The Next Level of Cybersecurity: Managed Detection & Response

Posted by bssconsulting2 On March 3, 2025

Here’s a challenge for your HR department: Hire 100+ world-class cybersecurity and forensics experts to monitor your network and systems 24/7/365, remediate any issues that come up, and use cutting-edge technology to parse thousands of log entries to look for signs of ransomware, hacker intrusion, or malware.

Or, you could add a Managed Detection & Response (MDR) service as a far more secure layer onto your current IT protocols. If you are a BSS client with a fully managed package, you already have this service in place.

What is MDR?

MDR has two major aspects: the security software and the cybersecurity experts. Gartner defines MDR as a service that provides “customers with remotely delivered Security Operations Center (SOC) functions. These functions allow organizations to perform rapid detection, analysis, investigation and response through threat disruption and containment.”

This is like having a Ferrari in a footrace; a dedicated SOC keeps you ahead of cyber threats, even before you know the race has started. MDR services can be deployed for on-premise server systems, cloud-based systems like Microsoft 365, or hybrid.

How does it work?

24/7 SOC team – The SOC staffs a team of cybersecurity experts that work 24/7 for you. They use automated and manual processes to observe, identify, and remediate suspicious activity in your networks. If it requires local assistance, the SOC team reaches out to your IT company or department.

Non-stop monitoring & vulnerability scanning – The entire purpose of an MDR SOC team to provide non-stop monitoring of your network and computers for *anything* that looks out of the ordinary. They look for malware, ransomware, unauthorized users, and so much more. Additionally, they are constantly scanning for weak or open spots in your network and providing steps to correct them.

Canaries – These are a security mechanism that is deployed throughout your network and computers that acts as an attractive decoy for threat actors who are in the system and watches for strange behaviors. Legitimate users generally won’t ever interact with their canaries, so if they are triggered, the canaries send high alert messages to the SOC team to stop a hacker in the act.

Automated tickets – The SOC team relies on both canaries and event logs to create automated tickets for them to review. These are generally ranked by priority and urgency so the SOC staff can address the most critical issues first. This also helps to reduce Alert fatigue by your regular IT team, so they can focus on your day-to-day issues.

Rapid remediation – Even before the end user knows, the SOC team has fixed the issue by software patches, reconfiguring systems, or implementing additional security controls. Anything they can’t fix on their own, the SOC team reaches out to the local IT company or department to assist.

Regular reporting – The MDR software provides monthly, easy to read reports that include a summary and high-level incident investigations. See image below for BSS’ MDR stats for the month of January.

Compliance – Many insurance and industry regulations require advanced cybersecurity features that MDR offers. Using an MDR service means meeting and sometimes exceeding cybersecurity demands regardless of the industry.

Download the PDF

While it sounds expensive, most MDR services are sold on a monthly subscription basis making it very affordable through your IT Managed Service Provider. Because of this, scaling up to add more users or more locations is seamless. As a BSS client with a fully managed package, MDR is already included in your flat monthly fee.

MDR is the best proactive security that works on top of your regular IT cybersecurity. To find out more, give our Technical Solutions Experts a call at 765-742-3440. □

advanced cybersecurity threat report