EDR Investment: Beyond Traditional Antivirus
Traditional antivirus relies on signature-based detection that misses modern threats. Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) represents a fundamental shift in how organisations protect their devices and detect active threats.
Why EDR Matters
EDR solutions monitor endpoint behaviour in real time, detecting suspicious activities that signature-based tools miss entirely. This includes fileless malware, living-off-the-land attacks, and novel ransomware variants. According to industry analysis, EDR detects approximately 45% more threats than traditional antivirus in real-world deployments.
The Financial Case
For a mid-size organisation, EDR typically costs $90K-$150K annually depending on endpoint count and vendor. Against ransomware alone — where EDR can reduce incident probability and impact by 40-50% — the ROI is strong given that average ransomware recovery costs exceed $1.5M.
EDR also provides forensic capabilities that reduce incident investigation time and support cyber insurance claims with detailed timeline data.
EDR vs MDR
Managed Detection and Response (MDR) adds 24/7 human analysts on top of EDR tooling. For organisations without a security operations team, MDR provides the expertise to actually act on EDR alerts. The additional cost is typically justified for organisations that cannot staff a SOC internally.