In the digital landscape, cybersecurity is paramount for a resilient business. That is why tools like EDR and cloud workload protection are vital.
EDR identifies threats that evade traditional AV/AM solutions. It monitors endpoint activity around the clock and nips attacks in the bud. It also supports post-attack forensics and investigation for a proactive approach to security.
Definition of EDR
What is EDR? EDR is a security system that monitors endpoint activity and looks into it to spot and stop cyber threats before they cause serious breaches. Traditionally, these capabilities were limited to large enterprises that could afford to deploy teams of highly trained security analysts and a full security operations center (SOC).
The critical component of EDR is continuous real-time monitoring and data collection from endpoints. Then, algorithms and machine learning look for patterns that indicate potential threats or suspicious behavior, indicators of compromise (IOCs), and indicators of attack (IOAs). EDR solutions also integrate with threat intelligence from third parties to enable faster detection of attacker tactics, techniques, and procedures and provide contextualized information about what the security team is seeing.
Once the EDR solution has identified potential issues, it alerts security technicians with details about what it detected and its severity level, often in real time. Ideally, the alerts include recommended next steps. Top-of-the-line EDR solutions also include built-in automated response capabilities that can automatically quarantine or block execution on the endpoint and send an IOC to the SIEM solution for further investigation.
Once the EDR solution has gathered and processed all the observed behaviors, it performs deep analysis to determine how the threat likely gained access to the system by examining network connections and process activity traces. Then, the solution combines this data with information about previous attacks or threats it has seen to identify and prioritize possible threats and create actionable alerts for security teams.
What are the Benefits of EDR?
EDR solutions provide security teams with visibility into endpoint activity. This visibility allows them to monitor users, identify suspicious behavior, and quickly investigate potential cyberattacks or breaches. It also allows them to perform forensic analysis on compromised endpoints to determine the root cause of a breach and prevent future attacks.
Typically, EDR tools collect and analyze data from all endpoints to identify anomalous activity. It is done by comparing real-time data to established baselines. They also use built-in threat intelligence to help them detect Indicators of Compromise (IoC) and Indicators of Attack (IoA).
The centralized nature of EDR enables it to perform deep and broad visibility into the entire network. It allows them to spot trends across dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of endpoints. EDR solutions also enable analysts to review historical data on file activity, user actions, device activities, and network connections. This data is used for forensic analysis and to detect patterns that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.
Another benefit of EDR is that it enables analysts to take immediate action against detected threats. It can be through predefined or customized automated responses. EDR solutions can also help with incident response and forensics by identifying the attacker’s entry point into the network, the types of files they impacted, and how they got into the system.
How Does EDR Work?
EDR solutions sift through troves of data, identifying patterns and anomalies that could signal a threat and alert security teams. The solution identifies and prioritizes the most severe threats, providing analysts with the tools to investigate and respond.
A crucial part of an EDR solution is its ability to identify and prioritize suspicious activity based on the attacker’s tactics, techniques, and procedures (ATT&CK). For instance, dumping password hashes from memory is a common technique used by hackers so that an EDR tool might recognize this behavior. The tool can also use ATT&CK to identify the methods attackers use to gain access to the network, including exploiting system vulnerabilities.
Once an EDR solution identifies suspicious behavior, it quarantines affected endpoints and stops suspicious processes from running. The solution can also trace back to the original point of entry for the attacker, providing security teams with all the information they need to respond quickly and effectively.
Many EDR solutions offer the ability to store data for days, allowing security teams to work with as much context as possible. It enables them to respond to alerts faster and minimize the damage attackers can do to the environment. Finally, top-of-the-line EDR solutions have capabilities that help security teams investigate and remediate threats. It includes forensic analysis to pinpoint the attack’s root cause, the impacted files, and tools for removing ransomware from affected systems.
What are the Limitations of EDR?
As with any technology, EDR has its limitations. A primary one is that it’s a reactive defense. Once a threat has been executed on an endpoint, it’s often too late to prevent a breach and the associated costs of lost data, hefty compliance fines, remediation costs, and brand impact.
Additionally, EDR solutions can sometimes be evaded by attackers. For example, fileless attacks that do not write to disk can often avoid legacy and even NGAV detection tools because they do not produce an identifiable signature. EDR, however, can detect that a supposedly legitimate process is behaving anomalously and alert security teams to investigate further.
Another area for improvement is the incapacity of specific endpoints to support an EDR agent, such as those connected to Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) or Industrial Control System (ICS) systems. These devices are susceptible to attack, leaving security teams to monitor and secure them like any other endpoint manually.
Finally, many EDR solutions can produce a high volume of alerts, which can overwhelm SOC teams and contribute to “alert fatigue,” resulting in the team ignoring critical threats. To mitigate this, the best EDR solutions should include the following:
- Incident triage flows.
- Granular event details.
- Data enrichment.
- Multi-modal responses that allow analysts to investigate and respond to incidents quickly.
It improves analysts’ efficiency and helps them identify real threats, thus reducing the organization’s mean time to respond (MTTR).