A rise in remote work trends has led to a rapid increase and interconnectivity of endpoints and data in recent years. This ‘next normal’ way of working comes with its own set of security challenges – from the rise in sophisticated and automated attacks to an increase in the sheer volume of alerts that security analysts must investigate. Cybersecurity analysts spend more and more time checking alerts, which often turn out to be false positives. This ongoing data and alert growth consume precious time that could have been spent on more strategic analysis. At the same time, cyber talent is scarce, which leads to the question of how can security professionals continue to keep their businesses safe?

In addition, attackers are continuously changing their modus operandi and becoming faster and stealthier. Threat actors are becoming more adept at automating their operations, giving already overtaxed security teams little to no time to respond.

The challenges of securing endpoints against advanced zero-day attacks, avoiding costly business delays and relieving analysts call for a different approach.

To stay on top of these challenges, there is a need to investigate cybersecurity automation tools that can offer complete visibility, precise (high-fidelity) detection and protection against both known and unknown threats. At the same time, they need to be easy to operate to reduce analyst workloads.

For example, effective endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions block and isolate malware by default, equipping security teams with enhanced endpoint protection to deal with today’s cyber threats.

Endpoint security: Deep visibility made simple

One of the greatest challenges to securing endpoints is the lack of deep visibility. Simply put, this is about knowing the who, what, when and where of threat and endpoint activity.

Visibility is the basis of detection. Security analysts should have the means to understand the cyberattack storyline quickly and completely as it unfolds. That way, they can track each step of an attack as it happens to respond in an efficient manner.

Traditional EDR tools often have poor visibility and do not offer much insight. To fight modern threats, you need an advanced approach that uses a behavioral-based methodology, which is both sustainable and future-proof.

Using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to automate manual tasks and improve endpoint detection and remediation will allow your team to respond faster. It can also defend against unknown and evolving threats like ransomware, fileless attacks and other threats that change their codes to evade detection.

Modern and effective EDR solutions

Modern endpoint security needs to alleviate security analysts’ workloads and at the same time be easy to use. Here’s what modern and effective EDR solutions should achieve:

Real-time detection: The speed of cyberattacks is increasing. Cyberattacks that once took hours may now occur in minutes. A fully automated endpoint protection that includes AI and ML features and requires no or limited human intervention ensures analysts can detect and block threats in real-time. From there, they can take action to remove threats so that business can continue running smoothly and swiftly.

Lower mean time to respond (MTTR): Pinpointing the threat quickly and having tools like guided remediation assists security teams in responding to malware well and resolving threats in a single click. After a security breach, it’s important to ensure that you have accurate and reliable data collection methods. That keeps the MTTR or the incident investigation time down.

Reduced alert fatigue:  Security alerts are growing with the increase in endpoints, attacks and data. By adopting innovative and advanced tools that use algorithmic decision-making, you can remove the bulk of false-positive alerts. This frees analysts to focus on higher-level investigations and real security alerts.

Lower bar to entry: With the ongoing shortage of security personnel and little time for training and enablement, security teams should adopt an automated solution that can provide an intuitive and consolidated user interface. That way, even junior analysts can understand attacker tactics and techniques right away. An effective EDR software should be both powerful and easy to use.

With so many EDR tools in the market, how do you choose an EDR solution that is best suited for your business? Download IBM’s EDR Buyer’s Guide to learn more.