As cyber threats continue to grow in volume and sophistication, organizations face increasing pressure to detect malicious activity as early as possible. But attackers are doing everything they can to avoid detection, and that includes taking action when their targets are less likely to be watching.
The 2025 Arctic Wolf Security Operations Report found that adversaries are taking advantage of “off-business hours” to launch attacks, with 51% of all alerts now generated outside of traditional working hours. In this landscape, comprehensive, 24×7 visibility across the IT environment is not just helpful, but essential. Even minor visibility gaps can result in delayed or missed detections. However, with security being one of many competing IT priorities, achieving this around-the-clock threat monitoring is a major challenge for many.
This challenge requires a dynamic, adaptable approach that’s as evolved as cybercriminals’ tactics, and as always-on as they are. Managed detection and response (MDR) combines advanced threat detection technologies with expert-driven oversight, analysis, and response capabilities to protect organizations from cyber attacks 24×7. Unlike traditional security tools that primarily focus on prevention, MDR emphasizes continuous monitoring, rapid detection, and decisive response to confirmed threats.
Gartner® predicts that, “By 2028, 50% of findings from managed detection and response providers will be focused on, or include detail on, threat exposures, up from 10% today.” That’s a major increase in use of MDR for proactive cybersecurity, and for good reason. A solution that takes an operational approach, combining the best in technology with the expertise and adaptability of humans allows organizations to not only detect threats, but respond to them swiftly while working to proactively harden their attack surface over time.
Key Capabilities and Benefits of Managed Detection and Response
24×7 Security Operations Center (SOC) Monitoring
MDR offers broad visibility into an organization’s environment, connecting to web-based applications and covering ground from the network to identities to the cloud. This visibility highlights the inherent value of an MDR solution. But visibility means little if there aren’t experts on call at all times to monitor the environment. A hallmark of MDR is around-the-clock monitoring by skilled security analysts, which allows for the rapid identification of suspicious activity, helping to detect attacks in their early stages, minimizing and often preventing potential damage.
Capabilities include:
- Human validation of alerts to help reduce false positives
- Continuous, around-the-clock coverage options that eliminate time-zone blind spots
- Faster identification and escalation of genuine threats compared to automated tools alone
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Integration
MDR providers typically leverage or integrate with EDR tools to enhance endpoint visibility. This integration enhances organizational security by combining full endpoint visibility with expert-driven threat detection, analysis, and response across the entire environment, allowing for faster containment of threats, streamlined escalation paths, and improved workflows.
Key benefits include:
- Monitoring processes, memory, and system calls for malicious behavior
- Correlating endpoint telemetry with network and identity data for deeper investigations
- Detecting lateral movement, credential dumping, and privilege escalation when correlating with other data sources
Cloud and Hybrid Environment Visibility
Cloud-based applications are now mainstream and have become essential for business productivity, which means modern IT environments need MDR solutions with integrated cloud monitoring to help reduce there are no security blind spots.
A strong cloud monitoring system will monitor internet-as-a-service (IaaS), software-as-a-service (SaaS), and security-as-a-service (SECaaS) solutions. Using APIs, virtual sensors can provide near real-time monitoring of cloud resources and user behavior to ensure they comply with an organization’s security policies and are free from threats. While other tools may take to the cloud, many, like traditional SIEM solutions, are not configured out-of-the-box to accurately secure an organization’s cloud environment. MDR solutions, however, are now becoming not only cloud-capable, but cloud-native, ingesting and analyzing the cloud environment as they would on-premises applications.
MDR providers can track cloud logins, access patterns, and configurations to spot potential account compromises or misconfigurations. This ensures threats unique to cloud infrastructures don’t slip through the cracks.
Coverage areas include:
- Identity providers (e.g., Azure AD/Entra, Okta)
- Cloud workloads and infrastructure logs such as AWS CloudTrail or Azure Activity Logs
- SaaS applications and hybrid networks to eliminate visibility gaps
Log Aggregation and Correlation
Comprehensive, user-friendly log management is important for organizations to understand their security environment and make better security decisions. However, security telemetry is often scattered across the organization, including endpoints, servers, firewalls, and cloud applications.
