Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) systems help to detect and mitigate the risk of cyber threats that enter the network from endpoint devices. But sometimes, malicious activity evades detection at the network’s edge because attack patterns or signatures are unknown or a hacker’s tactics are too sophisticated. In this case, a Network Detection and Response (NDR) system can save the day.
While EDR systems capture and analyze data from connected endpoint devices, NDR systems provide real-time visibility across the network after traffic leaves the endpoints.
How Does NDR Work?
NDR systems are designed to flag suspicious activity within a corporate network’s traffic flow. They use a combination of non-signature-based, advanced analytical techniques, such as AI and machine learning, to provide a bird’ s-eye view of all interactions between networked devices, surfacing and correlating data and events from users, devices, and applications.
NDR systems detect attacks at the network layer, where it’s difficult for bad actors to hide their activities. While hackers can manipulate endpoint devices or bypass firewalls by pretending to be legitimate users or services, it’s impossible to tamper with network information. Hackers also have no way of knowing if their activities are being observed.
By providing context around anomalous and potentially malicious network traffic, NDR systems reduce the time it takes for security teams to investigate potential threats. Additionally, they can be configured to stream information about suspicious activity to Security Information Event Management (SIEM) systems to initiate a response. It’s important to note that NDR systems work across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.
Why is NDR Important?
NDR systems provide numerous benefits to IT security teams:
- Continuous network visibility enables teams to see what’s happening across all users, devices, and services, whether on-premises or in the cloud.
- Advanced threat detection: Because they leverage AI and machine learning, they can precisely analyze behavioral data and detect active attacks in real time.
- Rapid response: Advanced NDR systems detect threats that other security systems miss and enable rapid response through integrations with SEIM systems.
- Operational efficiency: NDR systems reduce the time it takes to investigate potential threats, so teams spend less time finding and analyzing the problem and can fix it faster.
What Data Do NDR Systems Use?
NDR solutions collect a variety of data across networks and environments. The more data they have, the better they analyze and detect potentially malicious activity. Information about the location and device from which traffic originates, where it’s headed, and who’s sending it is all essential. Both current and historical data are needed to provide context and paint a complete picture. The more data – and the more granular – the better the AI and machine learning algorithms can learn and identify suspicious and analogous patterns in the traffic flow.
Granular Data Across the Entire Technology Estate
By embedding Lansweeper’s industry-leading IT discovery and recognition technology into their products, cybersecurity companies have immediate access to the rich data they need to fuel their NDR algorithms and analyze traffic flows on the network to identify new and existing threat patterns.
It provides contextual information about users, assets, and vulnerabilities that NDR systems can stream and analyze for deep insights. This data – which includes granular details on devices such as make, model, category, OS, location, and users – enhances the performance of NDR systems, accelerating investigations and response.
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Lansweeper Embedded Technologies makes it easy to embed Lansweeper into your NDR solution via a cloud API or multi-platform SDK.
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