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A Guide to Managed Detection and Response

A Guide to Managed Detection and Response

A Guide to Managed Detection and Response

With an ever-changing threat landscape, talent shortages, and a growing number of complex technologies to integrate, traditional security measures are no longer enough to keep your business safe. Companies are finding themselves mired in a complex nexus of competing demands.

Incredibly, it’s predicted that there will be one ransomware attack every 11 seconds in 2022. The rise of remote working and the increasing number of endpoints used in day-to-day operations means the risk of vulnerability is constantly rising. At the same time, criminals continue to develop ever-more sophisticated attack techniques.

Few organizations can afford to dedicate the time and resources to security that the contemporary threat landscape requires, but unfortunately, chances of an attack at some point are extremely likely. This is why companies must harness MDR services. Read on for guidance on selecting and implementing an MDR service that works for you.

Security posture: what it is and why it’s important 

Your security posture is the most important aspect of your company’s safety. When we talk about security posture, we’re referring to the overall state of your safety network: the software, hardware, and training that is required to keep you protected.

More and more, businesses are turning to MDR providers to maintain a robust security posture. According to Gartner, 50% of organizations will use MDR services by 2025, while the global MDR market size is expected to grow from an estimated value of $2.6 billion in 2022 to $5.6 billion by 2027. This is driven by a shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals, budget restraints, and increasingly strict guidelines governing information security and compliance. 

A third-party provider can give back the time and energy that you need to run your company smoothly. As ransomware and other malware attacks are on the rise, you must take steps to protect yourself from harm. After all, it’s not a question of if but when an attack will strike

What is Managed Detection and Response (MDR)?

MDR (Managed Detection and Response) is a service that combines human intelligence with technological solutions to provide a continual responsive shield around your business. By bringing together industry expertise with a combination of third-party software, MDR allows security teams to monitor alerts across IT infrastructure, actively hunt down threats, and respond rapidly to any security issues. 

What are the signs you need MDR services?

Alert fatigue and time-wasting

Are you continually responding to alerts triggered by your security protocols and wasting time on false alarms? Your security infrastructure might repeatedly flag up day-to-day processes as risky and require you to intervene, eating up the time you should be spending on improving the system. 

Struggling with constant availability

Your security team might be small, or it might just be you. As a result, people rely on you to respond to their issues at any time of the day and night, particularly when there’s a possibly significant security breach.

Asset management and maintaining IT hygiene 

You may be attempting to manage a system that involves multiple endpoints across several countries. Striving to manage an organization with multiple endpoints per employee is confounded by a lack of workflow practices to aid communication, in addition to employees having little security training. 

Staying abreast of IT news 

The threat landscape is continually evolving as hackers develop ever-more sophisticated tools for accessing protected information. Attempting to stay one step ahead while running an organization can prove difficult when you have limited time and resources to dedicate to the task. 

Meeting exhaustion 

Employees rely on you to inform them of any new tactics used by criminals in attempting to hack your company. However, performing an intermediary role between the latest in IT and your staff can mean spending much of your time explaining complex issues to people with less expertise, whether in a meeting room or on video calls. 

Securing the services of an MDR provider can address all of these issues in one comprehensive package. A dizzying array of technologies purport to protect you from threats, and it can be a bewildering world to navigate. MDR streamlines these technologies into a single offering, handling different yet connected security measures such as endpoint protection, malware defense, zero-day attacks, and more. Read on to discover how it can help you and your company preserve your strength for the important work.

Primary MDR use cases

With MDR services, software will typically be installed on the endpoints that track data flow, establishing an alert system to flag any alarming activity and configuring alerts to respond to your organization’s specific needs and requirements. Early notifications and comprehensive response strategies help keep your company safe from attacks, and with 24/7 availability, there’s no downtime for hackers to exploit. 

Phishing 

Scenario: A phishing attack is sent to an employee of an e-commerce company, claiming to be from the employee’s supervisor. The employee downloads a false Excel document containing malware.

Response: The EDR technology deployed on the endpoints tracks malicious indicators and behaviors before and during malware execution. Automated log management collection and analysis gives the SOC a volume of data to better understand and respond to the issue.

