Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) is a category of cybersecurity technology focused on detecting, investigating, and responding to suspicious activity on endpoint devices. Endpoints—such as laptops, desktops, servers, mobile devices, and virtual machines—are frequent targets of cyberattacks, making them critical components of an organization’s security strategy.
EDR solutions collect and analyze telemetry from these endpoints in real time to uncover threats such as malware, credential theft, and lateral movement. By providing continuous monitoring, detection, and response capabilities, EDR helps organizations reduce dwell time, stop in-progress attacks, and support incident investigation.
What is EDR?
EDR is a security solution that monitors endpoint activity to detect potential threats and provide security teams with the tools needed to investigate and remediate them. Unlike traditional antivirus software—which relies on signature-based detection—EDR uses behavioral analytics, machine learning, and threat intelligence to identify anomalies that may indicate compromise.
EDR solutions typically include the following core capabilities:
- Continuous data collection: Recording activity such as process execution, file changes, registry modifications, network connections, and user behavior
- Real-time threat detection: Identifying suspicious or known malicious patterns based on behavioral analysis, threat intelligence, or machine learning models
- Automated and manual response: Isolating endpoints, killing malicious processes, or rolling back changes to contain attacks
- Forensic investigation: Providing historical telemetry and timelines to understand how an attack occurred, what systems were affected, and what actions were taken
- Integration with other tools: Feeding into SIEM, SOAR, or XDR platforms for broader visibility and automation
By combining detection, visibility, and response into a single platform, EDR improves both the speed and effectiveness of an organization’s security operations.
Why EDR is important
Endpoints are often the entry point for cyberattacks. From phishing emails that trick users into opening malicious attachments, to unpatched vulnerabilities that allow remote code execution, endpoints offer attackers multiple avenues of compromise.
EDR is important because it:
- Reduces dwell time: Detects threats that may evade traditional defenses, allowing faster response
- Improves visibility: Provides detailed insight into endpoint activity that can help trace attacker behavior
- Supports incident response: Offers security teams the tools to analyze, contain, and remediate threats quickly
- Enables remote response: Helps organizations investigate and isolate compromised devices regardless of geographic location
- Strengthens resilience: Complements perimeter defenses and adapts to modern threat tactics
Without EDR, organizations may lack the telemetry and tools required to detect sophisticated threats—especially those that live off the land or operate without triggering alerts from traditional security tools.
EDR vs. traditional antivirus
While antivirus solutions focus on known threats using signature-based detection, EDR solutions go further by analyzing behaviors, monitoring processes, and responding to novel or fileless attacks.
Key differences include:
- Scope: Antivirus is reactive and focused on prevention. EDR is proactive, offering detection, investigation, and response capabilities.
- Detection techniques: Antivirus relies on known malware signatures. EDR uses behavioral analytics and heuristic models.
- Response capabilities: Antivirus may quarantine or delete malicious files. EDR can isolate machines, terminate malicious processes, and facilitate forensic analysis.
Modern threats often bypass antivirus software by exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities, abusing legitimate tools (like PowerShell), or leveraging stolen credentials. EDR fills the gap by identifying and addressing these advanced techniques.
Common threats detected by EDR
EDR tools are designed to detect a wide range of attack techniques, including:
- Malware infections: Detecting known and unknown malicious files or payloads
- Ransomware: Identifying behaviors like mass file encryption or deletion of backups
- Credential theft: Monitoring for suspicious access to password stores or the use of credential dumping tools
- Lateral movement: Flagging unauthorized remote access between systems
- Persistence mechanisms: Detecting attempts to maintain long-term access (e.g., registry changes, startup script modifications)
- Command and control (C2) communication: Monitoring outbound connections to known malicious IPs or domains
EDR platforms also play a key role in post-compromise detection—identifying activity that may indicate an attacker has already gained access and is executing their objectives.
EDR in modern environments
As organizations shift toward cloud-based, hybrid, and remote-first environments, EDR platforms must evolve to secure a diverse and distributed endpoint landscape.
Modern EDR solutions typically support:
- Cloud-managed architecture: Centralized control and visibility through cloud-native platforms
Scalability: Monitoring thousands of endpoints across geographies and operating systems - Cross-platform support: Coverage for Windows, macOS, Linux, and virtualized systems
- Integration with identity: Correlating endpoint activity with user behavior for identity-based threat detection
- Support for remote work: Detecting and responding to threats regardless of device location or network
Many organizations also pair EDR with Extended Detection and Response (XDR) solutions, which combine endpoint data with telemetry from networks, cloud infrastructure, and identity systems for broader visibility.
How EDR supports incident response
EDR accelerates and strengthens incident response efforts by providing:
- Real-time alerts on suspicious behaviors
- Historical data to understand what occurred before, during, and after an incident
- Attack timelines that map the sequence of events across processes and systems
- Remote response tools to contain threats by isolating machines or removing malware
- Evidence collection to support root cause analysis, compliance reporting, and legal proceedings
By enabling faster detection and automated containment, EDR reduces the time attackers remain undetected—minimizing damage and recovery costs.
How Orca Security helps
The Orca Cloud Security Platform provides agentless-first cloud security across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, and Kubernetes environments.
While Orca is not an EDR tool, it secures your cloud by:
- Detecting, prioritizing, and remediating a comprehensive range of cloud risks before attackers can exploit them
- Enhances application security with advanced scanning and guardrails to prevent risks from reaching production environments
- Provides fully integrated and advanced Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) that combines agentless and real-time runtime capabilities to stop in-progress attacks
- AI-Driven features to accelerate, automate, and enhance security across the application lifecycle
Orca enables organizations to secure their cloud with preventative and proactive capabilities that replace or augment EDR-based approaches.
