What is MDR?
Learn about managed detection and response (MDR) and how it can help protect your organization from cyberthreats.
MDR defined
Managed detection and response (MDR) is a cybersecurity service that helps proactively protect organizations from cyberthreats using advanced detection and rapid incident response. MDR services include a combination of technology and human expertise to perform cyberthreat hunting, monitoring, and response.
As today’s cyberthreat landscape continues to evolve, it’s more important than ever for organizations to protect themselves from increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. From ransomware to well-disguised phishing attempts, cybercriminals are getting craftier. However, as organizations across industries face talent shortages, many IT departments are struggling to keep their security teams fully staffed with employees with the right skills.
In this environment, a growing number of organizations are looking for a trusted managed detection and response (MDR) partner to take over time-consuming tasks and augment their existing in-house security teams. When an organization works with an MDR security provider, they gain full-time access to a security operations center (SOC) without the need to hire additional IT employees. MDR not only keeps your business, employees, and data safe—it also helps to preserve your brand reputation and bolster customer trust.
How does MDR work?
Managed detection and response combines cutting-edge technology with human expertise to monitor, detect, and respond to cyberthreats against your organization in real-time and around the clock.
While MDR offerings vary depending on the provider, these services typically include:
- Cyberthreat monitoring and response around the clock
- Cyberthreat hunting led by human experts
- Containment to prevent the spread of cyberattacks
- Incident response to eliminate cyberthreats
- Root cause analysis to prevent reoccurrence of cyberattacks
- Cybersecurity reports delivered weekly and monthly
- Regular security health checks
Unlike threat detection and response (TDR)—a tool used to identify and stop cyberthreats—MDR is a human-led service that manages these cybersecurity tools and the data they provide.
Proactive protection in five steps
The managed detection and response process generally includes the following five steps:
Step 1: Prioritize
It’s extremely time-consuming for security teams to sift through the countless cybersecurity alerts they receive each day. This is why many MDR partners offer what’s known as managed prioritization. Using a combination of automation and human analysis, MDR sorts through your organization’s huge volume of alerts and separates the false positives from significant cyberthreats. Then, they present a stream of high-quality alerts to your security team.
Step 2: Hunt
MDR offers proactive and comprehensive cyberthreat hunting capabilities around the clock. Cyber threat intelligence platforms collect critical data about potential risks, and this information is then passed along to analysts. These human experts have extensive skills and knowledge to identify and respond to stealthy cyberthreats that are sometimes missed by automated tech solutions.
Step 3: Investigate
MDR analysts will also investigate cyberthreats to give your organization a clear understanding of the extent and significance of the cyberthreat. They’ll provide detailed information, including what kind of cyberattack it was, when it happened, who was affected, and the severity of the cyberattack. Using this valuable information, they plot an effective response and identify next steps.
Step 4: Remediate
Remediation is the process of disrupting the cyberattack to prevent it from spreading. This may involve removing malware, isolating impacted networks or systems, expelling intruders, cleaning the registry, and eliminating malware persistence mechanisms. Effective remediation ensures that your network is returned to its pre-cyberattack state.
Step 5: Neutralize
After the cyberattack has been stopped and your network has been returned to its previous state, analysts will perform a root cause analysis. This allows them to fully eradicate the cyberattacker and prevent future occurrences of the same type of cyberthreat.
Benefits of MDR
-
Around-the-clock coverage
MDR providers offer continuous cybersecurity monitoring and protection. This ensures that cyberthreats against your organization are detected and stopped quickly—any time, day or night.
-
Reduced risk
With cyberattacks on the rise, it’s essential to protect your organization and data. MDR helps proactively hunt, detect, and respond to potentially harmful cyberthreats—and reduce the risk of a major data breach.
-
Cost-effective cybersecurity
MDR is a cost-effective way to protect your organization from cyberthreats without having to hire additional full-time security team employees. These services can also help you avoid a costly data breach.
-
Improved compliance
Many MDR solutions are designed to help you meet industry-specific requirements—and MDR security experts often specialize in regulatory compliance. Your MDR provider can provide valuable insights that help you streamline your compliance reporting.
-
Decreased IT burden
Cyberthreat detection and response can be time-consuming, unpredictable, and urgent work. When you outsource these tasks to an MDR provider, this empowers your IT staff to focus on more strategic and rewarding long-term projects.
-
Enhanced security expertise
When you work with an MDR provider, it gives you access to highly skilled cybersecurity analysts quickly without the need for additional headcount on your security operations center (SOC) team. Because MDR analysts handle a high volume and wide range of cyberthreats, they offer a level of expertise that can be difficult to find elsewhere.
MDR use cases
-
Malware
Traditional antivirus systems rely on signature detection, where a fingerprint is created for each malware variant. But malware creators are adapting by crafting unique variants to evade these protections. To address this issue, MDR providers can proactively hunt for and mitigate malware infections on your organization’s internal systems.
-
Phishing
While many organizations have adopted intelligent phishing prevention solutions, there’s still a risk of employees receiving and reacting to phishing emails. MDR services can also play a part in detecting more complex adversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) phishing and business email compromise (BEC) cyberattacks. With proactive cyberthreat hunting, MDR services can help uncover a potential phishing or AiTM cyberattack in its early stages, analyze its full scope, and continuously monitor for suspicious or anomalous activities.
