In our increasingly digitized world, the endpoints, or terminal devices, have become critical for businesses necessitating advanced surveillance and protection against threats. The last couple of years, marked by the pandemic and the ensuing work-from-home policy, witnessed an unprecedented surge in security breaches and threats globally.
These experiences have undoubtedly necessitated a reform in threat intelligence and incident response capabilities. But a key dilemma among network security professionals remains—should the primary focus be on prevention or response? This brings us to two popular terms in endpoint security solutions: Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP) and Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR).
What is EPP?
EPP traditionally relies on a proactive approach that detects emerging threats and prevents attacks at the device level. Modern EPP solutions, however, offer an array of advanced protection capabilities, acting as the first line of defence against cyber-attacks. They consist of multiple security solutions including antivirus capabilities, anti-malware, data loss prevention (DLP), intrusion detection and prevention, personal firewalls, and data encryption.
- Antivirus and anti-malware protection
- Firewall for managing network traffic
- Intrusion Prevention System (IPS)
- Application and device control
- Mobile device management (MDM)
- Centralized management console
- Compliance reporting
- Advanced threat protection
- On-premises or cloud-based deployment
What is EDR?
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) is a cybersecurity technology designed to identify, investigate, and address security incidents on endpoint devices. EDR solutions work by continuously monitoring endpoint devices, collecting data on system activity, and analyzing this data in real-time to detect suspicious activity. Once detected, EDR solutions can quarantine the endpoint, alert security teams, and provide data for incident investigation.
EDR’s key features include endpoint agents, real-time monitoring, advanced threat detection, incident investigation, forensic data, automated response, centralized management, and compliance reporting.
Here is the comparison between EPP and EDR:
| Feature | EPP | EDR |
| Primary Objective | Prevention of threats by identifying and blocking them before they infiltrate. | Detection and response to threats, providing deep visibility into the system to identify and analyze anomalies. |
| Operation | Primarily operates independently without much active supervision required. | Requires active oversight and management by security professionals. |
| Protection Scope | Protects against known threats and some unknown threats through predictive methods. | Can identify, investigate, and contain security breaches, covering both known and unknown threats. |
| Endpoint Visibility | May lack detailed visibility into the endpoint activities. | Provides granular visibility into endpoint activities across the organization. |
| Incident Response | While it prevents attacks, its incident response capabilities are typically limited. | Specializes in incident response, allowing for rapid detection, investigation, and remediation of threats. |
| Application | Ideal as a first-line threat prevention mechanism. | Works best as a second-line incident response mechanism following threat detection. |
Therefore, for an all-encompassing cloud and endpoint security, partnering with a managed security services provider for both EPP and EDR services would be beneficial. The best approach to cybersecurity typically involves utilizing both EPP and EDR in a layered security strategy, to achieve comprehensive protection. EPP can act as the first line of defence, and if any threat manages to get through, EDR can then detect and respond to it effectively.
The key to staying protected lies in triaging security events, identifying any security breaches via threat hunting mechanism, and having a foolproof endpoint threat detection and response system coupled with an advanced incident management solution.
How Epacts can help?
Epacts Managed Security Services offer such a combination. As one of the leading managed cybersecurity companies, Epacts has dedicated years to develop a robust, futuristic, and highly intelligent end-to-end managed cybersecurity services for your assets.
With Epacts, you can enjoy 24/7 automated monitoring, predictive alerting, deep analytics, and cybersecurity consulting services and support. Embrace the innovative Self-Healing Security to identify potential risks, investigate, and mitigate them automatically. Transform your entire security strategy with Epacts’s AI-driven Managed Detection and Response (MDR) offerings. Explore our overall cybersecurity capabilities to know more.