If you are an IT manager, a CIO, or a founder of a company, you know how important it is to protect your business from cyber threats. You probably have an antivirus solution installed on your endpoints, such as laptops, desktops, servers, and mobile devices.
But antivirus is not enough to protect your business from today’s sophisticated and evolving cyber threats.
According to a report by Fortinet, Malaysia recorded a total of 57.8 million virus attacks during the first quarter of 2022, which accounted for 1.14 percent of the total cyber-attacks around the globe.
Cybercriminals can penetrate 93 percent of company networks, and they target endpoints as the entry point for their attacks.
In fact, Malaysia recorded over 20,000 cyber crime cases last year with losses amounting to RM560 million.
Antivirus is a reactive security tool that only scans for known malware signatures and blocks them when they are detected.
However, it has many limitations and drawbacks when it comes to defending against modern attacks that target your endpoints.
For instance, it cannot detect or prevent unknown or zero-day threats that have no signatures or have not been seen before.
It also cannot provide you with visibility into what is happening on your endpoints, such as what files or processes are running, what network connections are made, what user actions are performed, and so on.
Moreover, it cannot help you to respond to an incident quickly and effectively, such as isolating an infected endpoint, deleting a malicious file, or restoring a backup.
EDR is a proactive security tool that monitors your endpoints continuously and collects data about their activities and behaviors.
To identify and prevent known and undiscovered threats, EDR employs sophisticated methods such as machine learning, behavioral analysis, and artificial intelligence.
EDR also provides you with visibility into your endpoint environment, such as what applications are installed, what users are logged in, what registry keys are modified, and so on.
Additionally, EDR also helps you to respond to an incident efficiently and effectively, such as quarantining an endpoint, killing a process, blocking a network connection, or executing a script.
EDR security provides you with several benefits that can help you protect your endpoints from various cyber attacks, such as ransomware, file-less malware, phishing, etc.
Some of the benefits of EDR for your business are:
Time is an essential component in containing a breach and minimizing losses.
EDR tools monitor and analyze endpoint usage, identify suspicious behavior, and notify the company’s IT team, so they respond promptly to attacks.
EDR security also provides automatic actions that trigger depending on the behavior or agent detected.
This will ensure that among critical scenarios, your organization’s response or protection doesn’t solely rely on a post-alert action — the attacker may be contained or neutralized by the EDR itself.
EDR solutions provide a centralized platform that enhances real-time visibility across all endpoints.
You can see what applications are installed, what users are logged in, what registry keys are modified, and so on.
This helps you to manage your endpoint inventory, compliance, patching, and configuration more easily and efficiently.
EDR solutions also allow you to perform remote actions on your endpoints, such as isolating, restarting, or wiping them, without having to physically access them.
EDR solutions can also integrate with other security tools such as SIEM or SOAR, to streamline your workflow and automate your response actions.
With EDR solutions, you can simplify your endpoint management and reduce the complexity and overhead of your security operations.
EDR solutions help you to reduce the cost of your endpoint security and improve your return on investment.
They minimize the workload on your IT team, saving time and resources.
They also help you to avoid the costly consequences of a data breach, such as fines, lawsuits, reputational damage, and loss of customers.
According to a report by IBM and the Ponemon Institute, the average cost of a data breach in 2021 is $4.24 million.
By reducing this risk and saving money in the long run, EDR solutions can enhance your endpoint security budget.
Additionally, EDR solutions can provide you with insights into your endpoint performance and utilization.
You can use this information to make informed decisions about your endpoint security investments and allocate your resources more efficiently.
EDR solutions not only help you to detect and respond to threats but also to prevent them from happening in the first place.
They use advanced techniques such as machine learning, behavioral analysis, and artificial intelligence to detect and prevent both known and unknown threats.
Besides, they enable you to perform proactive threat hunting, which is the process of actively searching for signs of compromise or malicious activity on your endpoints.
This helps you to identify and eliminate threats before they cause any damage.
To conduct threat hunting, EDR solutions provide you with tools and data, such as query languages, threat intelligence, indicators of attack (IOAs), and live response capabilities.
Additionally, they can integrate with managed threat-hunting services, which provide you with expert guidance and assistance from experienced threat-hunters.
EDR is a powerful tool to reduce your attack surface and protect your endpoints from various threats.
It can identify and eliminate vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and unauthorized changes on your endpoints by scanning them for outdated software or systems and prompting you to update them.
It can also enforce security policies and standards on your endpoints, such as password complexity, encryption settings, and access rights.
Moreover, it can prevent data breaches by stopping malware from exfiltrating your sensitive data or encrypting your files.
