4 Things to Look for in a Managed Detection and Response Provider

In a cyberincident, security teams must move quickly to isolate active threats. MDR services work as an extension of your security team to offer round-the-clock monitoring with dedicated security experts and advanced detection tools.

Here’s four ways MDR service providers can help strengthen your security tactics:

• Accelerate threat detection and response: MDR providers combine advanced EDR/XDR technologies with 24/7 expert monitoring to quickly identify and respond to threats, reducing dwell time and limiting potential damage.
• Reduce alert fatigue: Instead of overwhelming your internal teams, MDR services triage and investigate alerts, filtering out false positives and only escalating verified threats – helping your team stay focused and effective.
• Combat advanced threats: MDR analysts leverage sophisticated tools like SOAR and SIEM along with threat intelligence to detect and respond to stealthy or complex attacks that often evade traditional defences.
• Secure cloud environments: MDR providers specialize in protecting hybrid and cloud-native infrastructures, offering real-time monitoring and rapid response to threats targeting cloud workloads and data.

As per our Canadian Cybersecurity Study, organizations with top-level security maturity (improved detection and response) catch threats 10 times faster than organizations with basic-level security.

By working with an MDR provider, you can bring these accelerated detection and response capabilities to your organization. This helps you enhance your security operations and automate threat detection while addressing skill gaps. 

Additionally, MDR services can be instrumental in fulfilling security maturity gaps as you scale your operations. By design, these services complement your existing security controls and offer a simpler path to improving key metrics such as time taken to detect and respond to threats.

The following factors can help organizations evaluate MDR service providers that fit their needs and security objectives.

An outcome-based selection criteria can help organizations prioritize the right capabilities early on. To do this, rather than going after specific technologies, select the KPIs that you need to improve.

For instance, if you need support with threat detection capabilities, look at the following KPIs:

• Mean time to detect (MTTD): Average time taken to detect a threat after it has entered an environment.
• Mean time to respond (MTTR): Average time taken from detection to investigation and response.
• Detection rate/threat coverage: Percentage of threats detected out of total known threats.

By being cognizant of your target KPIs, you can evaluate MDR providers that have demonstrated measurable improvements on the same KPIs in the past. This way, even if multiple providers use comparable technologies, a distinction can be made.

At the same time, organizations must note that the effectiveness of an MDR service relies on human expertise as much as the underlying technology stack. Therefore, the providers that are able to showcase real-world outcomes on the right KPIs may align better with your security objectives.

Incident response (IR) is an essential component of a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy. While MDR services focus on identifying and responding to threats in real time, organizations may still need seamless integration with incident response teams to tackle critical events.

When a breach or major security event takes place, an MDR service provider that integrates IR capabilities or expertise can help ensure an effective and immediate reaction to incidents.

This enables you to better handle security breaches, mitigate risks and reduce damage. In the wake of sophisticated threats that can be difficult to remediate, IR capabilities become a strong differentiator.

Therefore, you should look for MDR service providers that offer integrated incident response capabilities as part of their service offering or have strong partnerships with dedicated incident response specialists.

This integration ensures that when a critical security event arises, the MDR service provider can:

• Swiftly initiate an incident response plan that has been predefined and optimized
• Seamlessly transition from detection to response
• Ensure there are no gaps in protection

The SOC is the central unit  in charge of monitoring security activities and responding to key events. It is essential that an MDR service provider’s SOC is robust, agile and staffed with highly skilled professionals.

A solid SOC combines agility, strength and expertise to effectively defend against evolving cyberthreats. It should be agile enough to ensure that it can rapidly adapt to new attack methods and respond to incidents quickly, minimizing the impact of emerging threats.

Additionally, organizations should focus on the expertise within the SOC team, including skilled analysts and professionals, which is crucial for accurate threat detection and informed decision-making.

Look for an SOC that offers:

• 24/7 monitoring: Continuous surveillance of network traffic, endpoints and systems to detect potential threats in real-time.
• Threat intelligence integration: Real-time feeds from external and internal sources to stay updated on emerging threats, attack patterns and vulnerabilities.
• Skilled SOC analysts: Trained cybersecurity professionals with expertise in monitoring, investigation and response to security threats.
• Automation and orchestration: Use of automated workflows to speed up the detection and response processes, improving efficiency and reducing human error.
• Localized support: Defined protocols for escalation, containment and recovery to ensure quick and consistent support during incidents.

This point is critical to ensuring the validity of your MDR service provider selection and to maintain performance quality.

Cyberthreats are constantly evolving. Attackers develop new tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) to bypass defences, which makes it essential to assess your MDR service provider’s capabilities periodically.

Regularly assessing the performance of an MDR service allows an organization to identify any shortcomings in its detection capabilities. This can include reviewing how effectively the provider has detected different types of attacks or how quickly they have responded to alerts.

By using quarterly assessments, you can pinpoint areas where improvements can be made. For example, if certain types of threats have been consistently missed, the detection strategies may need to be refined. Similarly, if response times have been too slow, new processes can be implemented to ensure faster action.

These reviews and assessments can offer the following benefits:

• Improved detection accuracy: Regular assessments reduce false positives and negatives, ensuring more precise threat identification.
• Adapt to evolving threats: Continuous reviews ensure defences stay current with emerging threats and new attack methods.
• Enhanced preparedness for future threats: Ensures readiness for future risks and agility in responding to unexpected attacks.

CDW Canada offers comprehensive MDR services designed to provide organizations with expert-driven cybersecurity protection. The service is built to integrate seamlessly with existing technologies, including EDR, XDR and SIEM, ensuring enhanced defences and maximizing security investments.

Our MDR services offer 24/7/365 protection, ensuring continuous monitoring and management of your security environment. We house an expanding team of experienced cybersecurity professionals who work around the clock to identify, qualify and mitigate threats.

One of the standout features of CDW’s MDR offering is our all-Canadian SOC. This national centre serves as a single point of contact for customers, providing timely monitoring, notification and service resolution.