Understanding EDR, EPP, and NGAV: Key Differences Explained

EDR Defined

EDR, which stands for Endpoint Detection & Response, is a cybersecurity technology that continuously monitors end-user devices in real-time to detect and respond to cyber threats seamlessly. The endpoints are the many devices that are connected to the organization’s network, such as smartphones, IoT technology, smart devices, desktops, laptops, and virtual machines. With so many different devices connected to the network, the attack vector is substantially wide for malicious actors to infiltrate any of the devices and launch an attack on the organization.

Here comes the role of EDR, which records and stores endpoint system-level behaviors around the clock. These systems continuously analyze this data to detect and investigate suspicious activities on hosts and endpoints while employing a high degree of AI & automation to enable security teams to identify the issue and respond to the threats rapidly.

The Role of EDR in Cybersecurity Landscape

EDR represents a step up from the traditional antivirus technology for organizations working to stay safe from cyberattacks.

EDR surpasses the AV domain because of its ability to hunt yet-to-be-known cyber threats while allowing security administrators to investigate and respond to suspicious events in ways best suited for their environment.

The primary functions of EDR systems are as follows:

• Monitor and collect exhaustive activity records from endpoint devices to detect suspicious activity in ultra real-time.
• Analyze the collected data to identify any threat patterns that may require further investigation or remediation.
• Inform security teams in a prioritized manner so they can take action and know what needs to be addressed first.
• Provide full visibility into the context to aid security teams in their investigations.
• Contain or perform remediation on the threat in an automated fashion before it can spread.

Key Capabilities and Features of EDR

1. Eliminate Blind Spots: EDR systems allow security teams to get an expansive view of existing endpoints while also allowing them to discover unmanaged endpoints connected to the organization’s network that pose a significant threat by introducing unnecessary common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs).
2. Block Sophisticated Attacks: EDR solutions are capable of finding sophisticated threats such as APT and ransomware attacks. Ransomware is known to be complicated because it continually shifts its behaviors to go undetected. A typical EDR solution can detect such attacks against fileless and file-based attack vectors.
3. Proactive Threat Hunting: EDR solutions have expansive behavioral activity records; they can apply rich analytics to provide a deep threat inspection, assisting security teams in sniffing out the attack at the very first glance of any suspicious behavior.
4. Immediate Remediation: EDR tools can automatically contain attacks, launch investigations, and leverage AI to detect malicious attack behaviors. Security teams can reduce the time it takes to respond to threats because EDR works with a high degree of automation behind the scenes.
5. Flexible Integrations: EDR solutions are flexible to integrate with threat intelligence networks for faster detection of activities and tactics that can be identified as malicious. They can also integrate with existing security information and event management (SIEM) products and other tools that are operational in your company's security stack.

What is EPP?

EPP, short for Endpoint Protection Platform, is a complete security solution that safeguards endpoint devices such as desktops, laptops, smartphones, and IoT-based devices connected to a network. Today's EPP solutions offer a blend of prevention, detection and response features, along with endpoint management functionality.

EPP combines traditional antivirus capabilities with sophisticated next-generation antivirus (NGAV) that leverages AI. It also incorporates additional tools such as endpoint detection and response (EDR) and management features, including USB device control, asset management, and remote assistance. Together, these components enable businesses to detect and thwart various threats at the endpoint level.

The Role of EPP in the Cybersecurity Landscape

The role of EPPs is to prevent attacks from happening. The EPP acts as a first line of defense at the endpoint level. Its primary role is to prevent breaches before happening by stopping attacks at their point of origin while simplifying security management through an all-in-one integrated platform. Additionally, EPP utilizes EDR capabilities to correlate security events into incidents, enabling security administrators and analysts to investigate and respond to suspicious security events in their environment.

The primary functions of EPPs are as follows:

• Blocks malware, viruses, ransomware, and malicious worms using advanced technologies.
• Detect suspicious ransomware-related processes and block them to ensure minimal user impact.
• Enhanced protection against phishing and web intrusion attacks to counter rising incidents worldwide.
• Performing threat hunting by searching for identical virus files on all endpoints across the network and then removing and protecting each endpoint within the network.
• Utilizing static and dynamic AI-based detection engine solutions to safeguard against all forms of ransomware effectively.
• Modern EPP solutions also incorporate advanced EDR capabilities.

Key Capabilities and Features of EPP

1. Visualization & Discovery: Modern EPP solutions provide efficient multidimensional management capabilities for network-wide endpoint devices by making risks visible for each endpoint.
2. Proactive Threat Prevention: An EPP actively identifies and neutralizes suspicious activity and zero-day threats, thus significantly reducing the risk of successful cyberattacks on your organization's endpoints.
3. Superior Detection & Response: EPPs enable real-time monitoring and threat analysis, allowing swift detection and response to security incidents. This expedited process leads to faster containment and mitigation of threats, minimizing potential damage and data loss.
4. Centralized Management: One of the striking features of EPPs is enabling IT administrators to monitor, manage, and update security policies across all the endpoint vectors from a single unified dashboard. This centralized approach ensures visibility and simplifies operations while keeping the security measures current.
5. Lesser Risks & Better Compliance: EPP can help organizations reduce the risk of data breaches and ensure compliance with industry regulations, minimizing financial penalties and reputational damage from security incidents.

What is NGAV?

NGAVs are Next-Generation Anti-Virus solutions that prevent all types of attacks and known and unknown threats by using a combination of artificial intelligence, advanced machine learning algorithms, behavioral detection, and exploit mitigation methods. The shortcomings of traditional anti-viruses can be overcome with the use of NGAV because it utilizes multiple forms of advanced technology to block evolving threats and prevent future ones from happening.

