Learn more about our endpoint security partnerships with Microsoft, CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, and VMware Carbon Black.
With so many ways for attackers to get inside a network, an effective cybersecurity strategy must account for every threat vector. Endpoints tend to be the most vulnerable parts of an organization, making them natural targets for threat actors looking to install malware, gain unauthorized access, exfiltrate data, and so on.
But what makes a dedicated EDR solution so important? In short, EDR tools provide visibility, threat intelligence, and incident response capabilities to protect endpoints—and by extension, their users and data—from cyberattacks. Let’s take a closer look:
EDR works by continuously monitoring endpoints for suspicious activity, collecting and analyzing data, and providing real-time notifications of potential threats. Using behavioral analysis, machine learning, threat intelligence feeds, and more, EDR identifies anomalies in endpoint behavior and detects malicious activity.
EDR capabilities vary from one solution to another, but the essential building blocks of EDR include:
The essence of effective EDR security is improved endpoint protection that eases your team's operational burdens. Ideally, it can accomplish this while also helping you reduce costs. You'll want to look for EDR that offers:
Many cyberthreats begin on endpoints, so effectively protecting them is crucial to secure your workloads, users, and the rest of your network. However, it’s important to recognize some of the limitations of EDR technology:
Endpoint visibility is a key component of a zero trust strategy that also includes a zero trust architecture, identity-based access controls, logging, and analytics.
You can think of extended detection and response (XDR) as an evolution of EDR that pairs threat detection and response solutions with security orchestration. By collecting telemetry from your entire ecosystem—endpoints, clouds, networks, threat intelligence feeds, and more—XDR enables faster and more accurate detection, correlation, threat hunting, and incident response than EDR alone.
Learn more in our full article: What Is XDR?
Zscaler partners with leading endpoint security innovators to provide end-to-end threat detection, intel sharing, remediation, and device posture-driven access control to all on-premises and cloud apps. Tightly integrated with the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange™ platform, our partners offer flexible, reliable EDR and XDR solutions to support your organization through digital transformation and beyond.
Learn more about our endpoint security partnerships with Microsoft, CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, and VMware Carbon Black.
What Is Endpoint Security?
Learn moreWhat Is XDR?
Learn moreEndpoint protection platforms (EPP) and endpoint detection and response (EDR) are both endpoint security solutions. Generally speaking, the difference between them is that EPP works to stop threats from reaching an endpoint, whereas EDR works to counteract threats that have already reached an endpoint. In this way, EPP and EDR could be considered the first and second lines of defense, respectively.
Endpoints are devices that are connected to and communicate with a network, such as smartphones, IoT devices, desktop and laptop computers, and servers. EDR tools exists to counteract threats that make their way through a network's defenses and onto endpoints. You could think of an endpoint as a body and EDR as its immune system.
EDR is generally a complement to antivirus and firewall solutions, not a replacement for them, because EDR and firewall/AV have different core functionality. Basically, firewalls and antivirus are there to keep threats out of the network, whereas EDR is there to fend off threats that have already gained access to the network.
Some EDR solutions also include antivirus functionality, which remains an effective measure against known threats.