Cyberattacks continue to rise in complexity and scale, affecting essential services, private individuals, and businesses alike. A study by Security Magazine revealed that an attack occurs every 39 seconds on average on the internet, and the non-secure usernames and passcodes that are being used provide attackers more chance of success.
With a rise of more than three billion records over six years, cybercrime is rapidly growing, and it does not seem like the security functions of each business organization are keeping up. A CNBC report indicated that cyberattacks now cost organizations $200,000 on average, which could sometimes put many out of business.
While modern IT infrastructures have become more sophisticated than ever, the amount of virtual ground that businesses have to protect has also grown exponentially. Cybercriminals can now launch a myriad of digital attacks designed to compromise business operations from mobile and desktop interaction, which further increases the risk of severe disruption.
The frequency with which these attacks are happening is also rising, with more than half of all small businesses having endured a breach in the past few years and four in 10 having suffered multiple incidents. What is more is that given that online threats tend to go an average of 206 days before being detected by organizational operators, the damage to an organization from such compromises can quickly add up.
This is why organizations need to put up necessary measures to detect and respond to threats immediately to avoid catastrophic physical and financial damages. Perhaps one of the best ways to improve the way businesses detect threats, respond to incidents, and keep track of IT assets is opting for managed detection and response (MDR) services.
In general, an MDR service or remote IT Security Services is a service that gained significant traction from the need for organizations that lack the resources to be warier of risks and enhance their ability to recognize and respond to threats. While different security companies provide their own set of equipment and procedures in detecting and responding to threats, all MDR offerings are usually more focused on threat detection rather than regulatory compliance.
The services are delivered using the provider’s set of equipment and technologies but are distributed on the premises of the organization. More often than not, the technology stack deals with host and network-based solutions while the provider will be responsible for overseeing and tracking these tools.
These tools are usually positioned to protect internet gateways and pinpoint vulnerabilities that have passed traditional perimeter security tools. During this process, the techniques MDR providers use often varies as some may depend solely on security logs. In contrast, others leverage endpoint activity or network security monitoring to ensure the safety of business networks.
Although automation is also present on MDR services, the tracking of network systems usually involves humans. The service provider will analyze security events as well and notify customers about activities related to their personal information.
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Essential Services by RSI Security
Unlike traditional managed security service providers (MSSPs) who only provide notifications from security tracking, MDR uses advanced analytics on security behavior, network, and application to provide deeper detection and orchestrate a response. Outlined below are essential services provided by a reliable MDR service provider like RSI Security.
1. Threat Detection
MDR providers offer organizations threat detection services using big data analytics to find threats across multiple, disparate, and large data sets. The objective of this service is to uncover anomalies, evaluate their threat level, and determine the needed mitigative actions required in response.
Moreover, the tools used for threat detection are built to gather and assess forensic data while being configured to keep track, recognize, and oversee security threats. The critical benefit of threat detection is their ability to pinpoint and respond to vulnerabilities in real-time systematically.
By combining complete visibility into data activity throughout endpoints and behavior-based detection features, MDR can recognize threats that often go undetected by antivirus and firewalls. Usually, an MDR provider will use sophisticated analytics to detect patterns and anomalies like unrecognized connections, risky activities, and suspicious or rare processes.
They can also be configured to eliminate false positives, validate threats, analyze or respond, and browse recorded data. Other than that, the threat detection tools used by remote IT security service provider can also correlate with data across a broad range of sources. This provides organizations prioritization capabilities like threat scoring to gain complete knowledge of what needs immediate attention.
Also Read: Benefits of Having a Managed Detection and Response Plan
2. Incident Response
Any incident that is not handled correctly and contained will usually escalate into a huge problem that can ultimately lead to system collapse, significant expenses, or a data breach. Responding to an incident will help businesses restore services and processes, mitigate exploited vulnerabilities, minimize losses, and, more importantly, trim down the threats that future events pose.
Through MDR providers’ incident response services, organizations can be prepared for the unknown and the known and can identify security incidents immediately when it occurs. It also enables enterprises to develop a myriad of best practices to stop an intrusion before it creates damage.
Incident response is a critical component of MDR services as most organizations depend on confidential data that would be detrimental if compromised. Threats could range from typical computer viruses to unencrypted employee work computers that are put into the wrong hands to compromised login credentials and data breaches.
While an organization can’t eradicate threats, incident response processes do help minimize them. By opting for MDR services, organizations can emphasize what can be done in advance to brace for the impact of a security incident.
3. Continuous Asset Monitoring
One of the less-known services offered by MDR providers is continuous asset monitoring and management. Asset monitoring is usually done through a system of software or hardware that logs data about factual information.
After all, the foundation of an effective cybersecurity strategy is knowledge about your IT environment. With MDR services, organizations can determine the assets they have and their location, thus, ensuring that all assets are monitored so they can be appropriately secured.
Through asset monitoring, organizations can monitor the overall performance of their assets as well. This helps them ensure that they are not only being utilized efficiently but are also protected from cybercriminals and any unnecessary additional costs being incurred as a result of incidents like data breaches or unscheduled downtime.