NGAV is cloud-based and reduces deployment time from months to hours. Finally, the overhead of maintaining the software and infrastructure and updating the signature database is wholly eliminated.

The Role of NGAV in Cybersecurity Landscape

NGAVs use predictive analytics backed by advanced AI and ML to detect and prevent malware and file-less attacks. NGAVs collect and analyze comprehensive endpoint data to determine the root causes and identify malicious behavior from known & unknown sources. NGAVs employ innovative technologies to safeguard organizations from rapidly changing tactics, techniques, and procedures, acronym TTPs, that threat actors use to harm the organization.

The primary functions of NGAVs are as follows:

• Prevention of known and unknown malware attacks using signature-less malware protection and machine learning algorithms.
• Detection and prevention of malware-free attacks using IOAs (Indicators of Attacks) at the endpoint level stealthily.
• Capable of exploit blocking because malware is not always guaranteed to be delivered via file. Attacks that use in-memory, macros, and file-less techniques can be blocked effectively.
• Integrates with threat intelligence network to enable immediate assessment of the threat, such as its origin, impact, and severity level, and shares the best remediation guidance.
• The cloud-native nature of the NGAVs is a critical function, as they can be fully operational in seconds without reboot, signature updates, infrastructure purchase, or configuration requirements.

Key Capabilities and Features of NGAV

1. Cloud-Based Threat Intelligence: NGAV solutions use cloud-based threat intelligence databases to remain vigilant about evolving threats. This enables real-time updates and swift detection of new malware variants.
2. Future Proofed Prevention Capabilities: NGAVs use sophisticated tools and methods to not only prevent and block malware attacks but also stop malware-less attacks, irrespective of TTPs used by the attackers.
3. Independent of Signature Updates: NGAVs rely on sophisticated machine learning algorithms and apply millions of analyses in real-time on a file to determine if it is a malicious file. Signature-independent technology aids NGAV solutions in detecting, thwarting, and blocking known and unknown malware, even when the endpoint is not connected to the cloud.
4. Online & Offline Protection: NGAVs offer intelligent prevention whether the endpoint is online or offline and support decision-making and processing on the endpoint. This approach ensures that the endpoint remains protected and enables a high degree of accuracy and prevention.
5. Superior Time-To-Value: NGAV solutions are deployed and can become operational in hours without requiring additional hardware, software, or manual configuration overhead. It is reported that up to 70,000 agents can be installed in a single day.
6. No Management Overhead: NGAV solutions are designed in a way that integrates into the existing environments without adding complexity and management overhead. It requires zero on-premises configuration and management infrastructure.

EDR vs. EPP vs. NGAV

The following table highlights the differences between the three technologies in an expansive way:

Misconceptions About EDR, EPP, and NGAV

Misconceptions About Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR)

Misconception 1: EDR and EPP are the same solutions.

Explanation: It can be said that EDR and EPP solutions complement each other, but they are not declared the same. EDR focuses more on detecting and responding to threats that have already breached the system, while the EPP solution provides unified protection that includes both EDR and NGAV capabilities.

Misconception 2: EDR solutions are expensive.

Explanation: Modern-day EDR solutions simplify security operations and maintenance at affordable cost. The total cost of ownership (TCO) for these solutions can be reduced further when they are integrated with other services from the offering company.

Misconceptions About Endpoint Detection & Response (EPP)

Misconception 1: EPP is a rebranded name for antivirus.

Explanation: Many think that EPP is just a fancy rename for traditional antivirus software. Although EPP offers antivirus capabilities, it surpasses beyond the antivirus domain. A typical EPP encompasses detection and prevention capabilities along with other management features.

Misconception 2: EPP is best tailored for large-scale organizations.

Explanation: Some believe that EPP is best suited and designed for large-scale organizations only and that EPP solution is an expensive investment for small and medium-sized businesses. This is not true, as EPP solutions are generally scalable and can be tailored according to organization size. Some vendors also offer cloud-based EPP solutions that are more accessible and can be managed easily by smaller organizations.

Misconceptions About Next Generation Anti-Virus (NGAV)

Misconception 1: NGAV is just a rebranded fancy name for traditional antivirus software.

Explanation: This is untrue, as NGAV represents a major technological leap by incorporating advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence features coupled with behavioral analysis and exploit prevention techniques that go beyond traditional signature-based detection.

Misconception 2: NGAV provides complete protection from all aspects.

Explanation: This belief is incorrect as NGAV provides significant step-up protection from the traditional antivirus solutions, but no single solution can guarantee 100% protection. Security comes best in a layered approach, making it effective against all kinds of attacks.

Replace your Antivirus with Sangfor Endpoint Secure

Sangfor is a global vendor of IT & Network Security products and services. Our security solutions can remarkably improve and protect your cybersecurity strategies. Sangfor’s Endpoint Secure is the future of endpoint security.

The Sangfor Endpoint Secure is a cutting-edge solution that redefines endpoint protection by seamlessly integrating Next-Generation Antivirus (NGAV), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), and Endpoint Management into a unified modern Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP).

This all-in-one platform offers a diverse range of features, some of which are:

1. Unified Endpoint Security Management
2. Ransomware Protection
3. Cost Effective Endpoint Protection

Conclusion

Sangfor Endpoint Secure simplifies security operation and maintenance. Using Sangfor’s Platform-X cloud management, the TCO can be reduced by up to 60% compared to other solutions. Integration with the Sangfor Network Secure Firewall can improve breach response time by up to 40%.

These numbers only signify that Sangfor is leading the cybersecurity industry by offering products that achieve benchmark scores among its competitors.

If you want to learn more about how Sangfor Endpoint Secure can benefit your organization, use Sangfor's limited-time promotion and contact us today for a demo and consultation. Don't miss this opportunity to enhance your endpoint security and protect your organization from cyber threats.

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