What to Expect from Managed Detection and Response

There’s a seemingly endless assortment of cybersecurity tools in the world today. If you’re looking for the best platforms and services to protect your enterprise networks, your head is probably spinning from all the new acronyms and terminology.

While there’s certainly a lot of lingoes that’s used to describe security solutions, there’s one thing that’s easy to understand: Networks are at greater risk today than ever before. Every year, there seems to be more and more massive data breaches that expose hundreds of millions—if not billions—of sensitive records. Many of these are simply due to carelessness on the part of the attacked enterprise.

There has to be a security solution that’s both straightforward and comprehensive, right? Many executives and stakeholders have found this in managed detection and response (MDR). There are several compelling reasons why MDR has become one of the top security platforms today—and continues to rapidly grow in market size. Let’s look at what to expect from managed detection and response.

What Is Managed Detection and Response?

Managed detection response is really the three parts of its name put into practice. It’s essential to understand the first element—managed—before moving on to the next two, which are directly tied to each other.

An MDR solution is managed because a third-party security firm typically provides MDR as a service-based solution. This means that the people running your security operations center won’t actually be under your own roof—but that of a cybersecurity company. There are some benefits to this that we’ll dissect later.

The purpose of this managed service is to—you guessed it—detect and respond to network threats. MDR does this through a suite of sophisticated tools, as well as a team of expert security engineers.

There are many reasons to consider adopting an MDR solution for your security stack. But it can be tough to know what to look for when evaluating these offerings. Next, we’ll look at what to expect from managed detection and response solutions.

What to Expect from Managed Detection and Response

You have to know what to expect and seek out in order to select the best MDR solution for your organization. While you already know the basics, here are a few more specific features that set a great MDR offering apart from the rest:

• Real-time response – You can’t afford to waste any time when there’s a threat lurking on your network. Real-time response from your MDR service will reduce the likelihood of data loss.
• Total visibility and recording – You want all activity—across networks and endpoints—to not just be monitored at all times, but recorded and logged for examination. By understanding network and endpoint behavior, it’s possible to spot and stop threats sooner in the kill chain.
• Constant improvement – An MDR solution’s ability to detect threats is entirely dependent on how well it adapts to changes in attackers’ behavior. It’s only possible to achieve this by continually updating best practices and models based on current data.
• World-class engineers – You don’t want to cut corners when it comes to protecting your enterprise networks. This certainly includes taking careful considerations in who’s staffing the SOC. With top-tier talent at the helm, you can rest easier knowing experts will be in charge of triaging any suspicious events. Furthermore, this will reduce the number of alerts received on your end, clearing uptime and increasing focus.
• Prove financial performance – While it’s always essential to defend your networks, you probably only want to adopt tools and services that can prove their worth. Many MDR offerings, such as MDR+ from Open Systems, have shown they can pay for themselves in as little as six months. That’s an incredible return on your investment, which only grows over longer periods of time.

It’s important you don’t just opt for any MDR solution. While this is a massively growing industry, this fact also comes with a downside: It means pretender companies that don’t really deliver can gain customers just out by being at the right place at the right time. You can’t afford to go with just any old MDR provider. You can avoid this by knowing what to expect from managed detection and response.