One of the major advantages of using an MDR provider over in-house only security operations programs is elevated protection against ransomware and other advanced cyber threats. An MDR vendor will experience a far greater volume and variety of attacks than any individual organisation, giving them a level of expertise that is almost impossible to replicate in house. MDR service providers also have much greater fluency in using threat hunting tools, enabling them to respond more quickly and accurately. Working as part of a large team also enables analysts to share their knowledge and insights, further accelerating response and developing ‘community immunity’ i.e. where learnings from one organisation are applied to others with a similar profile

Threat hunting is a highly complex operation. Individuals in this space need to possess a specific and niche set of skills, which makes recruiting threat hunting expertise an uphill task for many organizations. MDR services provide the expertise for you. At Sophos, we have hundreds of expert analysts that provide continuous MDR services to customers across the globe.

Maintaining a 24/7 threat hunting team is expensive, requiring at least five or six full-time staff. MDR services provide a cost-effective way to secure your organization and stretch your cybersecurity budget further. Plus, by elevating your protection, MDR services also greatly reduce the risk of experiencing a costly data breach and avoid the financial pain of dealing with a major incident. If you use an MDR vendor that also offers endpoint – and other – cybersecurity offerings you can enjoy considerable TCO advantages from consolidating with a single provider as well as streamlining your vendor management efforts. Furthermore, by choosing a vendor that enables you to leverage your existing investments you can increase the ROI on existing spend.

With malicious actors located around the globe, an attack can come at any time. By providing 24/7 coverage, MDR services provide considerable reassurance and peace of mind. For IT teams this means — literally — being able to sleep better at night. They can relax knowing that the buck stops with the MDR provider. For senior leaders and customers, 24/7 expert coverage and a high level of cyber readiness at all times provides powerful reassurance that their data and the organization itself are well protected. ​ ​

Anecdotally, the biggest benefit reported by IT teams on adopting Sophos MDR is that it frees them up to support business-focused initiatives. Threat hunting is time-consuming, and unpredictable work that often prevents IT teams from focusing on more strategic projects. Organizations using Sophos MDR report considerable IT efficiency gains from using our service, which in turn enables them to better support their organization’s goals.