EDR vs. Segmentation: Understanding the Differences
Endpoint detection and response (EDR) and segmentation are both essential security tools that continue to provide value to customers, and both are enjoying growing adoption rates. However, vendors within each category often market similar benefits for customers — namely, protection against ransomware and zero-day threats.
So, what are the similar challenges that EDR and segmentation both tackle, and how does their approach to solving those challenges differ? Read on to learn more.
How are EDR and segmentation similar?
EDR and segmentation solutions both offer pre-breach controls as well as post-breach mitigation measures. They are also both increasingly found in the same areas of the network, such as servers, cloud instances, end-user devices, and containers. Breaches are inevitable, and both solutions can mitigate or reduce the impact of breaches before they cause extensive damage throughout the network. However, they aim to stop the possibility and proliferation of breaches with different approaches.
How are EDR and segmentation different?
The goal of EDR is to detect malicious attacks as they target an initial device or server, whether by alerting about an unwanted encryption event, detecting a connection to an IP tied to a cybercriminal organization, or notifying the administrator about suspicious activity. Advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning have also improved the ability for EDR to identify zero-day attacks based on similarities in file signatures to known attacks.
Segmentation solutions aim to compartmentalize the network into siloed buckets to limit the lateral, or east-west, movement of an attack if EDR does not detect it. When configured properly to leverage critical application ringfencing, granular access controls, and threat-mitigation policies, a segmentation solution will ensure that attacks that have managed to enter the network will ultimately hit a roadblock.
Although EDR is capable of detecting the start of these attacks, no EDR solution can detect these malicious events 100% of the time. In the case that an attacker breaches a device undetected, the scale of the attack will be defined by where the attacker can move next — and that is when segmentation comes into play.
Segmentation solutions and their network security controls can ensure that a breached device can only establish a connection with limited devices or applications. For example, segmentation can prevent a set of stolen laptop credentials from resulting in a critical data center breach, if the network security policy dictates that such a connection to the data center should never be possible.
Use cases of EDR vs. segmentation
Use Cases |
EDR |
Segmentation |
Visibility |
Provides intradevice visibility and health |
Provides interdevice, application, network, and workload visibility |
Ransomware Mitigation |
Aims to detect an unfolding attack on a device or server |
Implements granular east-west security measures to limit the impact of a breach |
Threat Investigation |
Searches for anomalies, threats, and malware signatures on a device or server |
Performs networkwide queries and policy updates to identify active or inactive vulnerabilities Investigates the entire attack chain, wherever it may have originated or spread |
Evolving Perimeter Security |
Provides similar capabilities regardless of device location |
Maintains strong network segmentation when employees access applications remotely |
Use case: visibility
EDR
These solutions provide visibility into what the device they are installed on is up to. EDR is constantly monitoring the device for known and potentially unknown threats — and can sometimes use machine learning to understand normal device behavior — and then send an alert when abnormal behavior is occurring. This constant monitoring can occasionally mean heavy CPU consumption.
Segmentation
To thoroughly segment an environment, these solutions must provide full visibility of the entire network, including servers, end-user devices, cloud instances, containers, and the connections between them. This visibility includes active data flows between assets, hidden connections that pose a risk, and network dependencies that affect the impact of a policy change or infected server. With this information, segmentation policies can be created that consider all points of vulnerability so that the possibility of lateral movement can be significantly reduced.
Use case: ransomware mitigation
The majority of ransomware attacks are attributed to user error, such as poor password hygiene or by a click-through on a phishing email. In these events, EDR and segmentation protect against the spread of the attack at different stages and in different ways.
EDR
EDR solutions aim to detect the presence of ransomware running or executing on devices they are monitoring. If the EDR detects ransomware, it can kill the process, quarantine the device, and sometimes roll back any encryption that occurred.
Segmentation
Pre-attack: By mapping the entire environment from a single UI, including devices, connections, and processes, the appropriate security policy can be applied to prevent a ransomware attack from leveraging a device-to-data-center connection that would otherwise be invisible to the administrator.
Post-attack: If ransomware breaches the environment, steps that have been taken using the segmentation solution — such as isolating critical applications, eliminating unwanted connections to databases, and limiting routes of lateral movement — are all effective in ensuring the breach has a small overall impact. Predefined ransomware response measures can also help the user tactically isolate assets or limit specific data flows without disrupting the rest of the environment, and ensure business continuity.
Use case: threat investigation
EDR
The “detection and response” in EDR often involves the administrator or security operations center team putting in as much effort as the solution itself to hunt for threats. A talented team combined with a proven EDR can be a capable pairing for discovering malicious actors hiding on devices.
Segmentation
Seasoned security analysts will find it easy to run queries on their entire network, from on-premises servers running legacy OS to platform as a service infrastructure in their public cloud environments, using a segmentation solution.
Additionally, segmentation solutions offer superior attack chain investigation following a breach, as all connections and network events can be accessed from the segmentation solution’s UI. This makes achieving compliance much simpler if a breach occurs, as a detailed report of the attack can be mapped and produced in a short amount of time.
Use case: evolving perimeter security
EDR
Whether employees are connected to the office network or their router at home, EDR can continue to monitor the end-user device for malicious activity. But visibility into network activity remains a blind spot, and control over network traffic moving to or from the endpoint is limited.
Segmentation
Segmentation is a fundamental security measure for the evolving perimeter, as these platforms can contain a breach no matter where it originates. Segmentation policies take into account end-user devices and ensure there is no easy path to the organization’s crown jewels, so the network remains protected from catastrophic breaches.
How do EDR and segmentation complement each other?
EDR and segmentation both address front-of-mind security challenges, but at different stages of the attack chain and in different ways. EDR is a potent solution for trying to identify new attacks, but if your goal is to significantly reduce your network’s attack surface and limit the routes that malware can take from a device in the event of a breach, you need a segmentation solution.
Both solutions can be agent-based, with each agent focusing on different goals, while also ensuring that CPU consumption is minimized. In some instances, one integrated solution is enough to offer both EDR capabilities and segmentation capabilities for a given device.
Learn more
For more information on how segmentation solutions are beneficial in securing the network from an attack originating on a device, check out this solution brief.
