Network detection and response, or NDR, provides an insightful birds-eye view of the traffic moving through your network. This cybersecurity tool has become essential for better security posture because it uses machine learning to detect, monitor, and remediate threats that appear on a businesses network, but what is it exactly? Here we want to go over what NDR is and how it works to best protect your network by providing useful information and quick alerts to the IT team or IT consultant working to keep your network running securely!
What is NDR?
NDR is a group of cybersecurity tools and services used to monitor network traffic and provide insightful and actionable alerts when suspicious activity occurs on the network. Because NDR brings a variety of security tools together, it can be reliably implemented on-premises or in the cloud depending on a business’ needs. Different NDR configurations can vary in complexity, and more advanced NDR setups can provide extremely detailed reports on suspicious activity that brings together information from a variety of sources. Information from endpoint protection services, data packets traveling through the network, DNS layer security, and more can be brought together to give your IT team a clear picture of what’s going wrong on your network right away.
NDR Advantages
To make the most of your network detection and response, we recommended working with an IT consultant to ensure your security services are compatible with NDR services. This is because having a reliable NDR setup allows your business to dynamically respond to the latest malware threats in your industry and begin hunting for threats that might already be on your network. Network detection and response can immediately take action when it detects a threat on your network, but it’s greatest benefit is the level of clarity and detail it provides during a threat analysis. With the right information at their fingertips, your IT team or SMB IT consultant can remediate threats quickly to mitigate the damage done to your business.
Risk Management Example
The best way to understand how NDR can help your business is with an example. Imagine a scenario where your endpoint protection service flags a device on your network for downloading a malicious attachment from an email. That file can begin trying to reach out to a command and control connection, which your NDR services will detect and notify your IT department about. From there, your endpoint protection and NDR will continue to monitor the threat for additional activity that will then be reported. Your IT department, even from this short example, will now know a successful phishing attack has occurred and immediately know how the network has been affected, so they can plan a response.
Summary
Network detection and response can be a valuable tool for a business of any size because it can grow in complexity with your business. As you need to monitor more network traffic and implement new cybersecurity tools, it can grow with you and provide the insights you need the most. NDR can be complex, and that is why Robinett Consulting recommends small and medium businesses work with a reliable IT consultant to ensure they get exactly the tools they need for their unique cybersecurity needs. Network detection and response can save businesses a lot of time and resources, and we believe SMBs should have the same access to it as big businesses!
