EDR Needs Assessment

## Matching Endpoint Protection to Your Risk Not every business needs the same level of endpoint defense, and overbuying is as wasteful as underbuying. This assessment asks about your size, industry, data sensitivity, compliance obligations, and in-house IT capacity, then recommends one of three tiers: basic antivirus, EDR, or fully managed MDR. ## The Three Tiers Explained - **Antivirus (AV/EPP)** — signature- and heuristics-based prevention that blocks known malware. Adequate for very small, low-risk shops with no regulated data, but blind to fileless and novel attacks. - **EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response)** — continuously records endpoint activity, detects suspicious behavior, and gives responders the telemetry and tooling to investigate and contain. It assumes you have someone to watch and act on alerts. - **MDR (Managed Detection and Response)** — EDR plus a 24/7 human SOC that triages alerts and responds on your behalf. The right fit when you lack a security team or carry compliance and breach-cost exposure. ## How to Choose The deciding factors are usually staffing and stakes, not company size alone: - Do you have staff who can respond to an alert at 2 a.m.? If not, EDR alone leaves detections sitting in a queue — lean toward MDR. - Do you handle regulated data (HIPAA, PCI, CMMC) or face contractual security requirements? That pushes you up a tier. - What would a single ransomware incident cost in downtime and recovery? Higher stakes justify managed response. ### Why Behavior-Based Detection Matters Modern attacks increasingly avoid malware files entirely, abusing legitimate tools already on the machine. EDR and MDR catch these by watching behavior, which is why pure antivirus is no longer sufficient for most organizations holding sensitive data. ## Privacy Your answers are evaluated locally in your browser and never sent to a server. To put a dollar figure on the risk these tools mitigate, see the [data breach cost calculator](/tools/planning/data-breach-cost-calculator).