The Role of Endpoint Detection in Automated Threat Response

Today’s security landscape no longer gives SOCs the option to do things manually, not if they want to keep up. Automation is nothing less than a necessity in the modern cybersecurity strategy, and endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions are one of the prime ways in which organizations can leverage automation where it counts the most - in swift and accurate threat response. Here’s what that looks like.

Killing Malicious Processes at the Endpoint

Endpoints are one of the primary entryways for would-be attackers. From desktops to laptops, mobile devices to virtual machines, SOCs in the average organization (or any organization) have plenty of incoming and outgoing endpoint traffic to monitor. Chances are they’re going to miss something.

And that’s where endpoint detection tools come in. As noted by Prophet Security, “When an endpoint shows signs of compromise, such as unusual file modifications or unexpected processes, the EDR tool can kill the process, ban the hash, and contain the host for immediate response.” By stopping the potential exploit in its tracks, any hope of lateral movement or further intrusion is crushed, and SOCs put more time in their hands to determine the source of the problem (without it running loose in the network as they try to do so).

AI-Driven Detection at the Endpoint

Springing into action anytime an “endpoint shows signs of compromise” is easier said than done; the amount of activity generated on an endpoint is enormous.

Addressing the number of alerts generated on a daily basis (a significant portion of which originated at an endpoint) is an overwhelming task for strapped SOCs. On average, teams take in over 4,000 alerts per day and spend up to 3 hours parsing them out. Typically, there are between 10-15 people on hand at the average security operations center to do this. Once they have (painstakingly) vetted a threat, the real work of investigation and response kicks in for these teams. That’s the manual way, and it’s not hard to see why organizations are continuing to look to EDR tools instead.

Aside from continuous monitoring, EDR tools leverage machine learning and behavioral analysis to automatically spot signs of compromise when they occur. Combined with real-time threat intelligence, those automatic detection capabilities become refined thanks to ML’s ability to improve over time, given additional data. 

Speeding Response Times Without Human Intervention 

Ultimately, EDR automation serves one overarching aim: to enable faster response times without the need for constant human oversight. That means EDR can be running in the background, force-multiplying your SOC capabilities and scaling to your business needs while your valuable analysts do things that only they can do, like proactive planning, strategizing, and the like. 

CSO Magazine notes that “EDR software automates…certain response activities so security teams can understand potential security threats and quickly take steps to remediate them.” An example of this was noted in the first point, showing how EDR tools can automatically stop some malicious processes at inception. Other automated EDR threat response actions include:

• Isolating infected devices
• Blocking network connections
• Deleting harmful files
• Blocking malicious IP addresses

These pre-configured responses are all done in real-time, without human intervention. 

Slashing Cycles with EDR Automation

By automating threat monitoring, detection, and even response, EDR tools cut down on time spent chasing, vetting, investigating, and mitigating threats. All of those processes take time, and given human error - and simply human nature - they can be delayed, fraught with error, or unduly lengthy.

“Automated incident response tools aim to find and show SOC teams only relevant, actionable alerts, suppressing those that correlate to benign activity,” explains Tech Target. “The technology can also use automated, policy-based playbooks to resolve common, lower-risk incidents and suggest operator next steps for higher-risk cyber threats.” Every automated suggestion, every pre-built playbook play, is time back in your SOC’s day and cycles left for other, higher-level tasks.

EDR automation capabilities function 24/7, rain or shine, without error, giving them the edge over manual methods. Keep in mind that EDR tools do not replace valuable SOC members. They only replace their repetitive tasks so that SOCs can spend their time doing what’s most important. And at the end of the day, what’s most important to a SOC is being able to combat threats at scale. Given the sheer volume of traffic today, the sophistication of today’s threats, and the number of hours in a day, automated tools like EDR are the only way organizations can even hope to stay ahead. 

About the author: An ardent believer in personal data privacy and the technology behind it, Katrina Thompson is a freelance writer leaning into encryption, data privacy legislation, and the intersection of information technology and human rights. She has written for Bora, Venafi, Tripwire, and many other sites.