MDR platforms can alleviate log management challenges. They take in logs from various sources and correlate events to identify patterns that might indicate a coordinated attack. This holistic view not only improves detection accuracy and helps uncover hidden threats but can also make a major impact when a digital forensics expert is investigating an environment during an incident.
Capabilities:
- Collecting logs from firewalls, endpoints, cloud, and identity systems
- Using correlation rules to connect related events (e.g., failed login → privilege escalation)
- Detecting coordinated attack chains across multiple layers
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
It’s an overwhelming task for humans alone to analyze the massive amounts of log data coming from even the most modest IT environment. The only way to efficiently and effectively analyze high volumes of log data is by augmenting human expertise with machine learning (ML) algorithms. No wonder, then, that in its recent research, Navigating the Human-AI Relationship for Security Operations Success, Arctic Wolf found that 99% of organizations surveyed say that their planned cybersecurity purchases or renewals will be influenced by the presence of AI within the solution.
A next-generation MDR provider leverages the agility and adaptability of cybersecurity experts alongside AI and ML to filter out false positives and fine-tune algorithms as new threats are detected, making sure that your security system is an accurate reflection of your business’s policies and risk assessments. Analysts validate alerts, investigate edge cases, and filter out noise, ensuring machine learning outputs are actionable. The result is a balance of speed, accuracy, and context. This pairing of technology and human expertise puts MDR solutions a step above traditional monitoring tools.
Approaches include:
- Unsupervised clustering to flag anomalies
- Supervised classification for known threat types
- Baseline deviation detection to spot insider threats or zero-day attacks
Incident Response Orchestration
When incidents occur, MDR supports fast and controlled responses by uniting holistic environmental telemetry, and applying threat intelligence, contextual investigation, and advanced analytics to identify patterns of compromise.
Typical actions include:
- Isolating compromised endpoints
- Disabling malicious accounts or resetting credentials
- Enabling coordination to block C2 domains or IPs at network defenses
- Automating response actions via API integrations
Threat Containment at Scale
Instead of relying on manual, one-off actions, MDR services apply automated and coordinated response measures that aim to minimize dwell time and prevent lateral movement. This may include isolating compromised endpoints, halting suspicious processes, or restricting user access via identity platforms. By orchestrating containment actions simultaneously across endpoints, networks, identity, and cloud environments, MDR enables organizations to limit the blast radius of an attack, protecting critical systems and maintaining operational continuity during high-pressure incidents.
Examples include:
- Deploying temporary firewall rules to block malicious traffic
- Disabling cloud access keys in AWS, Azure, or GCP
- Quarantining malicious email campaigns across enterprise mail systems
Compliance and Reporting Support
Meeting regulatory requirements can be a challenge for in-house security teams. MDR services can help streamline compliance by generating audit-ready reports that map directly to standards such as PCI DSS, HIPAA, or GDPR. This not only reduces administrative workload but also helps demonstrate accountability to regulators and stakeholders.
An MDR provider should also offer experience and guidance that enhances automated systems, allowing organizations to work toward regulatory obligations and concurring security measures.
Key support areas include:
- Log retention for mandated periods
- Structured reporting for audits and investigations
- Documentation and evidence preservation for security frameworks
Learn how Arctic Wolf’s MDR solution assists with specific compliance requirements across industries.
Vulnerability Context Integration
While not a replacement for vulnerability management, MDR enriches detections with risk insights. Rather than treating all vulnerabilities as equal, MDR platforms enriched with context can identify which weaknesses pose the greatest danger based on threat actor behavior, industry targeting, and environmental factors such as asset criticality. This capability helps security teams better understand the intent behind malicious activity, accelerating investigations and reducing noise.
Capabilities include:
- Mapping active exploits to known CVEs
- Prioritizing alerts based on likelihood of organizational exposure
- Enabling risk-based resource allocation for remediation
Custom Detection Engineering
Every organization has unique processes, workflows, and risk profiles. MDR providers fine-tune detection logic and alert thresholds to align with those needs, which reduces false positives and alert fatigue. This customization improves both accuracy and efficiency in day-to-day security operations.
