Securing endpoints has become increasingly complex over the years, as traditional malware attacks have evolved into more sophisticated, stealthy infections that aren’t always well detected by traditional anti-malware scanners. Many business-grade networks have become more decentralized, with employees moving towards remote working options. The need for cybersecurity technicians to maintain control over endpoints in these new environments has given rise to endpoint detection and response (EDR) platforms.
An EDR platform uses an agent installed on each endpoint to gather information about the endpoint’s secure posture. The EDR will usually perform a deep analysis of normal endpoint activity and use that baseline to help detect anomalies. EDR can also take a more active role in helping contain security incidents. While a traditional anti-malware program may only be able to detect specific malware signatures, an EDR can analyze the entire system state and detect incidents based on a combination of alarming behaviors, rather than a simple virus signature. This makes EDR platforms major players in a digital landscape where fileless malware is becoming more relevant.
Another major benefit of EDR is its ability to send its insights to a central Security & Information Event Management platform/appliance. SIEM will be discussed more in future documentation, but at its core, it is a system that consolidates logs and intelligence from a variety of IT assets and presents associated analytics to administrators on a centralized, visually appealing dashboard. This way, EDR agents running on twenty Windows 11 systems can be assessed in a single location by connecting to a SIEM. Going beyond that, another cybersecurity technology that is gaining traction is Security Orchestration, Automation, & Response (SOAR). A SOAR platform allows network admins to automate incident response and security management tasks based on the intelligence gathered from the SIEM platform. The goal of all three of these technologies is to embrace a centralized, quick detection and response platform with automation integrated as much as possible.
Now you have a basic understanding of EDR and how it can be beneficial for your small business network environment. But what is XDR? Extended Detection & Response (XDR) takes the functionality of EDR a bit further by integrating more data sources into its platform to provide deeper insight into threats. Rather than isolating its intelligence to individual endpoints, XDR enriches itself with data from throughout your security stack. An XDR platform can pull in cloud security intelligence, email security trends, threat intelligence platforms, etc. Having all of these diverse intelligence sources better enhances detection capabilities.
EDR or XDR can be a very good buy for a small business environment. They are especially worth considering if your business has a very mobile, decentralized environment where on-premises logging isn’t consistent or practical. There are many good enterprise-grade EDR/XDR options on the market, and there are even some open source solutions. If you do decide that EDR/XDR is a good addition to your security architecture, make sure you carefully research your options and get input from your Steering Committee before making any purchases.