Threat actors are evolving, and so are our modern security solutions. NDR and EDR are two sides of cybersecurity defense. Both play a vital role in protecting enterprises and cover different security aspects. You should know the differences between NDR and EDR to reap their benefits.
It’s a good idea to make your networks and devices equally responsive. This guide will cover these technologies, compare NDR vs EDR, and explore how they complement each other.
Understanding NDR
The simplest way to understand NDR is to know it does everything network-related. Regarding network security, NDR should appear. NDR security tools collect data from routers, switches, and network-specific devices.
Definition of NDR
Network Detection and Response (NDR) tracks your network traffic and behaviors, looking for signs of anomalies. It detects, scans, and responds to any suspicious activities over it. NDR provides visibility by monitoring all communication flows and inspecting packets. It is beneficial for identifying threats that traverse multiple devices and endpoints within a network, often picking up activity that endpoint security solutions may miss.
Key features of NDR
- Deep Packet Inspection (DPI): NDR tools use deep packet inspection to thoroughly analyze data moving through the network. This helps identify threats that may be encrypted or hidden within legitimate traffic.
- AI-Powered Analytics: Many NDR systems incorporate machine learning and artificial intelligence to identify abnormal patterns, such as unusual data transfers or communication with known malicious IP addresses.
- Automated Response: Once a threat is identified, NDR systems can automatically trigger responses, like isolating affected devices, blocking traffic, or sending alerts to security teams.
- Centralized Visibility: NDR provides a comprehensive view of all devices and systems on the network, enabling detection across connected endpoints, cloud environments, and IoT devices.
Benefits of using NDR
- Proactive Detection of Network Threats: NDR detects threats that may have slipped past other defenses, particularly those that don’t involve direct interaction with endpoints, such as lateral movement attacks.
- Improved Visibility: With a focus on network-wide monitoring, NDR tools deliver visibility into traffic patterns across the organization, revealing hidden or otherwise undetected issues.
- Non-Intrusive Monitoring: NDR can observe traffic without interfering with normal operations, making it suitable for sensitive environments.
Limitations of NDR
NDR has its limits, which are:
- Limited Endpoint Context: It excels at monitoring networks, although it may sometimes need help providing detailed information about what’s happening at individual endpoints.
- Complexity and Cost: Deploying and maintaining NDR systems can be expensive due to the complexity and scale of network traffic analysis.
Understanding EDR
It’s important to remember that EDR won’t directly interact with your NDR security solutions. But they will if your endpoints are connected to your networks and somehow contribute towards malicious network traffic.
Definition of EDR
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) is a security solution that protects individual devices like laptops, desktops, servers, and mobile phones. It continuously monitors endpoint activity to detect threats, record suspicious behaviors, and respond to attacks at the device level. EDR solutions are valuable for stopping malware, ransomware, and other endpoint-based threats.
Key features of EDR
Here are the key features of modern EDR:
- Real-Time Monitoring: EDR tools monitor all endpoint activities in real-time, including file access, application usage, network connections, and system behavior.
- Threat Hunting: EDR solutions often come equipped with tools that allow security teams to proactively search for potential threats rather than waiting for an alert.
- Automated Remediation: Many EDR systems can automatically isolate an infected device, stop malicious processes, or roll back changes made by malware to limit the damage.
- Endpoint Data Collection: EDR continuously collects data from endpoints, providing valuable insights for post-attack forensics and helping to detect slow-moving or persistent threats.
Benefits of using EDR
- Granular Visibility: EDR offers deep insights into each endpoint, allowing security teams to pinpoint exactly where and how a threat originated.
- Efficient Incident Response: With EDR’s automated remediation and rollback features, security teams can quickly respond to attacks and mitigate damage without relying on manual intervention.
- Post-Incident Analysis: EDR stores rich endpoint data, making it easier for security analysts to investigate incidents after they occur and understand the full scope of the attack.
Limitations of EDR
- Network-Wide Blind Spots: EDR focuses solely on individual endpoints, so it may not detect attacks involving network-level activities, such as lateral movement between devices.
- Data Overload: EDR systems can generate vast amounts of data, which can overwhelm security teams if they don’t have the proper tools or expertise to manage and analyze it effectively.
What Is XDR vs. NDR?
