Endpoint detection and response (EDR) and antivirus are two important cybersecurity technologies that serve different purposes. While both aim to protect endpoints from malware and other threats, they go about it in different ways.
What is antivirus?
Antivirus is a traditional endpoint security technology that has been around for decades. As the name suggests, antivirus software is designed to detect, block and remove viruses and other forms of malware like worms, trojans, spyware, adware and ransomware.
Antivirus uses signature-based detection to identify threats by comparing files, processes and behaviors on endpoints to large databases of known malware signatures. If a match is found, the antivirus will block the file or process and attempt to remove the threat. Antivirus also utilizes heuristics, which looks for suspicious characteristics in files that could indicate malicious intent.
In addition to scanning for threats in real-time, antivirus also runs scheduled scans to proactively check for malware. Many antivirus solutions also include extra protections like firewalls, email scanning, antiphishing and more.
Antivirus remains an essential security layer for defending endpoints from known threats. However, it has limitations:
- Antivirus relies on signatures, so it cannot detect new, unknown threats
- Advanced malware can evade antivirus by altering code or hiding in trusted processes
- Antivirus focused on prevention, with limited response capabilities
What is EDR?
EDR or endpoint detection and response is a newer approach to endpoint security that is focused on rapid threat detection and response. EDR solutions utilize advanced behavioral monitoring and analytics to detect even novel and sophisticated attacks that evade traditional antivirus.
Rather than relying on signatures and heuristics, EDR uses machine learning algorithms, artificial intelligence and big data analytics. EDR agents monitor endpoint activity in depth, collecting extensive telemetry – like processes, file activity, memory, registry changes, network connections etc. This data is correlated and analyzed to identify behavioral anomalies that could indicate malicious activity.
When a potential threat is detected, EDR alerts security teams and allows them to immediately investigate using retrospective analysis. EDR tools provide rich investigative capabilities like timelining to reconstruct events leading up to a threat. Security teams can also contain threats by isolating infected hosts.
Key capabilities of EDR include:
- Behavioral analysis and anomaly detection
- Retrospective security analytics
- Advanced threat hunting
- Incident investigation and response
- Containment of compromised endpoints
EDR complements antivirus by adding sophisticated threat detection and rapid response to block modern attacks.
Key Differences between EDR and antivirus
Here is a quick overview of the key differences between EDR and antivirus:
| Antivirus | EDR |
|---|---|
| Signature-based detection | Behavioral analytics |
| Protects against known threats | Detects zero-day and advanced threats |
| Prevents threats | Detects and responds to threats |
| Block malicious files and processes | Monitor and analyze endpoint activity |
| Performs scheduled scans | Continuous monitoring |
| Minimal visibility into threats | Retrospective analysis of threats |
Key capabilities comparison
Let’s examine the key capabilities of antivirus vs EDR in more depth:
Threat detection
Antivirus relies on signature databases to detect known threats. This leaves endpoints vulnerable to zero-day exploits, advanced malware, and ransomware that can bypass signatures.
EDR uses behavioral analytics and machine learning to detect anomalous activity that indicates malicious intent. This allows EDR to detect sophisticated and stealthy attacks that antivirus will miss.
Response capabilities
Antivirus focuses on blocking malicious files and processes. But it provides limited visibility into threats and has minimal response capabilities beyond quarantining files.
EDR delivers far more robust threat response capabilities. Security teams can investigate threats using data collected by the EDR, rapidly hunt for signs of compromise, and contain attacks by isolating infected hosts.
Retrospective security analytics
Antivirus gives you minimal data on threat activity. Once a threat is quarantined or deleted, that’s it.
EDR continuously records endpoint activity, so security teams can reconstruct the full timeline of an attack forensically to determine root cause, impact and remedies.
Proactive protection
Antivirus relies on scheduled scans to catch threats. This leaves gaps between scans where new threats can emerge.
EDR monitors endpoints constantly, alerting security teams about suspicious activity as soon as it is detected.
When is EDR needed vs antivirus?
Here are common scenarios where organizations should consider adding EDR to complement antivirus:
Dealing with advanced threats
If your organization is facing sophisticated, advanced threats and ransomware able to bypass traditional defenses, EDR provides behavioral-based threat detection and response required to stop these attacks.
