Managed Detection and Response - Cybersecurity For Your Business
Managed Detection and Response (MDR) brings modern technology and human expertise together to offer organizations remotely delivered modern security operations center (MSOC) functions at a reasonable cost.
There is a lack of security within most organizations, big and small. Though different companies face different security challenges, MDR gives businesses of all types and sizes the opportunity to access the experts who can monitor, analyze and respond to threats in a timely manner without the expense of an in-house security team. Large companies with the resources to build their own threat monitoring system may struggle to staff their security department with knowledgeable and well trained personnel who have the time and ability to understand the continually evolving threat landscape. And while a small company owner with a minimum number of employees may not see a need for system monitoring, the liability incurred when customer information is compromised and no security system is in place can be staggering. MDR offers both of these scenarios a highly effective, cost efficient solution to the challenges of securing today’s computerized business environment.
The best defense is always a good offense, which is why there are several layers to Managed Detection and Response, each a building block contributing to a secure foundation that stops intrusion and limits the damage done by malicious invaders. 24/7 monitoring combines the best of computer efficiency with the analytics of human experience to rapidly detect, analyze, investigate and respond to apparent threats. How does this work? MDR is designed to detect real threats to the organization utilizing security information and event management (SEIM). Many businesses are overrun with tools that generate waves of alerts, often false positives that are expensive and time consuming to evaluate and resolve. MDR combines real-time continuous monitoring to work with network firewall security, cloud data security and antivirus protection to detect and defend against suspicious behavior and provide a wide range of protection against malicious threats. Algorithms analyze potential threats as both singular incidents and as a whole to evaluate for patterns, signaling the possibility of a larger concern. Once the information is sifted through security information and relevant threats and accompanying data are passed on to human analysts, providing centralized visibility to events in real time, allowing for faster and more accurate identification of what is real and truly requires prioritized response.
Along with recognizing your network devices and understanding actual threats, a Managed Detection and Response solution is designed to customize a tailor-made protection force tuned to the unique conditions of any network environment. This customized configuration is based on the type of servers and applications each organization runs and the different types of user community profiles that make up the workforce. As the environment changes, the solution can be easily modified to adapt to changes in the environment, for example, a sudden shift of office-based user activity to remote-based user activity.
While the MDR solution constantly detects and protects against changes within routers, firewalls, and other servers, it also gathers full-configuration information and recognizes changes in threat feeds, blacklists, and geolocations. This improves the accuracy in monitoring and reporting, and when you combine that with an expert staff of security operations center analysts, you have a threat detection system that stands at the ready to identify and respond to the events that threaten a business. But even with the most sophisticated safeguards in place, a breach is likely to occur at some point. When an organization’s security is threatened, the MDR solution will minimize the impact. With expert guidance, an organization can work through a specific threat with as little impact to the business as possible. Once a specific threat is detected, information provided will allow the company to understand details relevant to response including when and where the attack occurred, what information or systems were compromised and how far into the system the attackers were able to penetrate. The ultimate MDR goal after any incident is to isolate the problem, eliminate the problem and restore the organization back to normal function.
Finally, all organizations with stored personal information must operate within the bounds of FFIEC, HIPAA, PCI, and other security regulations, and a MDR solution helps in achieving compliance. When the request comes in looking for an audit report or exam, the MDR solution can generate the needed reports on controls, such as user access logs, system changes, and any other monitoring adherence needed, fulfilling regulatory compliance requirements.
For every new security system developed there are hundreds of devious minds working to figure out a way past the roadblocks and into the valuable information stored within an organization’s computer system. A Managed Detection and Response system has the ability to take on the escalating security challenges, analyze and differentiate between different types of threats, develop the protocols and systems to isolate and recover from attacks, and offer these services to companies of all sizes at a cost that is sustainable and far below that of an in-house full security system.