-
Regulatory compliance
Today’s organizations face a complex regulatory environment, particularly when it comes to data protection. When you work with an MDR partner, your organization gains access to both cybersecurity and compliance experts. By using specialized detection capabilities that identify cyberattackers targeting your company’s sensitive data, you’ll improve your security posture and regulatory compliance.
-
Cloud cyberthreats
Most of today’s organizations have embraced some form of cloud computing, which delivers powerful business benefits. However, the shift from on-premises to a cloud environment presents uniquely complex security challenges. MDR providers can help you correlate cloud activity originating from on-premises compromise and detect cloud data exfiltration and cloud application breaches.
-
Lateral movement cyberattacks
Once cyberattackers gain entry to your environment, they’ll try to advance through systems and accounts to access data and cause more damage. MDR providers can help identify this lateral movement by detecting privilege escalation, attempts to install remote access tools, and changes to access controls.
-
Network cyberattacks
MDR providers can use cybersecurity protections at the network boundary to detect and block many of these attacks. However, more sophisticated cyberattackers often figure out ways to bypass or overpower these protections. MDR experts know specialized tactics to deal with these more advanced cyberthreats.
MDR vs. XDR, MXDR, EDR, MSSP, and SIEM
MDR is one of many cybersecurity offerings. Unlike most cybersecurity tools, which are typically technology platforms, MDR is a managed service that combines technology with human expertise.
Here are a few differences between MDR and other popular cyberthreat prevention tools:
MDR vs. XDR
Extended detection and response (XDR) is a software as a service (SaaS) tool that combines security products and data into simplified solutions. XDR delivers a more efficient cybersecurity solution for organizations with multicloud, hybrid environments, which can lead to complex security challenges. However, XDR isn’t a managed service that includes a team of human analysts like MDR.
MDR vs. MXDR
Managed extended detection and response (MXDR) is the next generation of MDR. Like MDR, MXDR is a managed service that combines tech solutions with human expertise. However, with MXDR, the provider uses XDR security solutions to extend protection across a wider variety of IT environments. Because these services offer comprehensive coverage, real-time monitoring, and cyberthreat hunting beyond the endpoint, MXDR is often faster and more effective than traditional MDR. Plus, MXDR provides a more complete picture of the cyberattack story.
MDR vs. EDR
A tool that’s frequently used by MDR providers, endpoint detection and response (EDR) tracks behaviors and occurrences on endpoints and responds to cyberthreats using rules-based automation. When EDR detects an anomaly, an alert is sent to the security team for further investigation. Today, EDR solutions often include advanced capabilities like machine learning, behavioral analysis, and integration tools, and have become a main feature of endpoint protection platforms (EPPs). It can be difficult and time-consuming for internal security teams to manage these complex systems, which is where an MDR service can help.
MDR vs. MSSP
The predecessors of MDR services, managed security service providers (MSSPs) were created to provide monitoring and management of security systems. An MSSP provides general monitoring for an organization’s network and endpoints and then sends alerts to the internal security team. Unlike MDR providers, MSSPs generally don’t actively respond to cyberthreats.
MDR vs. SIEM
Security information and event management (SIEM) is a technology solution that collects data from an organization’s existing security tools and then analyzes the information to pinpoint cyberthreats. SIEM doesn’t include a human element like MDR services.
Choose the right MDR security services
In today’s increasingly complex cyberthreat landscape, it’s essential to take measures to reduce your organization’s risk. MDR services offer organizations an effective, proactive, and cost-efficient solution that doesn’t require additional staff.
If you’re considering MDR solutions, it’s important to choose a trusted provider that delivers reliable services. Look for a partner that aligns with your unique needs and delivers quick cyberthreat responses, a high level of expertise in your industry, and comprehensive coverage around the clock.
Learn more about Microsoft Security
Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR
Help stop cyberattackers and prevent future compromise with human-led protection and expertise.
Microsoft Defender Experts for Hunting
Extend proactive cyberthreat hunting beyond the endpoint.
Microsoft Defender XDR
Disrupt cross-domain cyberattacks with the expanded visibility and unrivaled AI of a unified XDR solution.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
Rapidly detect, investigate, and respond to advanced cyberthreats across your networks.
Microsoft XDR
Accelerate your response with incident-level visibility and automatic disruption of cyberattacks with XDR.
Frequently asked questions
-
MDR is a cybersecurity service that combines technology and human expertise to help organizations proactively hunt, detect, and quickly respond to cyberthreats.
-
MDR solutions help organizations solve several business challenges, including ever-evolving cyberthreats, talent shortages, compliance concerns, IT employee engagement, and security costs—all while providing around-the-clock security coverage.
-
Managed detection and response (MDR) is a cybersecurity service that helps proactively protect organizations from cyberthreats using advanced detection and rapid incident response. MDR services include a combination of technology and human expertise to perform cyberthreat hunting, monitoring, and response. A security operations center (SOC), which can be an internal team or outsourced, is a centralized team that monitors, analyzes, and responds to cyberthreats. When an organization works with an MDR service provider, they gain access to a full-time SOC without the need for additional staff.
-
MDR incorporates technology tools and human analysts to hunt, detect, and respond to cyberthreats. The MDR process generally includes the following five components or steps:
- Prioritize
- Hunt
- Investigate
- Remediate
- Neutralize
Follow Microsoft 365