The 4 Primary Benefits of MDR

In 2024, 67% of businesses reported an uptick in cyber incidents, with the average number of attacks per organization rising to 66 from 63. Additionally, 93% of IT professionals said security threats are increasing for their business, making it clear that cyber risks are a top concern.

Nearly every organization today faces relentless cyber threats, yet most lack the resources to build and maintain a dedicated security team. Instead, they rely on a patchwork of prevention tools and overburdened IT professionals juggling multiple roles. Although this approach might be effective in the short term, it rapidly becomes unsustainable as businesses grow and threats change. Modern threats are multi-vector, meaning they can target any part of your attack surface, including your web servers, endpoints, users, cloud assets, network or beyond.

Threats are not limited to single component of your attack surface instead hopping between multiple components, as they conduct an attack sequence that allows them to get to their end objectives. This is especially common in ransomware attacks where threat actors need to get control of most systems and find sensitive data stores.

As a result, organizations security strategies may begin by identifying point solutions for components of their attack surface, which can include endpoint detection and response (EDR), firewalls, web application firewalls (WAFs), identity and access management controls, file integrity monitoring (FIM), vulnerability scanning, and so on.

To tackle multi-vector threats, organizations need to bring together the multitude of security controls and data sources into a single location so they can be analyzed, investigated, and contextualized together. After navigating the sea of security options, many businesses realize that managed detection and response (MDR) offers the best balance of advanced threat detection, proactive threat hunting, threat containment, and expert support.

In this post, we break down the four key benefits of MDR and help you determine whether it’s the right security strategy for your business. But first, let’s explore why these benefits matter now more than ever.

Why Cybersecurity?

Often, a CISO’s hardest job is convincing C-suite executives — and the entire company — just how alarmingly easy it is to become a victim of cybercrime. And cybercriminals don’t need advanced skills to launch devastating attacks.

For example, numerous uninformed businesses store user login credentials in plaintext, simply because they don’t know better. Without encryption or hashing, a single compromised internal password can grant a hacker full access to the login database, exposing every user’s account in an instant.

Basic security measures can be effectively managed by an organization’s existing IT staff. Ensuring operating systems stay updated, educating employees on phishing, and eliminating risky habits like storing passwords on sticky notes don’t demand advanced expertise — just awareness and diligence.

As an organization grows, it often becomes a bigger target for hackers seeking to steal sensitive data or disrupt operations. Yet, despite the critical need for robust risk management, many businesses struggle to afford an in-house team of cybersecurity experts, leaving them vulnerable to ever-evolving threats.

That’s where an MDR solution comes in.

Why Managed Detection and Response?

Most cybersecurity solutions focus solely on prevention. True cyber resilience demands more. Effective MDR goes beyond defense, proactively hunting for threats and responding instantly to breaches. By detecting and neutralizing threats at the earliest stage, it stops attacks in their tracks, minimizing damage and ensuring business continuity. Here are four MDR benefits that could enhance your security strategy:

1. Collaborative artificial and human intelligence

One of the standout advantages of managed detection and response is its combination of artificial and human intelligence. As cyberattacks grow more sophisticated, automated solutions and software programs remain valuable for detection. However, they still struggle with false positives, and effective threat response often relies on human expertise.

Human intelligence is imperative to ensure the most credible validation of any incident and the appropriate response. Furthermore, security experts also provide in-depth insights on threat analyses, something you aren’t likely to receive from any automated system.

Essentially, MDR streamlines cybersecurity by automatically detecting system anomalies and enhancing alerts, while a dedicated security team validates incidents and advises on the best course of action. This approach enables data-driven decision-making to safeguard sensitive information more effectively, reducing the burden on your IT team.

2. Proactive system reviews to limit future attacks

Another essential benefit of advanced managed detection and response solutions is how they proactively address vulnerabilities and configuration issues. There has been proliferation of companies claiming they provide MDR, but their focus is primarily on post-breach responses. However, an effective MDR solution utilizes sensors and agents to continuously review your system to protect against known threats. Additionally, security experts research new ways to protect your system against serious breaches and improve cybersecurity practices.

Comprehensive reporting keeps you informed about the state of your system, playing a critical role in identifying new threats. These regular updates also ensure your system’s compliance with the latest cybersecurity regulations, enabling adjustments to your network security and tracking ongoing improvements.

3. Swift and methodical responses to threats

Even with the most secure of systems, there’s always the possibility that a new exploit will be found, and InfoSec teams don’t always catch the threat before a breach. In these cases, it’s imperative that the breach be quickly discovered and responded to appropriately.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of MDR is its speed of response. MDR is a unified approach with agile systems that keep pace with the threat landscape. The technology is designed to fit the team, and the team is intimately familiar with the technology.

Working in tandem, the InfoSec team and the tools they use can detect breaches much faster and reduce false positives which results in quicker responses. And, as any IT professional will tell you, the faster the response, the less costly the damage.

4. End-to-end service for security breaches

Cybersecurity really boils down to two different services: pre-breach prevention and post-breach response. Most of the time, when a company invests in a basic cybersecurity plan, they are only investing in one of these two services. This is dangerous and can either result in unnecessary breaches or slow responses to incursions.

And while many managed detection and response services focus primarily on post-breach, Alert Logic MDR stands apart in that it offers a holistic approach to cybersecurity, one that minimizes both the risk and potential damage of a breach.