As data and information become an increasingly critical business asset with which organisations develop strategy and drive transformation, cybersecurity and protecting that data are just as critical. The problem is that cyber attacks are increasing in volume, variety and complexity; therefore, more than simply relying on a first line of defence like Antivirus protection is needed.
With the need to fast-forward digital transformation strategies in response to the pandemic, organisations have dramatically increased the number of devices, networks and endpoints used. This much larger potential attack surface has led to an increase in cybercrime, with 39% of UK businesses across sectors identifying cyber attacks. Of this number, 31% experienced a breach at least once a week. The reality is that threats happen, and they can happen at any time, so your organisation needs to be ready to respond to and remediate them immediately.
MDR vs. Antivirus protection
Antivirus software has traditionally been a great first line of defence for many against active threats. However, as cybercrime becomes more frequent and complex, antivirus protection can only do so much. Although useful, antivirus programs can only identify known viruses and only once they’ve already infiltrated your network. In 2022, as an organisation, you should be looking to improve cybersecurity maturity with more proactive approaches and systems – like MDR.
What is MDR?
MDR, or Managed Detection and Response, is a multi-faceted security solution that combines proactive security threat management with security and defence technology to monitor, respond to and mitigate the risks of cyber attacks. It usually looks like this:
- A unified defence suite
- Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) technology
- A Security Operations Centre (SOC)
With this in mind, four use cases demonstrate why your organisation should consider MDR over Antivirus protection.
Four reasons MDR is right for your organisation
1. You have adopted hybrid working
While national COVID-19 lockdowns forced working-from-home setups, many organisations are now adopting more hybrid approaches as employees have embraced working more flexibly across home and work environments. Although hybrid working is an asset for many organisations, with positive impacts on employee wellbeing and productivity, it can pose additional security risks. Hybrid working usually means increasing the number of devices and endpoints, exposing your networks to an increased risk of attack.
Through round-the-clock monitoring and management, MDR can protect against common, indiscriminate attacks that target as many devices, services or users as possible. It can prioritise alerts for attacks like phishing and ransomware to ensure that the most urgent incidents are handled to minimise risk across the board. Suppose your organisation has adopted a hybrid working model. In that case, it is here to stay (84% of workers who had to work from home as a result of the coronavirus are planning to continue with a hybrid working setup in the future), and therefore, it’s now or never to implement an MDR solution that will proactively manage and mitigate the additional associated risks.
2. Your organisation has minimal cybersecurity resources
One of MDR’s more significant benefits is that it is a managed service, meaning a team of expert analysts is on hand 24/7, 365 days a year, to monitor your organisation’s assets and infrastructure. Internal IT teams can often be resource-constrained due to a lack of skills and experience, manpower or simply time. Therefore, a dedicated team with the expertise to rapidly react to and resolve more sophisticated cybersecurity threats is something that any organisation can benefit from. As part of your MDR, an experienced Security Operations Centre team will carry out the following:
- Potential threat analysis and detection
- Continuous monitoring and improvement of security posture
- Threat hunting and incident containment
- Development of use cases
- Remediation activities
This level of dedicated monitoring and analysis also ensures your organisation is protected from undetected attacks due to offline IT teams. Cyber attacks don’t operate within the confines of a Monday to Friday, 9-5 schedule, so neither should your cybersecurity.
3. You’re concerned about the potential costs of cybersecurity breaches
Data as a business commodity continues to increase in value, and therefore, threats from cyber attacks and security breaches can be seriously costly for your organisation. When a security breach happens, you don’t just lose the data or information and its value. Even with breaches restored within 24 hours, you might be looking at a significant loss of productivity and output within that time frame, and any potential downtime can be hugely costly.
The costs of organisational impacts also need to be considered. In a 2022 government cybersecurity survey, a quarter of businesses that experienced a security breach needed new measures to protect against future attacks, and 22% added staff to deal with the breach and inform others. Then, there is also reputational damage and the associated costs of potentially losing significant partners, stakeholders and customers as a result.
Investing in an MDR solution can provide incredible value, with capabilities that can automate and provide rapid response during high volume periods of potential incidents. With fast threat mitigation, MDR can isolate assets and respond quickly to attacks before they become financially detrimental to your organisation. For sectors that deal with classified and highly sensitive information, MDR is strongly recommended as a solution to improve the maturity and efficacy of your cybersecurity infrastructure.
4. Your current cybersecurity infrastructure can’t handle the complexity of new threats
With the growing complexity of the threat landscape, managing your organisation’s cybersecurity can become over-complicated. Simply layering new security tools on top of your existing stack can pose more challenges in identifying and responding to attacks. A significant security stack can cause a high volume of alerts and create noise that can be difficult for analysts and engineers to filter through and investigate.
MDR, in comparison, offers protection against advanced and evolving threats through a best-in-class cybersecurity portfolio. SIEM use cases are updated with the latest threats to help continually mature your security posture. These use cases are then aligned to the TTPs utilised by threat actors and, therefore, are much more equipped to uncover advanced threats that may have remained undetected. Your MDR security team will also be highly experienced, with the latest training and accreditations for detecting and responding to the latest cyber threats and attacks.
Strengthen cybersecurity maturity with MDR
As a comprehensive cybersecurity solution, MDR has you covered with 24/7 threat management and monitoring, real-time risk detection and response, automatic threat containment and future-proof protection against evolving and increasingly complex threats.
If you are seriously considering strengthening your organisation’s cybersecurity, click here to learn more about how MDR can help your organisation, or speak to one of our Brightsolid security experts.