Privilege escalation

Scenario: An attacker has breached the system and is moving laterally across the infrastructure to gain administrative access.

Response: The EDR closely monitors the behavior of users and identifies lateral movement indicators by analyzing unusual behaviors.

Cloud-focused threats

Scenario: An attack has specifically targeted a company’s cloud environment, which the company depends on daily. 

Response: The MDR’s 24/7 remote response capabilities disrupt, contain, and respond to any incident or event across various environments, such as on-premise locations, remote assets, cloud services, and OT/ICS environments. 

GDPR compliance 

Scenario: Under a recent raft of legislation, companies are required to protect their customers’ personal information, such as email addresses. 

Response: MDR’s capabilities help organizations comply with security and data protection regulations such as ISO/IEC 27001, GDPR, PCI DSS, and SOC-2. Deterring a data breach also prevents the risk of receiving a significant fine.

What will it cost?

An MDR will reduce the risk of an expensive attack. Employing an MDR makes it far less likely that a company will lose money if an attack is successful. According to IBM, data breach costs rose from $3.86 million to $4.24 million in 2021, the highest average total cost in the 17-year history of the report.

Additionally, MDR can reduce staffing costs by allowing employees to focus on their job instead of struggling to keep up with cybersecurity demands. Best-in-field MDR providers bring years of industry experience to the table with experts capable of not only of your MDR configuration but also looking towards the future to predict threats as they appear. 

How to find the best MDR provider for you

There are a few common mistakes people tend to make when trying to find the best MDR provider. Firstly, make a rigorous assessment of your company’s needs and specific vulnerabilities to seek out a provider that will explicitly address them. How many endpoints do you need to protect? What current security measures do you have in place? Have you been attacked before, and what happened?

Secondly, look past the spin: far too many providers will tell you all about their alert capabilities but fail to deliver when it comes to customer service. All too often, they only notify their client of an attack, leaving them to deal with the aftermath.

After you’ve made a choice, it’s essential to try before you buy: execute malware, see what telemetry the service is ingesting, deploy the solution at different workstations using different operating systems, and use versions of the same operating system to check that it works effectively on a range of devices. That way, you’ll catch any operational issues before committing to the service.

Finally, make sure to ask questions to your provider regarding their operational standards. When it comes to MDR, time is everything. If you need to add an exclusion to the EDR, it should happen right away. If your request is not fulfilled for weeks, you’ll waste time on easily solvable problems and lose trust. 

Why choose Ackcent’s MDR services?

Our offering provides you with the security benefits of market-leading tools run from our dedicated SOC (Security Operations Center). In addition, we have integrated leading technologies into our packaging to streamline our offering and create a comprehensive and customer-facing package to support you.

In our MDR package, we use a blend of automated services to make the processing as streamlined and efficient as possible. We deal directly with the third parties whose software we utilize in the running of our MDR operations. The responsibility for instigating and maintaining that relationship and troubleshooting technical issues lies with us, freeing up your time to devote to other work. Our SOC works 24/7, 365 days a year so there’s never a time when your company isn’t being protected. Criminals don’t stick to the 9-5; neither do we.

Our team of professionals has over 20 years of experience in providing cutting-edge cybersecurity services. Since our inception in 2014, we have consistently been recognized as a leading provider of the best technology solutions in the industry. Part of our mission is to improve transparency across the industry. When it comes to our MDR, this means sharing the information we gather on your business with you in monthly reports and providing access to the SentinelOne dashboard for you to check at any time. 

What’s next? 

Our industry expertise and sector positioning mean that we are constantly looking to the future to anticipate the next threat and how to prevent it. The future of MDR looks towards higher integration, with technologies working together seamlessly to provide ever more sophisticated automated responses, correlating data across software. We’re committed to improving our service in line with technological advances and staying ahead of the curve. 
When it comes to choosing an MDR provider, look for a company that can promise round-the-clock intelligent protection against the attacks that threaten your business. Don’t hesitate to get in touch to see how we can help you set up your MDR solution and take the next step in becoming safe, secure, and serene.

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