What is EDR Security

EDR solutions differ from traditional prevention measures like antivirus software in that they monitor 100% of an endpoint’s machine data. Local agents on each endpoint collect telemetry that is then transmitted back to a central system for 24/7 monitoring and analytics.

A centralized hub employing machine learning to examine billions of endpoint data points can also detect suspicious activities, using anomalous behaviors and attempts at accessing network resources from unexpected locations, downloading specific file types, or disabling firewalls as indicators of potentially malicious activity. Once an alert has been triggered, the system can either automatically block actions or notify human stakeholders through its central user console.

Automated responses may be efficient in responding to threats, but they cannot always accurately detect those that bypass security perimeters and bypass detection. When this is the case, teams of IT and security professionals referred to as threat hunters or SOC (security operations center) specialists are needed to identify, investigate and report on threats affecting an organization.

Containment

Once a threat has gained access to your network, it must be detected and contained quickly to avoid further spread. EDR tools like CrowdStrike OpTICS allow your team to respond swiftly and accurately by detecting suspicious activities, blocking their execution, and recovering compromised files quickly and accurately.

While antivirus (AV) software can identify malware on a computer, cyber threat actors have become much more sophisticated, using file-less malware and techniques to bypass antivirus solutions. EDR uses more advanced detection methods, including machine learning and advanced file analysis techniques, to detect any attempts by cyber criminals to breach your organization’s systems.

EDR’s Telemetry capabilities can track and map hundreds of relevant reconnaissance and compromise activities not picked up by prevention tools, including process creation, driver uploads, registry modifications, disk accesses, memory accesses, network connections, etc.

Investigation

An EDR solution should include investigation capabilities that enable it to understand the nature of threats and how they interact with their surroundings. Sandboxing allows an EDR system to enclose files within an isolated virtual environment for monitoring without endangering other systems or data; it can be an invaluable way of quickly recognizing infections and taking necessary actions against them.

An EDR solution should also use ATT&CK, which categorizes cyber threats by their tactics, vulnerabilities they exploit, and malware tools used. While the details may change from attack to attack, an attacker’s methods or “modus operandi” remain constant; by focusing on this standard behavior, EDR solutions can quickly recognize attacks and take measures to defend networks more accurately.

An EDR system should feature more than monitoring; it must also have the capacity to automate certain response activities based on preconfigured rules, speeding up response processes and relieving security analysts of unnecessary burdens. For instance, some solutions will alert security teams when suspicious files are discovered. In contrast, others immediately quarantine malware files and prompt users to log off directly.

Some EDR solutions even can restore files and systems back to their state prior to an attack, which is especially useful if ransomware encrypts them. Furthermore, an EDR solution should include forensic capabilities for security professionals to establish timelines, gather artifacts and investigate live system memory on suspect endpoints – this, combined with threat response, organizations can quickly mitigate threats and restore systems to normal after breaches occur.

Elimination

EDR security’s detection and investigation phases provide valuable knowledge of threats; however, this knowledge may be useless without an action plan to eliminate the threats identified during these previous steps. Therefore, the elimination phase involves applying this knowledge by creating an action plan designed to remove malicious files or any attack from an endpoint; this may include shutting off its network connection, wiping it clean before reimaging it, or other measures designed to eradicate it from existence.

An integral element of this phase is identifying the source of any threat. An EDR system should be capable of pinpointing how files entered the network, exploiting weaknesses in security measures, and exploiting any weaknesses discovered during an attack. With this information, organizations can further strengthen their overall security measures.

An EDR solution must continuously scan files on each endpoint to effectively perform its role and detect threats when they begin showing suspicious behavior, even if these changes don’t necessarily fit within its preconfigured threat parameters.

An EDR system should ideally also identify which applications and data were affected or attempted to be attacked by malicious files, enabling IT teams to prioritize issues that have the most immediate impact while ensuring all relevant systems are addressed effectively.

Forensic capabilities can assist during a breach by providing valuable data for incident response. These tools can create timelines and facilitate investigations by identifying affected systems, artifacts, or memory from suspicious endpoints.

An effective EDR security platform should provide complete visibility over endpoint activity and leverage machine-learning techniques to detect advanced threats. When selecting your solution, look for capabilities like these and independent tests like MITRE’s ATT&CK Evaluation to assess its strength.