How EDR can protect small businesses in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, small businesses comprise the majority of all businesses; In fact, eighty-six percent of all businesses in the United Kingdom have fewer than ten employees. Of those small businesses, eighty-seven percent of small businesses are classified as sole traders. This equates to approximately two million small companies in the United Kingdom, a considerable number.

More Relevant Than Ever

With so many small businesses becoming more and more reliant on technology, data security is becoming much more relevant in the UK. As technology has become integrated into all aspects of business, small businesses have begun to invest more heavily in information security.

One of the best ways to safeguard your small business is by employing Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solutions. EDR can help protect small businesses in a variety of ways, including preventing cybercrime and fraud. EDR helps to ensure that your business has adequate protection and security measures in place to prevent cybercrime and fraud.

What Is Endpoint Detection and Response?

Endpoint Detection and Response is an important tool that small businesses can use to protect their data from attacks and other cyber threats that can cause major harm to their business. EDR is a comprehensive approach that not only helps identify attacks, but also helps to remediate any damage done.

To begin with, EDR software collects all sorts of information from each network endpoint by scanning over 100 different points of entry for any unauthorized activity. The threat detection system looks for malicious activity within an organization’s network by monitoring all aspects of network and system activity, including file system behaviors such as unexplained encryption, activity on unusual network ports, and so on.

Once it detects something, EDR is able to identify what has happened and correct any unexplained activity - system changes, registry entries, process memory changes and many more. EDR is able to monitor each of these points in real time and alert for unusual or unauthorized activity.

Network And System Activity Analysis

Endpoint Detection and Response has been proven to be very useful when it comes to detecting a breach, especially as compared with other security tools which usually don’t give any indication that something is wrong until something goes wrong.

EDR solutions monitor intrusion attempts and anomalies in system activity, giving you full visibility about potential threats while they're happening, and automatically implements security measures to stop malicious behavior. Once EDR software has detected a breach, it will notify you of the attempted infiltration, and prevent it from causing damage. This enables your IT team to go back and figure out how the attack happened, which helps you learn how to prevent future attacks.

More Than Just Antivirus Software

Endpoint Detection and Response monitors for suspicious processes running in memory, such as malware that might be trying to hide its use of your network by stealing small amounts of data at a time. EDR can monitor network traffic to tell you what your employees are doing online, and can keep track of the amount of time they spend on certain sites or using certain services.

EDR software also monitors computer resources on endpoint devices, including CPU activity and memory use, so that it can immediately detect any out-of-the-ordinary changes that could hint that something is not right. It employs threat hunting procedures to find security gaps in the network before someone else does. Remember, the best time to stop cyber attacks is before they happen.

Find Out What Happened, If It Does

Endpoint Detection and Response offers important information that can be used for further post-breach forensic analysis of an attack, meaning it helps improve incident response plans as well. These logs and reports also help ensure compliance with regulatory standards, including GDPR.

These logging capabilities are crucial tools for responding to legal requests and proving compliance with regulations. EDR logs can help organizations respond faster, more accurately, and more completely to these requests.

Protect Business Information

EDR tools can help your small business control access to critical documents such as customer records and financial spreadsheets. This prevents attacks such as outbound email bombs that are often used by phishers to gain access to confidential information.

EDR solutions offer a 24/7 monitoring service to identify potentially malicious activity in business networks. They can also alert business owners when sensitive data is accessed from an unauthorized device or location. In fact, they can even provide real-time alerts for the most innocuous of actions, such as if a particular piece of information is copied and pasted to another system. As you can imagine, this would be a critical component of file server security, for example.

Although a large corporation might be able to cover the cost of a data breach, a small business could be completely sunk by an attack. EDR can help small businesses avoid financial loss should hackers or disgruntled employees try to steal sensitive information.

Preventing Data Loss

Endpoint Detection and Response solutions can recover critical information lost to ransomware or other attack. EDR recovery tools ensure that EDR solutions can protect data from accidental or intentional destruction, whether by detecting and stopping that activity in the first place, or by restoring damaged files after the fact.

