion Prevention System (IPS)
An IPS takes the threat detection and alerting capabilities of an IDS one step further by taking preventive action. Depending on the solution’s configuration, it can include shutting down a port, stopping traffic to and from a particular device, or refusing further activity from a specific IP address. This primarily automated response helps limit the damage of an attack and frees up time for security administrators to focus on monitoring and responding to alerts.
IPS tools sit inline (i.e., directly in the path of network traffic) and typically behind a firewall and monitor everything that makes it inside the enterprise perimeter. They use various detection techniques, such as signature-based detection, which compares network data packets against known patterns and signatures associated with malicious attacks. Other methods include anomaly-based detection, which searches for unexpected network behavior, and policy-based detection, which looks for activities that violate enterprise policies.
IPS solutions often look for ways to “clean” an intruder’s attack content before it can cause damage, such as by removing malware or replacing it with benign code. They can also change the attack’s protocol to make it less damaging. Finally, IPS tools can be cloud-based or appliance-based. Still, the best solutions have unlimited computing resources to quickly decrypt and inspect encrypted traffic streams without affecting performance.
Advanced Threat Detection
The threat landscape continues to evolve, exposing new attack patterns and methodologies that can bypass traditional security tools like firewalls and antivirus. Advanced threats often take advantage of unique attack vectors, such as unsecured IoT devices and malware specific to an organization’s systems. These attacks may also evade antivirus solutions or EDR platforms, making finding and responding to the threat hard.
Many of these threats can be caught using advanced threat detection techniques that leverage sandboxing, automated monitoring, and behavioral analysis. These tools help prevent cyberattacks by isolating programs and files in a virtual prison to allow security analysts or solutions to evaluate them without risking the host system.
Integrated with other advanced prevention, detection, investigation, and response technologies, these tools can ensure that advanced threats are detected and eliminated before they cause significant damage. The result is a more comprehensive security posture that is difficult to compromise and reduces the time to notice, prioritize, investigate, and respond to any threat. EDR Core provides this complete security by combining network and endpoint detection and response capabilities into a single solution that works with other next-gen antivirus and EDR solutions for seamless, adequate protection.