Managed detection and response is an increasingly popular offering from software and services vendors alike. The growth in popularity has been followed by an expansion of offerings. Along with MDR, there's now MEDR, MNDR and MXDR, just to name a few.
Let's look at the differences between these managed options and explore which company profiles are more suited to adopting one MDR security service over another.
What is MDR?
MDR is an umbrella term that encompasses the entire MDR security services space. MDR services focus on threat detection and response processes. They have gained traction with organizations that want or need to outsource portions of their cybersecurity programs. While MDR offerings can include software automation, most are a hybrid of human expertise and technology.
MDR services generally offer the following features:
- Threat hunting detection. Security experts proactively look for threats before they become a problem. Unlike an incident response team, which is tasked with validating alerts from a security operations center or SIEM system by investigating the underlying root cause for an alert, threat hunters look for signs of compromise or attack before an alert appears in the SOC.
- Threat intelligence. Information about threats is collected, analyzed and disseminated to help teams identify and respond to cyberattacks before damage occurs or to help recover as quickly as possible.
- Automated and manual response. Once a threat is detected, action must be taken to neutralize it. Like the MDR service itself, the response can be based on human intervention or an automated response. In general, tasks such as removing malware or patching are handled automatically, while more complex tasks -- for example, forensic assessment of compromise on an endpoint -- require human intervention.
What are MEDR, MNDR and MXDR?
With a high-level understanding of what MDR is, here are three of the most common associated acronyms:
- Managed endpoint detection and response (MEDR). The focus for this service is specifically on endpoints. Vendors with endpoint protection agents often augment their offering by providing MDR specifically for their software.
- Managed network detection and response (MNDR). Not everything happens on an endpoint. MNDR focuses on the network infrastructure, including servers, email, routers and firewalls. Offerings include on-premises, hybrid or all-cloud MNDR.
- Managed extended detection and response (MXDR). MXDR extends MDR protection to both endpoint and networks, as well as IoT devices, operational technology networks and the cloud. Threats are correlated across endpoints and the infrastructure, and services often include direct support for in-house SOC activity.
Which MDR service fits your company?
There's rarely a one-size-fits-all solution in security. Ask the following questions for help deciding which service is best for your organization:
- Are your endpoints covered? Remote work and zero-trust architecture highlight how critical endpoints are to an organization's overall security posture. If you don't have a strong endpoint protection program in place, MEDR is a wise place to start.
- How's your SOC? If you have a SOC up and running but don't have time to track all the alerts generated, augmentation with MEDR, MNDR or MXDR could help. One of the benefits of using MDR for SOC augmentation is extending and enhancing your existing team. These MDR services are instrumental, especially if the team is underwater looking at alerts and doesn't have time to perform active threat hunting.
- Are you understaffed? If your company is unable to support full-time security staff, MXDR might be the best fit. In this case, an MXDR team acts in partnership with your in-house or outsourced operations team to continuously hunt for threats, monitor for attacks and respond as necessary.
Editor's note: This article was updated in 2024 to improve the reader experience.
Diana Kelley is CISO at Protect AI.