EDR solutions can also extract threat data from damaged systems to create a copy of the information that can be analyzed and used for future EDR purposes. EDR software makes it possible for small businesses (and larger companies) to recover lost or corrupted files quickly and efficiently, preventing them from having to deal with ruined equipment or sensitive information exposed to hackers.

EDR solutions provide the ability to recover information from a variety of storage formats, including tape libraries, direct attached storage (DAS), network-attached storage (NAS) and disk arrays. EDR solutions also prevent unauthorized access to files through the use of encryption technology.

Protecting The Owner

Endpoint Detection and Response is particularly important for small businesses, as stolen account information can be used to commit identity theft and fraud against the business owner directly.

For example, EDR can help by providing a GPS location for the operator of a lost EDR-protected device, so that it can potentially be recovered if it is stolen or misplaced.

If EDR data has been recorded at the time of theft, then EDR providers and law enforcement agencies can use this information to retrieve the EDR-protected device from wherever it has been taken.

This is important because, unlike a large corporation which would likely be able to absorb the costs of a business data theft, a loss of information could completely sink a small business.

With a good EDR policy in place, small business owners are better protected not only in regards to their business, but also in regards to their personal finances.

User Training

Many users report not knowing about the Endpoint Detection and Response security layer and figure that it's someone else's responsibility to keep user information secure. But data security is everyone's responsibility.

Your EDR provider can offer training which educates users on how to use backup and recovery services, and also provides security tips for internet activities such as shopping. Proper email handling and web browsing practices should be observed, such as not clicking on unknown links and carefully scanning emails from unknown senders.

EDR training can help to keep users from making mistakes that cost your company money, or even worse, expose you and your customers' data.

The EDR layer is invisible to the user, but mention it anyway in a newsletter or annual report. Make sure your employees have at least a general idea of what EDR is and that a security solution is in place.

Security

GDPR compliance is important, and EDR will ensure your company is compliant from a technical solution perspective. EDR will help prevent data breaches by providing you with detailed detection and evidence of any attacks. EDR can provide a complete solution to ensure your company meets GDPR's requirements for preserving records and monitoring user activity.

While you'll still need to implement a 'Privacy by Design' philosophy and ensure your employees are trained appropriately, EDR utilization will demonstrate to regulators that security is a core value to your company.

The Security Operations Center

What happens when internet threats come? Should we rely on Endpoint Detection and Response to handle everything all by itself? Or are some problems too complex for even software to figure out?

By design, EDR employs use of a Security Operations Center (SOC) to proactively monitor threats from a human perspective. A SOC is a 24/7 hub of operations that monitor a client's EDR activity and coordinate mitigation and remediation efforts.

A Human Perspective

Endpoint Detection and Response allows the SOC to focus on protecting vital assets by providing immediate response to threat events while the team performs human analysis of threat events.

Security teams at the SOC can respond to known cybersecurity threats, utilizing a considerable and is always on the lookout for new attack vectors and emerging threats. They can analyze discrete data sets, find unique patterns to identify and solve zero day attacks, and suggest creative solutions to difficult problems. And of course, when there's something going on, it's good to have a human to reach out to for help.

Be Sure To Test Your Solutions

A small business Endpoint Detection and Response solution should be comprehensively tested and reviewed to ensure full coverage. EDR is not just for restoring backups or detecting intrusions, it's about achieving full security.

That's why it's important to make sure your users are not only trained on how to prevent attacks, but also how to respond in cases where attacks occur anyway. If solutions are adopted immediately after a data loss threat, EDR can prevent the possibility of data breaches that occur as a result of delayed reaction.

When your team responds to threats in a timely and proactive manner, EDR will help them to mitigate and respond successfully to them, so your EDR solution should include EDR testing. Testing is the best way to ensure that your EDR solution does its job in protecting your organization.

