MDR and EDR are extremely common acronyms in the cybersecurity world. As you’ll learn, MDR and EDR are different, but together, they can create a powerful solution providing the breadth and depth in both coverage and detection capabilities. This blog will help you compare MDR vs. EDR, so you can better understand how they interact for the improvement of your business security.
The Difference Between EDR and MDR
There are key differences between EDR and MDR. Knowing them will help you understand their value and how they complement each other in enabling a hardened security posture, if properly integrated.
EDR is Software
EDR stands for endpoint detection and response. It’s a software that focuses on the detection of and response to cybersecurity threats on the endpoint (servers, laptops, mobile devices, virtual environments, etc.). EDR can do threat detection, prevention, and even give you the ability to quarantine compromised assets. It’s also a great tool for getting to root cause. With all the data collected before, during, and after an attack, analysts can get surgical with their root cause analysis.
[Related Reading: What Is Endpoint Detection and Response?]
MDR is a Service
MDR stands for managed detection and response. It’s a service that continuously monitors, prioritizes, and responds to cybersecurity threats with humans behind the wheel. MDR is augmented with EDR solutions by empowering analysts with data and abilities to act on the endpoint. These actions can range from gathering data to better prioritize threats, like getting running services, applications, users logged in, local files, etc., to containment actions like quarantines, shutting down services, etc.
By leveraging the principals of network security monitoring coupled with detection and prevention solutions (like EDR) MDR providers can offer posture hardening services and expand their threat coverage from network to EDR.
How MDR and EDR Interact
MDR and EDR are two different security solutions, but they integrate to fill in security and resource gaps. Simply put, MDR can leverage EDR’s technologies to enhance its threat detection, analysis, and response capabilities.
There isn’t really a competition of if MDR or EDR is better. Yes, they’re different, but most MDR providers use EDR functionality to achieve maximum visibility across the entire environment, so threats and breaches can be detected quickly and responded to appropriately.
An Alert Logic Demonstration
Gartner Research found that information security and risk management end-user spending is estimated to “grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8.7% from 2018 through 2023 to reach $188.8 billion in constant currency.”
This spending directly reflects the fact that threats against businesses are mounting. Fortra’s Alert Logic is well aware of the risk your company faces from all sides, every day. Our extended endpoint protection monitors and isolates endpoint attacks at the earliest opportunity, providing comprehensive coverage for:
With scalable pricing and an expert security operations team, you can count on us to make cybersecurity easy for you.
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