It can do this by detecting and blocking any unauthorized process or user that tries to copy or modify a file on your endpoints or alerting you of such activity.
EDR enables you to comply with various regulations by enhancing your endpoint security posture.
With EDR, you can monitor and record all the activities and events that take place on your endpoints, such as file operations, network connections, registry changes, and process executions.
You can store these data in a secure and centralized database for future investigation and forensics.
You can also access reports and dashboards that show you the current status of your endpoint security and any anomalies or incidents that need your intervention.
Moreover, EDR can alert you when an endpoint violates a compliance policy, such as unauthorized access, data leakage, or malware infection, and help you remediate it swiftly.
Implementing EDR for your business requires some planning and preparation.
You need to consider factors such as your business size, industry, budget, goals, and existing security infrastructure.
The most important thing is you also need to choose the right EDR solution and partner for that.
Here are some steps to help you implement EDR for your business:
The first step is to assess how secure your devices are right now.
You need to know how many devices you have, what kinds they are, how they are set up and managed, what threats and risks they face, and how you handle endpoint incidents.
You can use tools like vulnerability scanners, asset inventory tools, and security audits to help you with this assessment.
These tools can help you identify any gaps or weaknesses in your endpoint security posture and prioritize the areas that need improvement.
The next step is to decide what you want to achieve with EDR and what features and functions you need.
You need to define your endpoint security goals and metrics, such as reducing the number of breaches, improving the detection and response times, or complying with certain regulations.
You also need to identify your main use cases and scenarios for EDR, such as preventing ransomware attacks, detecting insider threats, or hunting for advanced persistent threats (APTs).
Moreover, you need to specify your minimum capabilities and standards for EDR, such as the types of data collected and analyzed, the level of automation and orchestration, or the integration with other security tools and processes.
You can use frameworks like NIST or MITRE ATT&CK to help you with this determination.
These frameworks can provide you with a common language and methodology for describing and evaluating EDR solutions.
The third step is to find the most suitable EDR solution and partner for your business needs and goals.
You need to evaluate different aspects of the EDR solution, such as its features and functions, its deployment and management options, its scalability and performance, its support and service level agreements, and its reputation and reviews.
You can use sources like Gartner or Forrester to help you compare various EDR solutions based on their strengths and weaknesses.
You also need to find a reliable local IT partner that can help you implement the EDR solution on your endpoints.
You need to look for a partner that has experience in serving Malaysian businesses, understands your industry and challenges, and offers quality service and support.
Additionally, the partner should have a good track record of customer satisfaction.
The fourth step is to install and set up the EDR solution on your devices.
It is best for you to follow the instructions and best practices provided by your EDR partner.
You need to ensure that the EDR solution is compatible with your devices, that it collects and analyzes the relevant data from your endpoints, that it responds to threats according to your policies and preferences, and that it integrates with your other security tools and processes.
You also need to register your devices to the EDR solution using a unique identifier or a token that authenticates them to the EDR service. This enables you to use threat data from your devices in real time.
The fifth step is to use the EDR solution to continuously monitor and improve your endpoint security.
You need to review the alerts and reports generated by the EDR solution, investigate and remediate any incidents that occur on your endpoints, update and patch your devices regularly, perform threat hunting and vulnerability scanning periodically, and adjust your EDR settings and rules as needed.
You also need to leverage the threat intelligence provided by the EDR solution or integrated sources to gain insights into the nature and origin of the threats.
Additionally, you need to follow some best practices for using EDR effectively, such as not ignoring user activity, integrating with other tools, using network segmentation, taking preventative measures, and using available resources.
To protect your endpoints from various cyber threats, you need a vital security solution called EDR.
This solution can prevent data breaches, detect threats that go unnoticed, accelerate incident response, enable proactive threat hunting, simplify endpoint management, and save costs.
EDR uses machine learning, behavioral analysis, and artificial intelligence to detect and prevent both known and unknown threats.
EDR also gives you visibility into your endpoint environment and helps you to respond quickly and effectively to any threat.
To implement EDR for your business, you need to assess your current endpoint security posture, define your EDR objectives and requirements, evaluate and select an EDR solution and partner, deploy and configure the EDR solution, and monitor and optimize the EDR solution.
You also need to choose the best EDR solution and partner for your needs.
One of the best EDR solutions in the market is Sophos EDR. Sophos EDR is a powerful and easy-to-use solution that provides you with unparalleled endpoint protection and response capabilities.
Contact us right now, if you want to learn more about Sophos EDR and how it can help you secure your endpoints.
