MDR, MSSP, or Something Else? How to Choose the Right Solution for Your Security Operations

The rate of weekly attacks per organization has more than doubled in the past three years, reaching 1,636. Security teams are struggling with the sheer volume of these attacks —  it takes an average of 194 days to identify a breach and another 64 days to contain it, according to IBM's "Cost of a Data Breach 2024" report¹.

Many organizations are adding more security tools in an attempt to stay ahead of the problem. But they don’t have enough people to manage those tools. In the US alone, the security industry has a talent gap of 225,000 workers. 

Fortunately, today’s managed security offers a viable alternative to in-house teams. With a focus on proactive threat hunting, quick detection and response, and a shared pool of experts available 24x7, managed detection and response (MDR) can help address complicated security operations challenges.  

Building on the adoption of new security platforms like SIEM and SOAR as well as outsourced security models, MDR has emerged into an effective solution for augmenting or expanding internal SOC teams.

The evolution of cybersecurity: from SIEM to MSSP to MDR

As digital business models emerged in the early 2000s and network traffic grew, vendors began offering better traffic monitoring and visibility into real-time threats. With more log data and security alerts being generated, they saw the need for new technologies such as SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) and later EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response).  

But environments continued to evolve. The exploding number of security alerts led to the adoption of SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response). SOAR integrates existing security tools like SIEM and EDR to automate repetitive security tasks and workflows and enables security teams to respond faster. EDR, in turn, grew into XDR (Extended Detection and Response) in response to cloud adoption and the rise of more sophisticated threats like ransomware. 

At the same time, two new concepts were taking hold: the security operations center (SOC) and managed security services providers (MSSPs). Driven by needs such as automation, compliance, and improved data security, the became a centralized hub for threat detection and response. To meet their growing SOC demands, organizations began outsourcing security functions such as SIEM and EDR management to MSSPs. 

As cyberattacks became more sophisticated, companies needed better threat detection monitoring, faster incident response times, and access to greater cybersecurity expertise. MDR was the result of further marketplace evolution in the last few years, offering turnkey solutions to address these needs. 

What is managed detection and response?

MDR is a modern approach to the increasing number, speed, and impact of attacks. It provides 24/7, remotely delivered security operations to detect, analyze, and neutralize threats and respond to cyberattacks. According to Gartner, “50% of organizations will be using MDR services for threat monitoring, detection, and response functions that offer threat containment and mitigation capabilities” by 2025. 

MDR solutions provide: 

• Threat detection and response to actively identify, disrupt, and contain attacks. 
• Outcome focus, prioritizing agreed-upon results rather than just alerting you to threats. 
• Human expertise to take response action based on nuances like context, industry-specific threats, and your distinct network architecture and user base. 
• Flexibility and customization, adapting solutions to your existing IT infrastructure and security stack. 
• Real-time visibility, with clear dashboards that present a real-time view of your security posture. 

These features combine to provide a robust defense against cyber threats before they cause too much damage. 

What challenges does MDR solve?

MDR addresses three critical cybersecurity challenges:  

• The need for greater detection and response speed: Organizations can lose valuable time trying to piece together information from multiple security tools and logs, and struggle to distinguish between false positives and real threats. It can take days to detect an incident, yet attackers only need a few hours — and sometimes even minutes — to inflict damage. 
  
• Proactive instead of reactive security: Attackers constantly find new ways to bypass security defenses. Reactive solutions only defend against known attacks while proactive security helps stop threats before they enter your environment. 
• Lack of available security expertise: Finding and retaining qualified talent remains a problem. This leaves security teams stretched thin and ill-equipped to handle the massive volume and sophistication of cyberattacks. 

The key MDR service features

What sets MDR apart from traditional cybersecurity approaches like SIEM and EDR and, to a certain extent, even MSSP? 

• Proactive threat hunting: By the time an organization receives an alert that a breach has occurred, it’s already too late. Proactive threat hunting can help identify and neutralize undetected threats lurking in your environment. 
• 24/7 “eyes on glass” threat detection: MDR providers continuously monitor your networks and systems to identify and address threats with minimal dwell time. 
• Direct access to dedicated experts: When a threat is identified, you don’t want to wait for answers — you want a “direct line” to your outside team. This team should provide not only tactical activities but also advisory services to help continuously boost your cyber resiliency. 
• Composable security: This model lets you leverage current investments and still benefit from the expertise and capabilities of the MDR provider — without requiring a complete overhaul of your existing security infrastructure. 
• Automated response customization: Some organizations want fully automated responses to incidents. Others must meet compliance requirements or internal security policies. MDR solutions can customize automations to meet your specific needs and use cases. 
• First-party threat intelligence: MDR providers gather threat intelligence from multiple sources, including from their own customer base. This real-world experience, institutional knowledge, and crowdsourced effect benefits their entire client pool. 
• Centralized view: The vendor’s centralized platform or dashboard provides a complete view of your security posture. This “single pane of glass” approach simplifies security monitoring and management, serves diverse stakeholders, and improves decision-making. 

So how do these capabilities compare to other cybersecurity techniques? 

MDR vs. MSSP vs. SIEM vs. EDR: What’s the difference? 

The difference between MDR, MSSP, SIEM, and EDR is a mix of security philosophy and approaches. 

SIEM and EDR are platforms. SIEM deals primarily with log management and EDR focuses on endpoint threat detection and response. These platforms require human teams to properly deploy, configure, and manage, either internally or externally. 

MSSPs and MDR are managed services. Traditionally, MSSPs offered broad but basic security monitoring. Their responsibility was often limited to notifying the customer of potential threats. The customer’s internal team was responsible for investigation and mitigation. 

MDR provides comprehensive threat management. MDR providers extend the internal security team and assume the responsibility of monitoring, analyzing, and responding to threats. They use a combination of advanced technologies (SIEM, EDR, XDR, AI, etc.), threat intelligence, skilled security analysts, and incident responders to provide faster responses. 

Today, many MSSPs take a proactive approach, which makes them almost indistinguishable from MDR. The use of the terms MDR and MSSP can often boil down to a marketing decision. 

How to choose the right MDR solution

These four critical aspects can help you evaluate a vendor’s offering. 

• Outcome prioritization: Many vendors heavily promote the capabilities of their technology platforms like SIEM and SOAR. Focus on the outcomes you want to achieve instead of the platform’s features.
  
• Appropriate level of expertise: An MDR vendor must provide a team of seasoned security professionals, including analysts, threat hunters, and incident responders. Ask the vendor to demonstrate their expertise with examples of real use cases. Also find out how these experts are trained to keep up with best practices and stay ahead of new threats. 
• Flexibility: Choose a vendor-agnostic MDR provider that allows you to keep your existing technology stack. You should not be forced to upgrade to a new one or use the vendor’s preferred brand. You should also be able to use a hybrid approach that integrates their technology with yours. Avoid vendor lock-in or vendors who require costly “rip and replace” projects. 
• Transparency: Vendors must be willing to provide complete visibility into your security operations so you can stay informed about what’s happening within your environment. Look for an MDR provider who offers easy-to-understand access to real-time data and to the security analysts assigned to your organization. 

While MDR is a managed solution handled by a third party, the provider is a partner who collaborates with you. This partner must make it as simple as possible for you because, in the end, you remain responsible for your organization’s security posture. 

Partnering with Digital Hands

Digital Hands has provided-behind-the-scenes security services for many leading security vendors globally. With Digital Hands, you get: 

• Experts with over 20 years of experience in staying ahead of threats
• A team who delivers smart and flexible security solutions
• A platform built on best-of-breed technologies
• A composable security model that enables you to bring your own technology and leverage ours