When organizations are educated on the assets they have, they can gain control of their software asset cost and hardware assets for proper classification. It also enables an organization to set asset priority by categorizing IT assets by their risk levels, thus, allowing them to determine which is asset needs more immediate attention.
4. Dedicated Security Advisor
Opting for MDR services or remote IT security service provides a dedicated security advisor that assess of all security measures for your organization or client organizations. They study potential breaches, evaluate security systems, and supervise the employment of solutions.
In some cases, they may also oversee security operations for one company or consult client organizations independently, helping them to comprehend where their cybersecurity measures may need patching. They usually manage the implementation of new security measures and help maintain them over time.
In a frequently evolving field, a dedicated security advisor will stay up to date on the most innovative technology and risk factors. They may also train staff throughout the organization to help them understand and protect themselves against security risks.
On top of everything else, dedicated security advisors also establish security clearance levels to regulate system access. This ensures that only authorized individuals gain access to specific information, therefore, reducing the chances of losing confidential data to prying eyes.
4. Threat Intelligence Infrastructure
Big data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning have been the focal point of data driven-culture, influencing many innovative technologies and developments. With MDR services, organizations can gain sufficient threat intelligence on their infrastructure as providers collect and analyze information about signs of past, current, and future cyber threats.
This enables an organization to put up necessary measures in place to protect their network, assets, and their entire operation. One of the biggest takeaways of having threat intelligence on business infrastructure is the change of security approach from reactive to proactive.
Through proactive defenses, organizations can anticipate any threats that emerge out of their environment. Technically, MDR service providers threat intelligence into four specific categories, mainly tactical, technical, operational, and strategic.
Strategic and operational threat intelligence provides organizations a complete picture of past, current, and future trends in the landscape as well as the specifics about the purpose and nature of attacks and attackers. On the other hand, tactical and technical threat Intels inform organizations about malware campaigns, techniques, tools, and tactics used by the attackers to penetrate a business network.
Through threat intelligence features, organizations can further gain insights into the implications and mechanisms of threats, which allows them to establish defense frameworks and strategies. Furthermore, MDR services also provide organizations with a comprehensive understanding of what’s happening outside their network, thus, giving them excellent visibility of the cyber threats that bring the most risk to their infrastructure.
Benefits of MDR Services
Detecting threats and immediately responding to them is a high priority. Unfortunately, the majority of organizations do not have the staff or skills to conduct these tasks alone, creating a significant demand for MDR services.
Recent trends indicate that the global MDR services market is projected to reach close to $1.7 billion in total revenues by 2022. Here are the essential advantages of opting for MDR services to bolster your cybersecurity strategy.
1. Minimize Cybersecurity Risk
By detecting threats in advance, MDR services help organizations clearly understand the threats they are facing, reduce cyber risk, and enhance operational resilience. The cybersecurity landscape is continuously shifting and growing as new threats, and security solutions emerge.
A security measure that works against the top cybersecurity threats today may be rendered obsolete by innovative types of cyber vulnerabilities of the future. With MDR services, organizations can remain constantly vigilant of the unique kinds of cybersecurity threats, thus, reducing risk and ensuring all-encyclopedic data protection.
This is because MDR service providers are geared with the essential tools necessary to recognize the latest threat actors that signature-based and preventative cybersecurity solutions like antivirus software and firewalls can easily miss.
2. Respond to Attacks Quickly
MDR service providers will also play a crucial role in shifting the attention of your in-house teams on shutting down threats instead of the complex and resource-intensive task of discovering them. By searching for signs of malicious activities, eliminating false positives, and providing end-to-end remediation support, MDR gives the assistance needed to get rid of threats and address vulnerabilities immediately.
This is usually done by putting up a detailed incident response plan wherein the service provider will define what constitutes a breach, the tools for managing breach, the roles and responsibilities of the security team, and the steps that are needed to be taken to address a security incident. The goal of incident response is to minimize the effects, contain the damage of the attack, and determine the root cause of the event to trim down the threat of future incidents.
Among the tools used by Remote IT security service providers to respond to attacks quickly include data analytics, unfiltered data capture, live response, and external threat intelligence. These tools work together to rapidly identify threats and remediate remote endpoints to minimize damages further.
3. Comply with Regulatory Standards
Although MDR is more focused on detecting threats instead of compliance, a proactive network and endpoint monitoring will provide organizations, the level of cybersecurity maturity needed to meet multiple regulatory standards. This includes the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 27001/2, NIS Directive, and GPG13 compliance standards.
By complying with these regulatory standards, organizations can provide their customers the confidence they need when purchasing goods and services. Best of all, it also helps organizations avoid hefty fines, loss of customer faith, or jail time.
Final Thoughts
MDR is a new breed of security service connecting technology and intelligence needed to overcome the shortcomings of the MSSP model. Cybercriminals use a wide range of black hat tools to identify and exploit their targets.
With an integrated response, organizations can ensure that every attack is supervised by a team of expert security professionals that have the skills and tools to block threats before they can create repercussions to their operations. Get in touch with a security professional RSI Security today to find out how you can adopt MDR to your cybersecurity strategy.
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