What Is EDR? Endpoint Detection and Response
Endpoint detection and response (EDR) represents a collection of integrated endpoint security solutions that combine data collection, data analysis, forensics, and threat hunting, with the end goal of finding and blocking any potential security breaches in due time.
Essentially Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) systems have been created to detect and respond in an active manner to sophisticated malware and cyber-attacks, as EDR solutions are able to recognize any suspicious patterns that can be further investigated later on.
We should also mention that as implied by their name, these tools have been designed specifically for endpoints (and not networks). The term EDR was coined in 2013 by Anton Chuvakin, former VP and security analyst at Gartner.
Why Is EDR Important? The Benefits
Compared to traditional security solutions, EDR provides enhanced visibility into your endpoints and allows for faster response time. Furthermore, EDR tools detect and protect your organization from advanced forms of malware (such as polymorphic malware), APTs, phishing, etc.
It’s also worth mentioning that some EDR solutions are based on AI and machine learning algorithms designed to spot yet unknown types of malware, which will subsequently make behavior-based categorization decisions.
Oftentimes, your organization’s endpoints can become key entry points for cyber attackers. With the evolution of workplace mobility and employees connecting to the Internet from their off-site endpoints across the globe, it should come as no surprise that devices are becoming increasingly vulnerable. And without the proper cybersecurity protection measures in place, malicious hackers can easily take advantage of any existing vulnerabilities. This is why the need for enhanced security tools that surpass traditional Firewalls and Antivirus solutions has emerged as an undeniably top priority for organizations large and small.
Key components of EDR Security
The components and features of an EDR system can vary greatly from vendor to vendor. Broadly, an EDR solution should have the following capabilities.
Endpoint Data Collection
A wide range of data can be gathered from endpoints by using a software agent installed on each machine.
The data that was gathered from the endpoints are then sent to a centralized location, often represented by a cloud-based platform provided by the EDR vendor.
Data Analysis and Forensics
Now that the data is collected, algorithms and machine learning technology are starting to sift through it in order to highlight potential irregularities.
It can be considered that many EDR solutions are able to “learn” what normal user behavior and endpoint operations are and make decisions based on this analysis.
The gathered data can also be correlated across multiple sources as threat intelligence feeds. These are used in order to provide real-world examples of ongoing cyberattacks that can be compared to the activity within an organization.
Threat Hunting Capabilities
If the EDR platform views any events or actions as suspicious it generates an alert that the security analysts can easily review.
Automated Response to Block Malicious Activity
By using the automation capabilities that exist in many of the EDR security solutions, the companies can actually have a faster response to a threat, as this type of solution is able to temporarily isolate an infected endpoint from the rest of the network in order to not allow malware to spread.
EDR vs. Antivirus – What’s the Difference?
EDR solutions have several unique features and benefits which conventional Antivirus programs do not deliver. Compared to the novel EDR systems, traditional Antivirus solutions are simpler in nature and should be seen as an important component of EDR security.
EDR security tools are much broader in scope and should include multiple security layers to detect and block attacks.
Adoption of EDR Solutions
The global Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Solutions market is anticipated to rise at a considerable rate during the following period.
We can already see the fact that in 2021, this market is growing at a steady rate, and with the rising adoption of security strategies by key players, the market is expected to rise even more in the coming years.
According to Stratistics the sales of EDR solutions will reach $7.27 billion by 2026, with an annual growth rate of almost 26%.
Heimdal’s Approach to EDR Security
We’ve combined an Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) with Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) and achieved what we consider to be the golden standard in cybersecurity: EPDR (Endpoint Prevention, Detection, and Response). Below I will discuss the numerous ways in which you can benefit from our EDR technology, superior to other existing EDR tools. First of all, Heimdal’s EDR brings you real-time proactive security via DNS filtering, smart threat hunting, proactive behavioral detection, automated patch management, a next-gen Antivirus, and a module for automated admin rights escalation/de-escalation procedures. Thus, we deliver a layered security approach within a single and lightweight agent. Our customers get access to next-gen endpoint threat prevention and protection from existing and undiscovered threats, plus a market-leading detection rate and compliance, all in one package.
By combining Heimdal™ Threat Prevention and Heimdal™ Next-Gen Antivirus & MDM you will obtain proactive IOCs and enhanced IOAs and gain a unique EDR ability to mitigate even concealed or unknown malware. Secondly, our dashboard always provides you with notifications and warnings for all active clients. It offers real-time threat and status reporting, delivered in the interval of your choosing. Your data will be graphed and scaled daily, weekly, or monthly and it can also be integrated into SIEM via API.
The Heimdal Security Unified Threat Dashboard (UTD) stores the entire history throughout your customer lifecycle and helps you perform compliance audits and risk assessments. Alongside weekly reports, data exports, e-mail alerts, and built-in data drill down, the Heimdal UTD offers a powerful yet simple way to manage your environment. Our platform also enables you to define policies for each of your components in great detail. For example, you can refine the blacklisting of websites, files, processes, or patches per active directory group of your environment. This will give you the powerful option to individually tailor your IT environment and create policies to fit your exact needs across the Active Directory groups in your organization.
Once configured, the Heimdal deployment is simple and easy and can happen through any MSI deployment tool. Thirdly, because we’ve taken into consideration the evolving needs of the global enterprise, our EPDR technology works anytime and anywhere in the world, for both on-site and remote work set-ups. Last but not least, our multi-layered security suite combined into our EPDR system comes in a user-friendly and easy to deploy agent, that will be extremely lightweight on your systems and will certainly become the greatest time-saver for your sysadmins.
- Next-gen Antivirus & Firewall which stops known threats;
- DNS traffic filter which stops unknown threats;
- Automatic patches for your software and apps with no interruptions;
- Privileged Access Management and Application Control, all in one unified dashboard
Conclusion
No matter which EDR solution you end up choosing, make sure it can be scaled up and down and that it fits your organization’s needs. Should you want to try out our EDR technology, please register on the website or contact us at sales.inquiries@heimdalsecurity.com.