EDR or endpoint detection and response came to life to address the loopholes in organizations’ cybersecurity. This tool monitors and mitigates threats on vulnerable endpoint devices.
EDR offers complete visibility in places where most people are clueless. What’s more, combining it with SOAR technology can further optimize the effectiveness of security.
In this article, we’ll tell you how valuable EDR SOAR is.
Understanding the Importance of EDR SOAR in Cybersecurity
EDR is a type of technology that keeps an eye on endpoint activities, determines potential threats, and launches automated responses on various devices.
It focuses on detecting and investigating shady activities and issues in hosts and endpoints. The EDR industry continues to grow now, and one of its main drivers is the proliferation of cyber-attacks.
How Does an EDR SOAR Work?
EDR solutions are designed to help SOC teams who have limited visibility into remote endpoints, which include workstations, smartphones, servers, and IoT devices.
EDR works when you deploy an agent on every endpoint. This agent will monitor the endpoints and try to hunt down any harmful activity.
Once a threat is identified, an analyst will be notified with several preventive measures. EDR does this by delivering telemetry to a central management system, which evaluates activities and automatically sends alerts.
After this, the analyst will check the severity of a threat and determine if it’s a real one or a false positive.
What are the Capabilities of an EDR SOAR Platform?
EDR solutions may vary depending on the brand but its common functionalities include:
- Endpoint data unification
- Malware detection
- Full endpoint visibility
- Insights into an incident
- Speedy remediation
- Online and offline endpoint monitoring
Advanced technologies like EDR SOAR can provide additional features such as pattern recognition and behavioral analytics. Apart from that, here’s what it can provide:
Organize rapid responses:
EDR can alert SOC teams of any real-time risks but analysts need to manually respond to threats. If partnered with SOAR, analysts can carry out remediation steps at all endpoints simultaneously.
Activates SOPs quickly:
SOAR can review risks rapidly, providing analysts with all the information they need when choosing which remediation measures to implement.
Machine learning:
With SOAR’s machine learning, it is able to learn from past experience and use knowledge of previous cyber threats to predict threats with similar patterns and apply the best reactive actions.
Lessens false positives:
Based on its threat intelligence and machine learning capabilities, SOAR can tell apart which are false positives and the real ones. It deals with them before they’re even identified as incidents, so analysts don’t have to manually verify the severity of a potential alert.
Automated responses:
Since SOC teams are required to deal with all sorts of threats on a daily basis, they are prone to “Alert Fatigue.” SOAR can help in this case by fully automating tasks using automation and machine intelligence.
In all of these situations, SOAR outperforms EDR in terms of effectiveness. While EDR is excellent at detecting genuine threats at endpoints, it leaves numerous network gaps unguarded. To put it another way, EDR cannot do anything by itself.
Do I Need to Implement SOAR to Make the Most of EDR?
Although it is not compulsory, implementing SOAR together with EDR is highly recommended. Given that SOAR is excellent in swift integration with other security tools, SOCs can benefit tremendously from having a robust cyber defense arsenal.
In this sense, implementing SOAR in conjunction with an EDR solution is ideal for the following reasons:
EDR can’t exist as its own:
EDR is a system that specializes in endpoint monitoring, identification, and rapid assessment of cyber threats at the moment. But when it comes to understanding the specific symptoms of network compromise, EDR is absolutely blind.
EDR is most effective when integrated with other tools:
Endpoints with an EDR agent are only accessible to the said tool alone. This means that EDR does not defend other networks or cloud servers, which is why it must be used alongside other technologies like SOAR.
In the end, EDR improves endpoint security, but if you don’t combine it with another technology, you risk having insufficient security in other areas of your security system, such as networks and cloud servers.
EDR is most effective for companies who already have a solid network and cloud security infrastructure. Meanwhile, SOAR comes in to fill in the gaps left by EDR’s flaws.
Do you want to ensure business continuity in your organization? This is possible with EDR SOAR. With Xcitium’s endpoint security, you can prevent business disruption and financial loss. Call us today!
