Once a threat passes the perimeter defenses, EDR software detects suspicious activity on endpoints and alerts security teams. It enables teams to isolate the hazard, analyze it and stop it from spreading. EDR solutions utilize telemetry capabilities to identify reconnaissance and compromise activities, such as hard drive access, process creation, driver uploads, etc. They correlate this information with Mitre ATT&CK data, categorizing hacker tactics and IT infrastructure/endpoint vulnerabilities.
Investigation
What is EDR security, and how is it utilized in responding to threats? EDR security solutions automatically detect suspicious activity on endpoints and generate alerts. These tools also collect telemetry and enrich event data with contextual information from correlated events to accelerate detection and response time, helping security teams identify and remediate threats before they cause significant damage. Unlike antivirus, which only analyzes known malware and evasion techniques, EDR tools use advanced analytics and machine learning to detect patterns indicating a threat. This capacity to quickly identify and respond to threats reduces the time attackers spend in your systems unnoticed, minimizing business disruption and potential damage.
Once an attack is detected, your EDR solution must investigate it to understand what caused it to gain access to your system, which vulnerabilities it exploited to enter the network and encrypt files or systems, and its overall goals. The investigation process involves sandboxing to observe the file’s behavior without risking the integrity of the entire endpoint. It can reveal critical information, like how the file got through your security measures, and allow you to bolster them with preventive technologies.
EDR solutions can automatically contain the following:
- The threat by preventing execution.
- Blocking malicious network connections and isolating the affected endpoint to protect against further attacks.
- Significantly reducing incident response time and improving security posture.
They can even restore the compromised endpoint to its pre-attack state, reducing downtime and productivity disruption.
Detection
EDR solutions are more proactive than firewalls, detecting unusual activity and behavior on endpoints and stopping or preventing them before they do any damage. They also identify threat actors’ methods to bypass security layers and gain entry. EDR uses advanced threat detection capabilities, including machine learning and behavioral analysis, to flag suspicious files and detect anomalies. It can also examine files in-depth and detect malicious behavior at different stages of an attack, from before the file is downloaded to after it’s executed.
EDR systems need deep visibility into the files and processes running on endpoints. They also need to integrate with third-party threat intelligence feeds so that the system has a wider range of threats and IOCs to look for.
The best EDR software combines all of these features in one solution. The result is that it’s easy to install, works with other security tools and provides a consolidated view of alerts across all your security layers. Choosing a solution with good ease of use is a good idea, especially for inexperienced IT and security teams. So that it can begin monitoring and recognizing events right away, the program may be swiftly implemented. Depending on the complexity of your business, you may want to consider a more customizable solution that provides even greater levels of protection.
Containment
EDR solutions contain threats by limiting their activity within the network. Whether the threat is a file or an attack, this action helps minimize the time attackers remain undetected in your network (known as dwell time). The system will also gather critical information about the threat, such as where it came from, which applications and data it affected or attempted to attack, and whether it replicated itself to continue its attack. Because attackers continuously develop new ways to evade security systems, companies cannot afford to rely on traditional antivirus software alone. As a result, many organizations use EDR tools to help them detect and respond to cyberattacks quickly and effectively.
To identify and respond to threats, EDR ingests telemetry from endpoints to provide real-time visibility. It also collects historical telemetry to support forensic investigations and identify anomalies and potential malicious activities. It then applies built-in threat intelligence to find Indicators of Compromise and Indicators of Attack in the gathered data so you can act on them quickly before the attack escalates. The threat detection capabilities of EDR solutions can also prevent attacks by flagging suspicious files, such as those that exhibit ransomware activity, and blocking their execution. Additionally, it can limit the spread of these files by deleting them and isolating the affected endpoint on your network to prevent lateral movement across your system.
Elimination
Many threats are designed to evade detection by traditional antivirus signature- and pattern-based solutions. EDR software can use advanced functions to identify and analyze file activity and behavior, enabling security teams to find these attackers and eliminate them from endpoints. During the discovery phase, an EDR solution analyzes all the events captured by the system and identifies suspicious or abnormal behaviors. It then communicates this information to methods, people and tools that can prioritize, investigate and remediate them, ensuring that the threat is removed from your environment before it can do any damage. EDR can also help you avoid the pitfalls of false positive alerts by separating the “signals” from the “noise” so that security analysts can focus on the important incidents. It can do this by comparing real-time data with historical and established baselines to identify abnormal or malicious behavior, such as unintended network connections or unauthorized user activities.
Some advanced EDR solutions use artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to detect attacks that evade conventional detection methods. It enables them to perform continuous file analysis, looking for the presence of specific types of files and seeing their characteristics, such as a ransomware encryption algorithm or an exploit method. They can even provide a clear picture of the attack pathway, including how the malware got through your system’s defenses.
