Cybersecurity Explained

June 27, 2023   •   7 minute read

What Is Managed Detection & Response?

In a cybersecurity breach, every second counts. 

To maintain a robust risk posture, it is critical businesses not only detect potential threats but swiftly respond to incidents in real time.

However, average response time continues to increase, taking organizations 277 days (around nine months) to identify and mitigate breaches in 2022—49 days longer than average.

To minimize this window, mitigate risks, and maintain full visibility across systems, it is best practice to enlist a managed security service provider (MSSP) offering managed detection and response (MDR).

Here’s a useful explainer highlighting MDR’s benefits, differences from standard MSSPs, and important factors to consider when choosing a provider to help you achieve a robust, proactive cybersecurity posture.

What Is Managed Detection & Response (MDR)?

Managed detection and response (MDR) services leverage top-tier threat intelligence and cutting-edge technology to provide continuous monitoring, threat hunting, and incident response.

MDR is distinct in providing threat detection, containment, and response during a breach, as well as industry expertise to identify new threat tactics as they arise. It entrusts the management of endpoint detection and response (EDR) services to a third-party team of security experts.

Providers often manage this and other services through a Security Operations Center (SOC), offering tailored solutions—or Security Operations Center-as-a-service (SOCaaS)—to meet an organization’s unique needs.

By 2025, management consulting company Gartner anticipates 60% of organizations will leverage MDR for remote threat detection and containment—up from 30% today.

Benefits of Managed Detection & Response 

By enlisting skilled cybersecurity providers to safeguard assets 24/7/365, organizations outsourcing MDR often reap benefits of top-level expertise, unparalleled visibility, cost savings, and so much more.

Here’s a brief list of other associated advantages:

  • Continuous Monitoring: MDR services provide around-the-clock visibility into your systems so potential intrusions don’t go unnoticed. Skilled specialists continuously monitor network, cloud, and endpoints for known and unknown threats, and if detected, they analyze, validate, contain, and remediate them.
  • Cybersecurity Expertise: MDR offers constant access to cyber expertise, without the need to recruit and hire new staff.
  • Proactive Threat Hunting: While some cybersecurity services merely respond to detected threats, MDR actively hunts for them. Advisors and analyst teams proactively eradicate real-time risks and constantly devise ways to detect new threat tactics as discovered.
  • High-Level Investigation: Anomalies may occur within your system for any number of reasons. MDRs investigate and triage these to determine threat potential, and take any actions necessary to resolve them. 
  • Minimized Response Time: With honed experience and 24/7/365 visibility, MDR minimizes downtime between detection and mitigation—maximizing every second in the event of a breach.
  • Cost Savings: Compared to the costs of in-house security management, outsourcing to a dedicated MSSP saves ample time, money, and resources.

What Is a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP)?

Managed security service providers (MSSPs) supply third-party security services to enhance an organization's risk posture.

The key difference between MSSP and MDR services is that the former often do not provide incident response necessarily— a key in timely and effective threat detection, isolation, and eradication in the event of a breach.

While they might offer high-level security and risk assessment solutions, for example, MSSPs often defer alerts to a company’s in-house IT staff for investigation. 

However, this can widen the window of response times regarding breaches.

In the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, a seismic shift to remote work, and ongoing geopolitical tensions, response downtime continues to increase. 

Fifty-eight percent of the more than 3,600 IT and security professionals surveyed in IBM’s “Cyber Resilient Organization Study 2021” responded that the time from detection to response had increased in their organization.

This underscores the importance of streamlining incident response by enlisting a skilled MSSP offering MDR for continuous monitoring, risk mitigation, and rapid incident response.

MDR vs. Standard MSSP

Although standard MSSP services differ by provider, they generally lack the robust offerings of MDR.

Here’s a useful checklist between the two:

 

MDR

MSSP

Managing Firewalls

 

Patch Management

 

24/7 Monitoring & Response

 

Team of Experts for Assistance

Deception Technology

 

Managed Threat Hunting

 

Intelligence-Based Detection, Triage & Investigation of Threats

 

Access to Existing Threat Intelligence & Analysis

 

What to Consider When Selecting a Provider

To reap the benefits of managed security services (MSSP) and the cutting-edge offerings of MDR, it is best practice to enlist an MSSP offering MDR. 

When selecting the right provider to meet your organization’s unique needs, consider the following factors:

  • Technology: The best MDR services support a comprehensive technology stack, with advanced tools to prevent, detect, and respond to threats. 
  • Scale: Understanding how an MDR’s operations scale reflects its ability to stay vigilant across clients and shifts, organize data and activity, and swiftly respond to threats. 
  • Visibility: If you can’t see it, you can’t defend against it.™ Quality MDR provides full visibility into your endpoints, networks, and cloud devices to swiftly detect, contain, and mitigate threats.
  • Budget & Risk Alignment: Just as businesses have varying degrees of risk, MDRs offer different levels of protection. Consider whether their service tiers best accommodate your unique risk posture.
  • Tailored Solutions: A one-size-fits-all solution isn’t right for every business. The best MDR providers offer services tailored to meet your specific needs and priorities. 
  • Containment Capabilities: While MSSPs typically only detect risks, most full-service MDR solutions offer containment capabilities to curb threat actor access and minimize damage and response time. 
  • Compatibility: Changing your existing technology systems can be costly and time-consuming, so select a provider that’s already capable of working with your infrastructure.
  • Services: Consider an MSSP offering all the cybersecurity services your business needs, such as a U.S.-based SOC, incident response, and continuous monitoring, among others. Weigh the comprehensiveness of different solutions to understand what may be a good fit for your business. 

Cybersafe: MDR Through an Experienced MSSP

Cybersafe Solutions is an MSSP offering MDR and a suite of services tailored to meet your organization’s unique needs.

Compared with extended detection and response (XDR) and endpoint detection and response (EDR), MDR minimizes downtime between detection and response through top-tier security expertise and full visibility.

Our trained specialists continuously monitor your endpoint, network, and cloud environments 24/7/365 to detect and mitigate vulnerabilities, minimize attack potential, and bolster a robust security posture.

Leveraging state-of-the-art technology and more than 20 years of experience in public and private sector security, our advisors and analyst teams are constantly crafting new methods to detect threat tactics in real time.

With MDR that provides full visibility into all your essential assets, Cybersafe partners with you to continuously monitor your systems 24/7/365, mitigate risks, and proactively thwart threats, from the start.

Cybersafe Solutions is an industry-leading MSSP offering MDR, delivering robust threat hunting, incident response, and SOCaaS monitoring across all your critical digital assets. To learn more about how partnering with Cybersafe can enhance your risk posture, contact our team today.