Endpoint protection has long been fundamental to cybersecurity. But in today’s evolving and expanding digital landscape, with endpoints spanning a wide variety of devices, is traditional endpoint security enough? The ongoing frequency of successful cyberattacks suggests not.
Cloud proliferation, remote work and expanding system access add to the challenge. Can you truly trust users to keep their devices secure amidst this shifting landscape? And can augmenting endpoint security with additional tools, like Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems, enable reliable detection of threats? According to attack data and experience, your cybersecurity stack may require something extra.
And that something is Network Detection and Response (NDR).
#1 - NDR Picks Up Where EDR and SIEM Leave Off
Endpoint Detection Response (EDR) and SIEM are essential tools in cybersecurity, but they both have limitations. EDR is excellent at monitoring individual endpoints for suspicious activity. EDR often relies on agents installed on individual endpoints, which means that there may be blind spots for any devices that don’t have the latest agent deployed. Plus, when attackers have already gained access to a network and are moving laterally between systems, EDR won’t detect this activity. Although, EDR will detect endpoint activity if they get infected due to lateral movement.
SIEM excels at collecting and analyzing log data. Still, it may struggle to detect threats that don’t generate logs or get concealed in excessive amounts of log data or by false positives in that data.
NDR addresses the limitations of EDR and SIEM by directly analyzing network traffic patterns for anomalies. It uses advanced analytics and threat intelligence to cut through SIEM data noise to surface and highlight security concerns for immediate investigation. To provide a common analogy, EDR functions as a security guard at each door of a building, while SIEM serves as a CCTV system monitoring the entire building. NDR acts as an intelligent patrol that roams the building to capture intruders before they can break into rooms and inflict harm or steal anything.
NDR solutions like Progress Flowmon use machine learning and behavioral analysis to identify anomalies and suspicious activity, even when attackers try to evade detection using encryption or other techniques to hide their activities.
Together, EDR, NDR and SIEM form the SOC Visibility Triad. This is an explanatory concept created by Gartner. The three parts of the triad complement each other. Together, they provide better overall security for the network, servers and endpoints than is possible from each on their own. Read more about the SOC Visibility Triad and why NDR is crucial in our blog, SOC Visibility Triad - Calling for the network-centric approach.
#2 - NDR Helps Secure Cloud and Hybrid Environments
As businesses adopt cloud and hybrid infrastructures, traditional security solutions struggle to keep pace. EDR and SIEM often leave blind spots in the cloud and their log files or agent-based approach creates management complications. In contrast, NDR operates without an agent, providing a more in-depth view of your entire network, whether on-premises, in the cloud or anywhere in between. With this unified view, you can better detect and respond to threats, regardless of their origin and feel more confident leveraging the agility and scalability of the cloud without compromising security.
Multi-cloud deployments are increasingly common, and there is a need for a solution to monitor the networks in use—whether in the cloud or on premises—so that threats don’t get missed in the complexity.
Flowmon NDR has the tools to monitor anomalous and suspicious network traffic across an organization’s cloud and data center environments. We explored the topic of multi-cloud hybrid networks and how to monitor and help secure them in our recent blog post, “Multi-Cloud – Rise of Hybrid Networks and the Need to Monitor & Secure Them”.
Costs to monitor multiple different cloud environments are often an issue. Many native monitoring tools provided by cloud platform providers can get expensive, due to network bandwidth and data storage costs. Flowmon allows IT teams to optimize their monitoring across cloud providers and significantly reduce costs without losing the required visibility. We outlined how this is possible in our blog titled, How to Optimize Cloud Monitoring Costs Using Flow Logs in Progress Flowmon.
#3 - NDR Detects Threats Hidden in Encrypted Traffic
Extensive use of encryption can be a challenge for conventional security solutions, which rely on deep packet inspection to detect threats. However, NDR technology can analyze encrypted traffic and help detect malicious activities that would otherwise remain hidden.
Modern attackers know that encrypting their traffic can help camouflage their activities. This means traditional security solutions can’t see what’s hidden within the encrypted data. NDR doesn’t have this limitation as it uses behavioral analysis and anomaly detection to identify suspicious patterns even in encrypted traffic. To extend the building analogy used earlier, NDR not only roams the building but also has X-ray vision to see inside network entities.
Our previous blog post, Network Traffic Monitoring with and without Encrypted Traffic Visibility, goes into this topic in greater depth.
#4 - NDR Leverages ML for Detection Instead of Signatures
Traditional security solutions that rely on signatures work like security guards with a fixed list of banned faces. They are good at identifying known threats but are incapable of detecting new or skillfully disguised ones. NDR solutions like Flowmon employ advanced machine learning (ML) and heuristic algorithms to continuously learn and adapt to evolving threats.
By adopting a proactive approach, NDR can identify new and emerging threats before signatures are available. This puts you in a better position to stay ahead of zero-day attacks and novel malware, helping to reduce your vulnerability to cyber threats.
Our free downloadable eBook, Resilient Cybersecurity with Network Detection and Response, dives into the topic of NDR and the detection algorithms used.
Why Flowmon Solutions Are an Excellent Choice for Delivering NDR
Flowmon NDR offers organizations amplified network visibility, AI-powered threat detection and quick response capabilities. Flowmon’s solutions integrate more smoothly with existing security infrastructure, providing a greater view of network activity. This enables organizations to better safeguard their networks and data.
Key benefits of Flowmon NDR include:
- Greater network observability: Gain deeper insights into network traffic across multiple devices, applications and cloud environments.
- AI-powered threat detection: Employ machine learning to help detect anomalies and suspicious behavior, even when attackers attempt to evade detection.
- Rapid response capabilities: Quickly identify and isolate threats, minimizing the impact on business operations.
- Integration with existing security infrastructure: Seamlessly integrate with EDR, SIEM and other security solutions for a more unified view of network security.
By implementing Flowmon NDR solutions, organizations can more proactively identify and respond to threats, significantly enhancing their overall cybersecurity posture. Flowmon’s solutions provide greater protection and visibility to help defend against the evolving threats in today’s digital landscape.
Find Out More
Visit the Flowmon platform page for details of the current Flowmon release and the Flowmon ADS page for information on a leading network anomaly detection system. Contact us to talk with an expert on how Flowmon can help defend your networks from threats.
Try Flowmon free and discover how it can deliver actionable network insights for your organization quickly. Our support team can assist during your free trial testing—simply contact us to start a conversation.
