Managed Detection and Response Benefits

A proactive cybersecurity strategy enables businesses to manage and mitigate risks in advance, ultimately providing a secure environment that allows businesses to focus on their core operations with confidence. However, proactive cybersecurity requires resources and personnel that can make it impractical and burdensome for many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to handle in house.

Managed Detection and Response (MDR) vendors can help bridge this gap by providing SMBs with cutting-edge security software and access to round-the-clock cybersecurity experts. With an MDR solution, smaller organizations can have a cost-effective, scalable, and robust tool that allows them to achieve a proactive cybersecurity posture without adding headcount or taking away from their focus on their mission.

Below are some of the primary benefits organizations receive by partnering with MDR providers as part of a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy. 

Continuous Cybersecurity Monitoring and Improvement

Managed Detection and Response solutions provide continuous monitoring and swift, targeted responses to potential cyber threats, helping to fortify an organization’s overall security posture. MDR services provide this by combining Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) software and human analysts. 

The relationship between MDR and EDR technologies is deeply intertwined. EDR provides the technical foundation for MDR’s human-guided threat detection and response processes, while the experts on staff bring enhanced value by parsing and interpreting EDR’s outputs. Those experts then interpret and respond to the threats an EDR generates, producing valuable insights and actions for an organization. 

Unlike a traditional, in-house cybersecurity team that works during normal business hours, MDR services offer surveillance of your network, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This enables threats being detected even outside of regular business hours, helping to reduce the potential damage inflicted by an attack.

Lower Costs of Business Operations

With an MDR service, companies get access to state-of-the-art security technologies and expert personnel without taking on the high costs associated with hiring, training, and maintaining an in-house team of security experts. 

Rather than relying on outdated methods of perimeter defense or signature-based threat detection, MDR services work with EDR tools to provide continuous monitoring, sophisticated threat detection, and swift incident response to prevent potential breaches before they can cause harm. They leverage advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to identify and respond to threats in real time, offering security insights that legacy tools like antivirus software simply cannot match on their own.

Moreover, MDR solutions eliminate the need for SMBs to maintain a large, in-house cybersecurity team, presenting a cost-effective yet comprehensive, up-to-date, expert-guided solution. By outsourcing the complex work of threat detection and response to a Managed Detection and Response provider, organizations can free up resources and time to focus on their core business objectives. Additionally, many MDR services can help organizations meet legal requirements by providing tools necessary for data protection, log management, and privacy-related regulations. 

Security That Scales With Your Organization

Managed Detection and Response services are uniquely designed to adapt and grow alongside your small business. As your business expands, so does its digital footprint — as well as the potential threat landscape. 

With MDR, scaling can be seamlessly managed. MDR providers are equipped to scale up the security infrastructure, threat management capabilities, and response mechanisms to meet growing business demands. They can promptly augment any enhanced security requirements, whether that involves a larger network to monitor, a greater volume of data to protect, or an increased complexity of potential threats. 

By providing flexible and scalable solutions, MDR services help your business remain secure and protected, regardless of its size or growth stage. This alleviates the need for frequently revisiting security strategies or reinvesting in new security technology, allowing you to focus on core business objectives.

MDR Lessens the Security Burden for SMBs

For the majority of SMBs, it simply doesn’t make sense to take resources away from their primary business operations to devote to comprehensive, in-house security programs. SMBs can benefit from the expert, continuous monitoring of networks and immediate responses to potential threats offered by an MDR solution — akin to having a dedicated, round-the-clock security team. This consistent vigilance enables early detection and intervention, reducing the window of opportunity for attacks, and effectively aligning with a proactive cybersecurity approach. 

Furthermore, MDR services are built to adapt to the ever-evolving threat landscape, equipping users with the most current and robust defense practices that are available on the market. MDR products also provide organizations with an efficient, cost-effective means to not only respond to cyber threats but also proactively prevent them, thereby helping preserve their reputation, maintain regulatory compliance, and concentrate on growing their business.

Learn about At-Bay Stance Managed Detection and Response

About At-Bay

At-Bay is the InsurSec provider for the digital age. By combining world-class technology with industry-leading insurance and security expertise, At-Bay was designed from the ground up to empower businesses of every size to meet cyber risk head on. Our InsurSec approach provides end-to-end protection for modern businesses. It’s a force multiplier that includes security, threat intelligence, and human experts to close the SMB cybersecurity gap — all as part of their insurance policy.