Extended Detection and Response (XDR) goes further than NDR and EDR by offering a unified approach. It integrates endpoint, network, and other security layers into a single platform. While NDR focuses solely on the network and EDR on endpoints, XDR pulls data from both, plus other sources like email, cloud, and applications. In a sense, XDR expands the visibility and detection capabilities of both NDR and EDR.
Components and Functionalities of NDR and EDR
When to use NDR
NDR best fits organizations that monitor large networks with numerous devices. It excels in environments where attackers might try to move laterally across the network, targeting multiple endpoints. For example, financial institutions and healthcare systems with extensive internal networks can benefit significantly from NDR’s network-wide visibility.
When to use EDR
EDR is ideal for businesses looking to protect their individual devices from advanced threats, such as zero-day exploits or polymorphic malware. It’s especially valuable in industries where endpoint devices, such as law firms or retail, are critical to daily operations. EDR tools also shine in environments where employees, like financial advisers, regularly handle sensitive data on their devices.
NDR vs EDR: Key Differences
NDR and EDR play an active role in advanced threat hunting and detection. Your networks and devices connect to external resources, so both are responsible for monitoring, alerting, and analyzing them. NDR examines network data and any related activities. EDR focuses on computers, endpoints, and servers and keeps them safe from cyber-attacks.
Here are the critical differences between EDR vs NDR:
Purpose
NDR will identify and respond to both known and unknown threats. It will prevent lateral movement across networks, detect Indicators of Attacks (IoAs), and track user behaviors. Using a blend of machine learning and AI, NDR will offer real-time visibility of network data and scan for intricacies in network communications. It will immediately alert security teams and instantly respond if anything is off.
EDR security solutions monitor endpoint devices and look for signs of intrusions. The focus of EDR is more on endpoint threat remediation and rollbacks. If needed, it can revert to previous states and restore devices to their factory settings. EDR solutions can combat ransomware, malware, and various fileless attacks.
Deployment
NDR can be deployed across any ecosystem, including public, private, and hybrid clouds. It provides round-the-clock network visibility and network-based isolation and integrates with SIEM solutions. Some NDR solutions can scan packet data and provide detailed insights about potential threats. NDR tells you about your network’s state, while EDR profiles device states. EDR software is deployed on-premises and most often managed on the organization’s infrastructure and servers. It is often used with firewalls and antivirus solutions to provide complete security and defense.
| Feature/Aspect | NDR | EDR |
| Primary Focus | Network traffic | Individual endpoints |
| Detection Scope | Network-wide | Endpoint-specific |
| Response Type | Network-based isolation, blocking | Endpoint remediation, rollback |
| Threats Addressed | Lateral movement, network-based attacks | Malware, ransomware, fileless attacks |
| Deployment | Requires network sensors | Requires agents on endpoints |
| Integration | Often integrates with SIEM and NDR | Usually part of endpoint protection platforms |
| Data Collection | Network traffic analysis | Endpoint logs, user activity |
Complementary nature of NDR and EDR
How NDR and EDR Work Together?
Though NDR and EDR focus on different layers, they’re most effective when used together. NDR can monitor traffic between endpoints and the rest of the network, while EDR safeguards the endpoints. Together, they provide full-spectrum visibility, meaning they cover all potential entry points and communication channels within a network that can detect threats at any stage of an attack.
Building a Comprehensive Security Strategy
Integrating NDR and EDR forms a multilayered security approach protecting the entire network ecosystem. Security teams can detect threats early on the network level with NDR and respond to specific device-level incidents with EDR. Combining them creates a holistic strategy that reduces blind spots and strengthens security.
Best Practices for Integrating NDR and EDR
- Ensure Compatibility: Choose solutions that integrate well with each other, ideally within the same platform or with compatible APIs.
- Centralized Management: Use tools with centralized dashboards to monitor and manage NDR and EDR data for better visibility.
Automate Responses: Set up automated actions for network- and endpoint-level responses to reduce manual intervention and speed up response times.
Challenges and Considerations
- Deployment Complexity: Implementing both NDR and EDR can be resource-intensive and time-consuming.
- Cost Implications: Maintaining two separate systems can drive up costs, especially for smaller organizations with limited budgets.