The top MDR solution providers use a customizable rules engine to define bespoke security policies for each customer. This lets engineers apply exact security and operational policies and then update them to align with changing business needs, new and evolving threats, and any applicable rules and regulations.
Using a set of customized security rules, an MDR team can selectively filter out “noisy” events that may trigger a number of alerts but represent no real security risk, allowing analysts to stay focused on detecting both known and unknown threats. While other SOC-focused tools, notably SIEM solutions, can customize alerts, MDR solutions utilize their own security teams to fine-tune and adjust the alerting and security rules as needed, saving the organization time and resources. This is in stark contrast to the SIEM “do-it-yourself” model, where a customer’s own internal engineers are tasked with continuously adding to and adjusting rule sets. Alert fatigue is costly, and by utilizing new methods like machine learning, MDR solutions are eliminating false positives and setting organizations up for security success.
Key practices include:
- Building custom rules for proprietary applications
- Tailoring detection logic for sector-specific threats
- Evolving detection as infrastructure and attacker TTPs change
Learn how a leading retail services agency achieved immediate results while reducing long-term risk with Arctic Wolf® Managed Detection and Response.
Key Benefits of MDR Solutions
1. Dedicated Security Team
MDR providers give organizations access to experienced cybersecurity analysts who act as an extension of in-house staff. This support helps organizations overcome the cybersecurity talent shortage and can provide expert guidance during critical incidents.
2. Workflow Integration
MDR solutions integrate with existing IT and security tools, such as ticketing systems, communication platforms, and orchestration solutions. This can help incident alerts and response steps better fit into established workflows, speeding up resolution while minimizing disruption.
3. Scalable Data Architecture
As organizations grow, so does the volume of security data. MDR services use scalable architectures that can process large amounts of telemetry without performance issues. This allows for visibility and detection capabilities that can keep pace with expanding infrastructure and evolving business needs.
4. Access to Global Threat Intelligence
MDR providers aggregate data from clients globally and industry sources to maintain an up-to-date, real-time view of the threat landscape. This intelligence includes insights into emerging malware strains, attacker TTPs, and active campaigns. By leveraging shared intelligence, organizations benefit from collective defense and gain protection informed by real-world attacks observed across the globe.
5. Reduced Time to Detection
MDR providers are designed to minimize threat dwell time, often detecting suspicious activity within minutes rather than days or months. By quickly identifying and prioritizing malicious behavior, MDR platforms help organizations contain threats before attackers can move laterally, escalate privileges, or cause significant damage. Improving MTTD not only reduces recovery costs but also strengthens overall resilience and limits business disruption.
See how Arctic Wolf is able to utilize early detections and fast response times to drastically reduce overall MTTD.
6. Business Continuity and Resilience
MDR contributes to this by ensuring threats are managed without interrupting day-to-day operations. Organizations can continue serving customers and maintaining productivity while the MDR team monitors for security threats in the background, and lends speed, expertise, and experience to the remediation process when threats are encountered. This capability is especially critical for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) that lack large in-house security teams but still face enterprise-level threats.
7. Cost Efficiency
Building a comparable in-house security operations center (SOC) requires significant investment in staffing, training, tools, and infrastructure. MDR delivers enterprise-grade protection at a lower cost than building an in-house SOC, making advanced security accessible to organizations of all sizes.
8. Strategic Security Planning
Providers often deliver regular assessments and recommendations tailored to an organization’s environment. These insights help security leaders prioritize investments, strengthen defenses, and align security initiatives with business goals. By moving beyond reactive defense, organizations can adopt a more strategic, long-term approach to cybersecurity.
Learn more about the value of MDR and its role in holistic protection in the 2025 Security Operations Report.
Gain additional insights into the advantages MDR offers organizations and learn the right questions to ask when evaluating vendors in our MDR Buyer’s Guide.