Responding to suspicious activity
If your antivirus is constantly flagging “possible” threats but you lack visibility into the activity and ability to respond decisively, EDR can help by verifying and investigating potential threats.
Need for proactive threat hunting
Relying solely on antivirus means taking a passive approach, waiting for signatures to detect threats. EDR enables proactive threat hunting to identify stealthy threats based on behavioral anomalies.
Require robust incident response
If your current defenses provide inadequate data and tools for effective incident response, EDR delivers the investigative capabilities, analytic visibility and rapid response you need.
Meeting regulatory compliance
EDR provides the advanced threat detection and rapid response required to comply with regulations and security standards that traditional antivirus alone cannot meet.
When is antivirus still enough?
While EDR offers advanced capabilities, antivirus still suffices in some scenarios:
Protecting against commodity threats
Antivirus remains effective against widespread commodity malware, viruses, trojans without the need for advanced EDR capabilities.
Covering the basics
For simple endpoints with low data value and limited risk, antivirus may provide adequate “basic” threat protection without EDR.
Complementing EDR deployment
Antivirus can fill the gaps in EDR coverage across a large environment, ensuring all endpoints have some level of protection.
Defense in depth
Using antivirus with EDR provides layered security, with antivirus handling commodity threats and EDR providing advanced defense.
Cost savings
Antivirus offers a lightweight, low-cost option for threat protection that may suffice for low-risk systems.
Challenges of antivirus
While antivirus remains a security staple, over-reliance on it can leave organizations vulnerable. Key limitations of antivirus include:
Gaps between signature updates
New threats emerge rapidly, but antivirus signature updates lag behind. The gap between updates leaves endpoints exposed.
Performance impact
Constant scanning taxes system resources, impairing endpoint performance. Exclusions are often required for critical servers.
Management overhead
Maintaining comprehensive signature databases and updating clients across endpoints requires significant management overhead.
Alert fatigue
Antivirus generates massive volumes of threat alerts, many of which turn out to be false positives upon investigation.
Limited retrospective analysis
Antivirus provides minimal data on the sequence of events in an attack, hampering incident investigation.
Evasion techniques
Sophisticated malware and fileless attacks can evade antivirus completely using evasion and anti-analysis techniques.
Benefits of EDR
EDR platforms overcome many traditional antivirus limitations. Key benefits provided by EDR include:
Behavioral threat detection
EDR uses behavioral analysis to detect advanced threats missed by traditional antivirus signature matching.
Rapid incident response
On-demand probes combined with continuous endpoint visibility accelerates incident response.
Threat hunting capabilities
EDR allows security analysts to proactively hunt for indicators of compromise across the environment.
Retrospective security analytics
The ability to reconstruct events leading to a breach provides critical visibility during incident investigation.
Reduced alert fatigue
Analytics and correlation engine suppresses noise and alerts on actual threats vs. false positives.
Lightweight agent
EDR agent uses low CPU and memory overhead, improving performance compared to traditional antivirus.
Ransomware detection
Behavioral analytics can detect ransomware activity patterns and stop encryption attempts.
Challenges of EDR
Despite its benefits, EDR also presents some challenges:
Deployment effort
Installing EDR agents across endpoints and integrating with infrastructure requires significant upfront work.
Adding a new security tool
Introducing EDR can further complicate technology stacks, requiring integration and added management overhead.
Behavioral analytics limits
While powerful, behavioral analytics can be prone to false positives if not properly tuned.
Impact on endpoints
Constant agent activity like system scans can reduce endpoint performance and result in compatibility issues.
Skills required
EDR requires specialized security talent to configure, monitor, interpret alerts and conduct threat hunting.
Cost
Full EDR solutions require a significant investment compared to traditional antivirus products.
Conclusion
Antivirus and EDR work together to provide layered protection. Antivirus offers rapid, signature-based detection of known threats, while EDR utilizes behavioral analytics to detect sophisticated and zero-day threats.
Here are some key takeaways on EDR vs antivirus:
– EDR provides advanced threat detection and rapid incident response capabilities that antivirus lacks.
– Antivirus is still effective against common malware and offers a lightweight option to cover the basics.
– Organizations with elevated risk from targeted attacks require the enhanced defenses of EDR.
– EDR and antivirus used together deliver robust, layered protection across endpoints.
– Companies should consider adding EDR to enhance defenses, enable threat hunting and improve incident response.