With clear advantages over its reactive alternatives, Managed Detection & Response (MDR) is fast becoming the world’s most popular security solution. Despite industry-wide recognition, we still see confusion between the capabilities of full MDR services and Security Monitoring Technology such as SIEM and SOAR.
The bottom line: MDR services offer you more. Pairing sophisticated monitoring and threat detection software with expert knowledge and experience, an MDR service provides additional benefits like threat intelligence, alert triage, incident response, security reporting and recommendations.
Businesses rarely have the budget or overhead to achieve the results that an MDR service can internally. So, busy IT teams must take steps to ensure their outsourced security services are protecting their business fully.
The following 4 scenarios highlight situations where security monitoring technology cannot prevent a cyber-attack, but MDR services can.
1. When the security breach uses unfamiliar tech or methods
In-house teams dealing with a security breach do not have the vision of the wider landscape that specialised MDR teams do. Your team is most likely only aware of threats that are relevant to your environment. That’s not surprising; it’s to be expected.
Unless you are part of an exceptionally vast enterprise, you cannot possibly know everything. The danger, then, is that as soon as malicious actors use tradecraft unknown to your team, you will not be equipped to deal with it. An example of this is lateral movement inside the organisation, whereby an adversary is already inside your network, and then they commence moving to other areas (such as back-up, cloud or infrastructure) without the internal knowledge of your team.
An MDR service, in contrast, leverages expert knowledge and specialist monitoring technologies to detect and respond to any potential attacker behaviour used to infiltrate your network. A high-quality MDR provider not only has their finger on the pulse, but they also leverage the very best monitoring software.
2. Time-critical security issues
With average dwell time at 21 days, and cyberattacks destroying businesses within hours or even minutes, time is always of the essence. If the Security Monitoring Technology notifies you of a data breach at 1:00am, it will probably be several hours until anyone does anything about it.
When you opt for a 24/7 MDR service, analysts work on your behalf to monitor, respond to, and prevent attacks around the clock. Your busy team is already doing more with less, so leaving security to the experts enables you to focus on business priorities.
A comprehensive MDR service works alongside your business to automate standard responses to attack. Incidents and threats are dealt with before they become a problem.
3. When the business needs are different to industry standard
Your business needs are nuanced and intricate. A one-size-fits-all security monitoring technology solution cannot respond on behalf of your company, and nor is it designed to.
Security Monitoring Technology deployed alone may not flag issues that are critical to your business if those are insignificant as industry standard or not relevant to your particular geography. For example, data compliance laws in the United States will be built into security monitoring technology that is deployed in Australia. Likewise, these technologies may consistently flag non-issues, further wasting your team’s time as they work to investigate.
An MDR service is fully customisable. That means you decide which behaviours are problematic for your business, and how you want to deal with them. Once your MDR service provider knows your playbook, they will know exactly how to respond to incidents for your business.
4. False positives and minor issues
Lastly, your team’s valuable time is effectively wasted every time the security monitoring technology flags a non-issue. Time spent disarming false positives and responding in ways that could easily be automated is time taken away from mission-critical business activity.
An MDR service filters through the false positives and automates responses to problems that already have a defined solution. That gives you back your time and keeps employees motivated and challenged.
Engaging a full MDR service provider
Cythera provides a comprehensive MDR service that combines the power of Rapid7 InsightIDR, InsightConnect, InsightVM, Threat Command and CrowdStrike Falcon platforms with the unparalleled knowledge of exceptionally skilled technical engineers.
Our all-Australian expert analysts are highly knowledgeable in all aspects of security and – most importantly – your own infrastructure. They have the insider knowledge to guide you in responding to security incidents before they become a problem.
By slotting seamlessly into your team, your Cythera Lead Senior Analyst works with you to define the result your business wants in any given situation. So, when the inevitable intrusions occur, they can act on your behalf and avoid catastrophe.
Don't wait until it's too late. Protect your business with Cythera's premium Managed Detection & Response service, book in a no-obligation discovery session with our lead cybersecurity expert today.
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