You Have A Comprehensive Endpoint Detection and Response System When...

Ideally, your network has never been hacked. However, should an attack happen, Endpoint Detection and Response will let you know what happened and how it happened. You know what data has been lost, and can plan for recovery and notify any necessary parties of the breach.

You should become an expert in EDR yourself, and educate your colleagues on security solutions, as well as taking the proper precautions to maintain your desired level of protection for your company.

It Doesn't Work If You Don't Use It

Unfortunately, Endpoint Detection and Response anti-theft measures are often not used to protect small business EDR assets like laptops and mobile devices, even if they're available, solely due to neglect or misuse of these resources.

Security is often neglected as part of the overall business strategy of small businesses, even in cases where asset tracking and recovery tools are provided as part of a complete software package. Your security tools will provide a critical layer of cybersecurity against threats, but only if it is actually utilized. Group policy enforcement for your company's endpoint devices can ensure your protection is always in force.

Wait! Can Endpoint Detection and Response Protect Small Businesses?

Yes! Not only is it perfect for protecting small businesses, it's also economical. Endpoint Detection and Response is a cost-effective way to secure your assets, and since EDR technology can work by itself or with existing security systems that may be installed in your business, EDR complements and enhances the security you already have.

EDR is available for just about any operating system, client or server software (including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux VMware, Citrix, Oracle WebLogic and SAP), and has been tested on every major networked device that exists in the present marketplace.

Inspire Confidence In Your Customers And Employees With IT Security

In this era of increasingly more dangerous cyber threats, customers and vendors want to know that their data is kept secure, and Endpoint Detection and Response can provide you with the assurance that your company's data is protected. EDR works when you need it to work and, unlike many other security solutions, requires no upfront investment.

EDR can be used to help you prove to both customers and regulators that your company is properly secured. EDR- and security-related news releases can be used in marketing collateral, such as a press release or blog post highlighting EDR improvements, awards won, upcoming EDR conferences or events. Your customers will understand that their data is secure with you.

There's A Lot To Protect

By their nature, small businesses depend on a variety of information: financial records, inventory information, customer emails and messages, satellite imagery, video surveillance footage, website content, intellectual property, and so on. Some of this data is covered under GDPR regulations and must legally be protected even more aggressively than normal.

As cyber threats have increased exponentially in scope to include identity theft and malware designed specifically to disrupt your operations or steal data from both employees and customers alike, EDR technology is increasingly becoming an essential component for protecting sensitive data in small business.

Is EDR Right For My Small Business?

EDR software has become an essential component for all enterprises – large and small. EDR is great for smaller businesses because it frees up manpower for business-critical tasks by automating protection and response tasks so that your team can focus on other important, time consuming matters.

More Affordable Than You Think

EDR systems are now so affordable, reliable and easy to deploy that EDR is usable by any size of enterprise. Furthermore, EDR providers can offer solutions at various levels based on your company's needs.

Thankfully, EDR can be configured to work well for small businesses. Even a very small company consisting of a few employees can benefit from EDR solutions. After all, if your company has five laptops and one gets taken over by ransomware, that's 20% of your workforce suddenly unable to participate. Can your business afford that?

Yes, You Can!

Thanks to cloud based technology, a small business doesn't have to invest in extra hardware to purchase the same protection that a large business could more easily afford. A data breach can be fatal to a small business, and fortunately there are fewer barriers than ever to implementing strong data security without the major up front investment that small businesses are often afraid of making.

With all your assets potentially at stake, protection should always be at the front of your mind for your network. New and emergent threats are always out there. With low up-front costs, scalable solutions and the most advanced security available on the market, the answer is clear. There's no reason that EDR can't be right for your small business.

Concerned about the financial impact of a data breach on your small business? Learn about the  potential costs and how to protect your business from these financial risks. Click here!  

Looking for impactful IT projects for small  businesses? Discover three projects IT teams can initiate to improve efficiency, security, and overall IT operations. Click here!