Factors to Consider When Choosing NDR or EDR
- Size of Network: Larger organizations prioritize NDR for network-wide visibility, while smaller businesses may only need endpoint-level protection.
- Compliance Requirements: Depending on industry regulations, some organizations might need network and endpoint protection to meet compliance standards.
NDR vs. EDR: 10 Critical Differences
Want to compare NDR vs EDR features at a glance? Here are ten critical differences.
| Difference | NDR | EDR |
| Visibility | Spans across corporate and global networks | Limited to endpoint devices within the organization |
| Detection Targets | Targets only network anomalies | Scans for anomalies across all endpoints, including servers and mobile devices |
| Response Type | Blocks network traffic | Stops endpoint processes |
| Deployment | Deployed across sensors | Endpoint agents are deployed to enhance endpoint security |
| Focus | Network traffic and user analysis | Device behavior analysis |
| Suitable For | Large organizations | Small to medium businesses |
| Threat Types | Lateral movements, Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs), and other types of network intrusions and evasion attempts | Ransomware, spyware, malware, and fileless threats |
| Integration | SIEM integration | Endpoint protection integration |
| Data Sources | Traffic logs, DNS, IP | File logs and user behavior |
| Cost | It is pretty expensive for large networks | It is more affordable, but costs can increase depending on the number of endpoints involved. |
How SentinelOne Can Help
Singularity™ Endpoint offers superior detection and response across all attack surfaces, from endpoints and servers to mobile devices. As the world’s best-in-class EDR solution, it provides the following features:
- Centralizes data and workflows from across your estate into a single view for extended visibility and control of enterprise endpoints
- Accelerates your responses to malware, ransomware, and any other emerging threats
- Combines static and behavioral detections to neutralize known and unknown threats.
- Builds further customized automation with one API with 350+ functions.
- Creates context in real-time with Storylines and augments threat intelligence
- Responds at enterprise scale with RemoteOps
Singularity™ Network Discovery is a real-time attack surface control solution that finds and fingerprints all IP-enabled devices on your network. It is designed to add global visibility and control with minimal friction. Its customizable scanning policies help avoid violating privacy statutes. Network Discovery protects managed assets from unauthorized communications with one click when unauthorized devices appear on sensitive networks. It is effortless to implement and offers the following features:
- Build a policy and toggle it on. If needed, admins can specify a different policy for each network and subnet.
- Select auto-enabled scanning or specify explicit permissions if more control over the network environment is needed.
- Network policies control scan intervals, what should be scanned, and what must never be scanned.
- Admins may customize active scan policies and specify multiple IP protocols for learning, including ICMP, SNMP, UDP, TCP, SMB, and more.
- It intelligently elects several Sentinel agents per subnet to participate in network mapping missions. With a single click, you can also monitor how unknown devices communicate with managed hosts and isolate suspicious devices.
If you want to extend protection beyond endpoints, try Singularity™ XDR. The Singularity™ Platform delivers both EDR and NDR security features for those looking for a holistic security solution. You can book a free live demo with the team to learn how it works.
Final Thoughts
Start detecting cyber attacks 24/7 and monitor your networks and endpoints. Don’t neglect EDR and NDR security. You can’t choose between NDR vs EDR because you need both. SentinelOne also offers managed detection and response services run by experts who provide additional assistance. Where gaps in automation exist and require manual intervention, the team comes in. And since you’re getting the best of both worlds, you can rest assured that your enterprise will stay protected.
FAQs
1. What is the main difference between NDR and EDR?
NDR focuses on monitoring network traffic, while EDR focuses on protecting individual devices. They complement each other by addressing threats at different layers.
2. Can I use both NDR and EDR together?
Yes! NDR and EDR can provide complete visibility and protection across your network and endpoints.
3. Do small businesses need NDR?
Small businesses with simple networks may not need NDR, but those with more complex environments or sensitive data could benefit from its added visibility.
4. Is EDR enough to stop all cyberattacks?
EDR is excellent for protecting individual devices but may not catch threats moving through the network. Combining it with NDR can offer more comprehensive protection.
5. How does SentinelOne integrate NDR and EDR?
SentinelOne integrates both solutions into a single platform, providing centralized management, automated responses, and AI-driven threat detection.