What is MDR & Why Antivirus is Not Enough

What is MDR & Why Antivirus is Not Enough

MDR provides multilayered, integrated endpoint protection. Key features of an MDR security solution include:

• Alert Triage: Security analysts are often overwhelmed by large volumes of alerts from various cybersecurity solutions. MDR triages potential malicious events, enabling security analysts to focus their efforts where they are most effective.

• Threat Hunting Support: Threat hunting enables an organization to identify and respond to threats that were not detected or blocked by enterprise security solutions. MDR solutions should provide integrated support for threat hunting activities.

• Data Aggregation and Enrichment: Contextual information is vital to differentiating between true cyberattacks and false positives. MDR solutions aggregate data from multiple sources and use this data to more accurately identify true threats.

• Integrated Incident Response: MDR should offer support for incident response within the same console. By eliminating context switching, this supports more rapid incident response.

• Multiple Response Options: Different security incidents require different types and levels of response. An MDR security solution should provide multiple options (quarantine, eradication, etc.) for an analyst to address the issue.

These MDR features provide significant security benefits, including:

• Improved Security Visibility: MDR centralize data collection and analytics. This provides an organization with more in-depth visibility into the current security posture of its endpoints.

• Streamlined Incident Response: By using automated data collection, aggregation, and some response activity, the process of gaining vital security context enables rapid response.

• Automated Remediation: MDR allows an organization to define automated procedures for incident response activities. This reduces the impact and cost of the incident to the organization.

Contextualized Threat Hunting: MDR solutions provide threat hunters with access to the data and context required for threat hunting. This enables more rapid and effective threat hunting and the detection of potential indications of a previously unknown incident.

What Is Antivirus?

Antivirus solutions are designed to identify malicious software or code that has infected a computer. AVs use various methods to identify potential malware infections, including:

• Signature-Based Detection: Signature-based detection identifies known threats based on signatures such as file hashes, command and control domains, IP addresses, and similar features.

• Heuristic Detection: Heuristic or anomaly detection identifies malware based on unusual or malicious functionality. This enables it to identify zero-day threats that signature-based detection would miss.

• Rootkit Detection: Rootkit detection identifies malware designed to acquire deep, administrative access to an infected computer.

• Real-Time Detection: Real-time detection attempts to identify malware at time of use by scanning and monitoring recently-accessed files.

AV solutions enable the detection and remediation of malware infections on a computer. This can include terminating malicious processes, quarantining suspicious files, and eradicating malware infections.

MDR vs Antivirus – What’s The Difference?

AV provides the ability to detect and respond to malware on an infected computer using a variety of different techniques. MDR incorporates AV and other endpoint security functionality providing more fully-featured protection against a wide range of potential threats.

Why AV Is Not Enough

AV is designed to identify malware on a computer, but cyber threat actors are growing increasingly sophisticated. Traditional, signature-based detection is no longer effective at identifying modern malware due to the rapid evolution of malware and the use of unique malware and infrastructure for cyberattack campaigns. Additionally, malware developers are using various techniques such as fileless malware to evade detection by antivirus solutions.

Detection of modern threats to endpoint security requires more information and context than is available to AV systems. MDR integrates a range of security functions, enabling it to detect trends and other indicators of a successful incursion. Additionally, the response capabilities provided by MDR enable security analysts to more quickly act to address potential security incidents, limiting the impact of an attack.

Antivirus software is designed to detect and prevent known malware threats by comparing the signatures of files and applications to a database of known malware signatures. It can also use heuristics to identify potentially malicious behavior, but it may struggle to detect more advanced or novel threats. Read more about Modern Cyber Security.

Endpoint detection and response (MDR) software, on the other hand, is designed to monitor endpoints, such as individual computers or mobile devices, for suspicious activity, and provide real-time visibility into potential threats. MDR software uses behavioral analysis to identify unusual patterns of activity that may indicate an attack or compromise, even if the threat is not yet known.

Additionally, MDR can often provide more detailed information about threats, such as the source of the attack, the methods used, and the extent of the compromise. This can be invaluable for incident response and remediation efforts.

Overall, while both AV and MDR software have their strengths and weaknesses, MDR can provide more advanced threat detection and response capabilities, particularly for sophisticated or targeted attacks. However, it’s important to note that MDR may also be more complex and resource-intensive to implement and manage than traditional AV software.

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