High-profile cyber attacks have shown that no company is too big to fall victim to a cyber attack and highlights the fact that many companies are still unequipped to deal with the modern cyber threat landscape, where breach prevention is becoming increasingly difficult.  

Why is MDR Adoption Growing?  

As data breaches become more difficult to prevent, it is essential to respond to security incidents fast to reduce the potential impact on business continuity. The most effective way to decrease incident response time is with a Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service. An MDR service provides 24/7/365 support from a remote SOC (Security Operations Centre) that helps companies detect and respond to threats ASAP.  

The growing need for rapid incident response capabilities has led many organisations to start investing in MDR services. According to Gartner, by 2025, 50% of organisations will be using MDR services for threat monitoring detection and response functions that offer threat containment capabilities.  

One of the reasons for the growth in popularity of MDR solutions is their effectiveness at combating and containing emerging cyber security threats like ransomware attacks, advanced malware, and phishing attempts. MDR addresses each of these threats in the following ways:  

Ransomware Attacks 

Ransomware attacks are one of the most significant threats that modern enterprises face. The average of a successful ransomware attack costs $1.85 million, and many organisations are not prepared to prevent these attacks. A Sophos survey found that 37% of organisations were hit by ransomware in the last year, with 54% of victims stating that cybercriminals succeeded in encrypting their data. 

The reality of modern ransomware strains is that if your files are encrypted, it will be almost impossible to get your information back unless you pay a ransom (and even then, there is no guarantee).  

MDR helps address ransomware attacks by allowing you to spot the early signs of an intrusion. A remote SOC team can identify an intruder establishing lateral movement, establishing C&C communication or even data exfiltration, and take immediate action to protect systems before they have a chance to encrypt your data. 

Advanced Malware 

Another key challenge that modern organisations face is that the amount of malware strains has increased dramatically. In 2020, Kaspersky detected over 360,000 malicious files every day. With such a high amount of sophisticated malware available online, traditional antivirus and anti-malware solutions have become less effective at blocking these threats.  

An MDR service can manage advanced malware threats more effectively through continuous monitoring. By leveraging shared threat intelligence, a security analyst can use signature-based detection of known and unknown threats to detect malicious activity.  

Once a remote SOC team detects that something unusual is going on, they can send you a real-time alert and notify you that there could be a breach. If the notification is something serious, they can then provide you with live support to ensure that you contain it and safeguard your overall business continuity. 

Phishing Attempts 

While many cyber criminals have developed new strains of malware and ransomware, others have instead focused on developing new phishing scams to manipulate employees into handing over information. Research shows that 75% of organisations experienced a phishing attack in 2020.  

One of the reasons for the widespread usage of these attacks is that cyber criminals know they can’t be stopped with traditional cyber security solutions. While security awareness training has emerged as a popular choice among enterprises to teach employees how to detect phishing emails, it still only takes a momentary lapse of judgement for an employee to click on a malicious link and cause a breach.  

An experienced MDR team provides a strong barrier of defence against phishing scams by identifying and quarantining malicious emails, identifying indicators of compromise, and decreasing the amount of time it takes to identify a scam.  

MDR: Everything You Need to Stop and Contain Emerging Threats  

MDR provides enterprises with all the support they need to detect and respond to the next generation of cyber threats. Rather than paying to maintain an on-site SOC, you can pay a single monthly retainer and have a team of security analysts on-call to help you contain security incidents and reduce the chance of unnecessary downtime. 

Want to find out how MDR can protect your organisation against the latest threats? Contact our team today.