Endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions identify, isolate, and remediate endpoint threats such as viruses and malware, providing a high level of protection for corporate workstation, laptops, mobile and IoT devices, and servers.
To achieve this, EDR tools use a combination of behavioral analytics and machine learning to monitor each endpoint in real-time for unusual activity that might indicate an endpoint has been breached. If the solution detects an anomaly, it will either contain to remediate the threat automatically in line with pre-configured workflows, or alert your security team to the threat so you can investigate it and respond appropriately.
On average, security organizations using an EDR tool experience a 50% lower rate of serious security incidents than those that haven’t implemented EDR.
But is implementing an EDR tool enough to protect your business from cyberthreats?
The short answer is no. While it’s clear these tools help improve security, they only cover a certain portion of the attack surface. So instead of relying solely on EDR, we recommend that organizations implement it as part of a broader cybersecurity strategy.
Let’s take a look at why—and how—you can do just that.
Strengths Of EDR
The first key strength of EDR solutions is that they provide continuous, accurate threat detection. EDR tools continuously monitor your company’s endpoints for threats such as viruses, malware, and ransomware. Unlike traditional signature-based antivirus tools, EDR solutions use ML to analyze user and machine behavior across your network, enabling them to detect threats much earlier on in the attack timeline and isolate, quarantine, or block them before that damage can spread.
If the EDR tool can’t remediate the threat automatically, it sends you an alert so you can investigate the issue manually. The best EDR tools even triage those alerts for you, making it easier for you to address any critical issues more quickly.
These capabilities help improve the effectiveness and speed of your incident response processes, minimizing the overall impact of any breaches on your business operations.
The second key strength is the EDR solutions offer wide coverage that’s easy to manage. EDR solutions protect a significant portion of your attack surface—your endpoints. The number of endpoints in an organization can quickly become difficult to manage, particularly for those with employees working remotely or using personal devices for work. EDR solutions provide you with a single, central view of the activity occurring on every endpoint, making it easier for you to identify behavioral trends and suspicious activity.
But EDR tools don’t just enable you to manage multiple endpoints via one platform; they also enable you to manage multiple processes, including endpoint monitoring, threat intelligence, alert triage and investigation, incident remediation, and forensic investigation. This means you don’t have to spend time juggling multiple different security tools, it improves operational efficiency, and it helps prevent any threats from slipping through the cracks often found in environments using multiple disparate or siloed solutions.
Limitations Of EDR
That all sounds great, right? But just like any other security tool, EDR solutions are not a silver bullet for security. Here’s why:
- EDR tools primarily focus on endpoints; they don’t cover other critical areas like network traffic, cloud services, or email.
- EDR tools are complex and require significant resource to deploy and configure, as well as technical skill to manage. SMBs in particular may struggle to hire and retain the team of staff needed to effectively manage an EDR tool, analyze all the data it provides, and continuously update its detection thresholds to make sure it’s working effectively. If this sounds like a challenge you’re facing, we recommend looking into MDR solutions instead, which provide all the benefits of EDR plus the advantage of having the provider manage the solution for you.
- EDR tools can by bypassed. While advanced, these tools aren’t totally bulletproof, and certain attacks can bypass an EDR tool if it isn’t properly configured or maintained.
- EDR tools are primarily reactive, not proactive; they focus on detecting threats after they’ve entered your environment, rather than preventing them from occurring in the first place. The most effective security strategies combine both preventative and reactive security tools.
Our Recommendations
Implementing an EDR tool—or, if you’re a small business, an MDR tool—is a good idea for most organizations. But EDR alone is not enough to protect you against all the different types of cyberthreat out there today.
For the most effective protection, we recommend taking a multi-layered approach to cybersecurity: combine EDR with other security tools like cloud-based email security, network monitoring, cloud security, and identity protection solutions. You could also consider looking for a provider that offers XDR rather than EDR. XDR stands for “extended detection and response”, because it extends the scope of EDR tools by monitoring attack surfaces beyond just endpoints, such as network traffic, cloud systems, and applications. XDR tools provide a broader spectrum of protection, whilst still enabling you to benefit from the ease of unified management.
We also recommend that you implement an engaging security awareness training program to educate your end users about potential cyberthreats they may face in the workplace and encourage them to adopt good security practices. This can help prevent data leaks, human error, and social engineering attacks, which enable attackers to bypass even the most advanced security tools.
Finally, you should make sure your company has a clear incident response plan that outlines exactly how to handle a security incident. Using frameworks such as NIST as a checklist is a great place to start making sure you have all the necessary processes in place.
You should also regularly run crisis scenarios to test the effectiveness of that plan. The only way to check if a recipe works is to actually make the dish, and when it comes to your company’s security, you don’t want to leave out any ingredients.
