Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) is an emerging, and necessary, approach to IT security. With an increasing number of devices connecting to company networks, it’s vital to monitor and analyze data from these devices.
What Is Endpoint Detection and Response?
Traditional antivirus (AV) solutions handle security by monitoring potentially malicious files on a network or an endpoint (smartphone, desktop, or laptop). It uses a database of historically malicious files and file types and scans the network to identify threats and remove them. They are effective at quarantining these files and ensuring they do not wreak havoc on a network.
But, this approach relies on the database to define threats. Cyberattacks are growing more frequent and complex every day and many include a breach at more than one endpoint. So, it’s nearly impossible for any database to stay up to date.
EDR looks at behavior on a network instead of relying on a historical database. It monitors and collects endpoint data and flags any malicious activity.
EDR solutions employ a variety of methods for network security. These include:
- Consistent monitoring and analysis of endpoint data
- Data collection agents
- Automated rule-based system actions
- Forensic tools
- Real-time analytics engines
What Does EDR Do?
Integrated Hub And Data Collection Agents.
EDR solutions monitor endpoints around the clock and flag any suspicious behavior across the network. Data collection agents scour networks to monitor and collect any relevant endpoint data. This data is accessible through a hub that displays every piece of endpoint data collection and analysis.
Rule-based System Actions
IT departments can configure rules on EDR solution software. This could include notifying a staff member when there is suspicious activity on the network to logging off an end-user that goes beyond their privileges. These are fully automated and integrated with EDR solutions.
Forensic Tools And Real-time Analytics Engine
A real-time analytics engine uses algorithms to evaluate and sort through data. It searches for patterns of behavior that could indicate malicious intent.
Threat hunting is a forensic tool that identifies patterns and traces where a threat might cause a data breach or see how it moves through the network. IT departments generally use this tool when a threat was undetected on an endpoint.
Replacing Antivirus With EDR
Traditional AV only scans files on a network and with new cyber threats, like file-less malware and ransomware, it is crucial to take a proactive approach to security.
EDR solutions monitor the behavior on a network. So, they could easily identify file-less malware that only uses the tools of an operating system and not any recognized files.
Ransomware, which masquerades as ordinary documents or media files, is also less dangerous. This is because an EDR solution would spot any attempt at malicious activity.
Thus, threat hunting through an EDR solution gives IT departments a way of proactively investigating and resolving threats before they lead to a data breach.
Conclusion
EDR solutions are becoming the new normal for security. This is because they are better suited to preventing cyberattacks than traditional antivirus as they constantly monitor threats and offer forensic tools for threat hunting and pattern searching.
For more information on how implementing EDR can help your business, contact one of our MicroAge locations.
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