Technology priorities from the C-Suite are ever-evolving. I’m fortunate to have the privilege to meet with leaders from all industries to discuss these priorities. They range from embracing digital transformation, to accelerating multi-cloud strategies, to attracting and retaining top technical talent, to enabling more effective communication and collaboration, to keeping internal customers happy. One theme, however, never changes.
“I’m afraid of a breach that will cripple our business.”
Cyber security has been a top priority for leaders everywhere, and will continue to be one well into the future. Organizations need to have a proactive mindset with their security posture to continue to protect and defend against internal and external threats. Protecting against threats has a significant and oft-misunderstood undertone: These threats are known to the security community. But how do you protect against unknown threats?
It’s important to understand that your security vendors, whether they are endpoint protection, e-mail protection, firewalls, etc., are protecting you (and for the most part, doing it well) against known threats. How organizations are protecting and defending themselves against unknown threats will be a critical discipline that helps leaders rest easy at night knowing the answer to the question:
“Am I being breached right now?”
So what is the answer? MDR, which AlertLogic defines as: Managed detection and response solutions identify active threats across an organization and then respond to eliminate, investigate, or contain them. MDR has increased in visibility and importance as organizations realize that no level of investment will provide 100% protection against threats and as the scale and complexity of the security challenge becomes intractable for individual organizations, regardless of size.
Why should organizations invest in MDR? Well, few organizations have the experts and infrastructure needed to protect themselves. The key question I like to ask technology leaders is: “If your IT team doesn’t work weekends, and you faced a security incident at 3 a.m., what would the implications be?
So no, MDR is not just another security fad. It’s an incredibly valuable service that leaders should consider adding to both security plans and budgets for years to come. While it’s important to realize you can never protect 100% against attacks, you can:
In closing, managed detection and response should be considered by organizations everywhere as they reach their next budget cycle. MDR is an advanced security service that provides threat intelligence, threat hunting, security monitoring, incident analysis, and incident response. This isn’t your traditional SIEM, it’s the future of managed security services.
Contact one of our security experts today about how we can better protect your business.