Cyber threats are rising in both volume and sophistication every day. Traditionally, Cyber defense has been at a disadvantage- attackers needed to succeed just once while defenders had to protect a large, ever-expanding attack surface 24×7. No amount of people can mine through all your security and IT data to detect modern threats, and respond quickly to contain attacks. Xcellhost MDR overcomes this disadvantage by combining AI and automation with people skills to deliver end to end threat management.

First, MDR services provide your enterprise with 24/7 monitoring. No one can overstress the importance of this power in modern cybersecurity. Hacking now represents a global enterprise (indeed, some hackers even form corporate hierarchies) worth potentially billions. A penetrative attack or dwelling threat could strike at literally any time. 

However, your IT security team (probably) does not constitute automatons with no need for sleep or food or relaxation. Trying to hold them to overnights shifts and weekends not only foments burn out but it can also breed resentment and mass departures. 

Sure, automation, as provided by a SIEM solution, can help the problem, but it works optimally when directed and partnered with human intelligence. This puts you back at square one. 

Therefore, utilizing the 24/7 monitoring of MDR services can significantly improve your enterprise cybersecurity posture. Just having more eyes more consistently gives hackers less room to conceal their attacks. 

Let’s take a look at the numbers. According to Symantec and ISACA:

• An estimated 1.5 to 2 million cybersecurity jobs shall remain unfilled this year.
• Each year 40,000 cybersecurity go unfilled. 
• Meanwhile, another 200,000 cybersecurity-related positions are left unstaffed. 

Simultaneously, another report by the (ISC)² Cybersecurity Workforce Study found: 

• The cybersecurity workforce gap numbers around 3 million. 
• 63% of enterprises need more cybersecurity staff. 
• 59% face increased risk due to the staffing crisis.    

If our Managed Detection and Response FAQ intrigued you, you should check out our SIEM Buyer’s Guide; many of the top SIEM providers also offer MDR services. In the guide, we dive into the major market players and their key capabilities.

Generally, cybersecurity jobs across the country and the globe remain perilously unstaffed. Those professionals working to protect enterprises find themselves frequently overwhelmed and potentially burnt out from the frequent demands of their jobs. 

While understaffing can pose serious problems, burn out proves much more insidious. In fact, it could result in a data breach down the line as your professionals lack the drive to chase down threats. Yet without a full cybersecurity staff or the means to give them time for self-care, burnout becomes inevitable.  

Obviously, 24/7 monitoring represents the most crucial capability of MDR services. However, this doesn’t represent the full suite of their tools. Indeed, MDR services also offer targeted incident response. 

Your enterprise can absolutely select an MDR service which conducts your incident response for you, allowing your IT team to act as a liaison. Additionally, you can call upon MDR to assist your own team’s threat hunting and remediation efforts. This depends on your IT security team, their capabilities, and what gaps you wish to close. 

No matter your answer, enterprise MDR services usually offer direct communication channels so you can always reach them with your concerns and queries. Your enterprise can also ask your MDR service to run investigations for you since this proves one of the most stressful and time-consuming activities for IT professionals.  

Most MDR services can also provide with leveraged threat intelligence for up-to-date strategies and capabilities. Furthermore, you can call upon your solution provider to help you maintain and deploy cybersecurity solutions, including SIEM. For example, it can help conduct and evaluate your security event correlation and investigations.  

Above all, MDR services offer your enterprise human intelligence on call to ensure the optimal performance of your cybersecurity solutions. That’s nothing to sneer at by any stretch of the imagination.