Security

Review: CrowdStrike Falcon Insight EDR Helps Schools Soar Against Endpoint Threats

Endpoint detection and response platform adds both automated and human-centered defenses to endpoints.

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John Breeden II is an award-winning reviewer and public speaker with 20 years of experience covering technology.

These days, K-12 schools are just as much in attackers’ crosshairs as organizations in other industries are. Besides being randomly targeted by bots, automated attacks and the normal threats that come with any online presence, schools also face threats from organized and professional criminals. These bad actors try to compromise school defenses directly with ransomware and other attacks, hoping to find a soft target and a quick payday. More often than not, those attacks first target endpoints, which normally have less protection than a school’s core networks.

Traditional anti-virus platforms on endpoints can help knock down low-level threats, but most skilled cybercriminals eventually get around static defenses that rely on signatures and known bad patterns. These days, schools need the same level of protection that financial firms and government agencies rely on to keep their remote clients safe: a unified endpoint detection and response platform.

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Deploying a comprehensive EDR platform to thousands of endpoints can be challenging, and configuring and managing it is even tougher. Thankfully, CrowdStrike’s new EDR platform, Falcon Insight EDR, is about as close to fire-and-forget as you can get. It’s designed to give schools the same level of endpoint protection that top-tier corporations enjoy, without the accompanying administrative burden.

Endpoint Protection Fully Distributed via the Cloud

Available as a service and fully distributed through the cloud, CrowdStrike Falcon Insight EDR can be deployed quickly. In fact, the platform can deploy thousands of agents (little software programs that link back to the main platform) at the same time, with no installation — all without changing local system settings and with no reboot required.

Falcon EDR can then provide core services immediately, including next-generation anti-virus, threat activity detection and vulnerability management.

Closing the Gaps That Hackers Could Exploit

Falcon Insight’s advanced features can apply threat intelligence feeds to a school’s specific environment and act proactively to close gaps that hackers might exploit. The EDR platform even includes a human-led threat hunting service.

These days, most schools can’t afford to employ huge teams of cybersecurity experts or even manage the complex, multilayered defenses required for total protection. Thankfully, with the CrowdStrike Falcon Insight EDR platform deployed as a service, they don’t have to.

DIVE DEEPER: Learn how schools increase cybersecurity on a budget.

SPECIFICATIONS

PRODUCT TYPE: Endpoint Detection and Response Platform
KEY SERVICES: Next-generation anti-virus, attack detection, vulnerability management
ADVANCED FEATURES: Human-led threat hunting, incorporates threat intelligence feeds
DEPLOYMENT: As a service
LICENSE: Per seat or protected endpoint

Human Threat Hunters Backstop Falcon’s EDR Platform

The CrowdStrike Falcon Insight EDR platform offers some of the finest fully automated protections that can be deployed for endpoints. The platform is also smart, using machine learning to become even more effective over time. But even with all that, sometimes it takes a clever, highly trained human to catch an extremely skilled and determined hacker. This is especially true for bad actors who move slowly and cautiously and are willing to spend weeks or months creeping through a network before striking.

In general, catching a top-level attacker in the act normally involves a process called threat hunting, which is a high-level cybersecurity discipline, one of the most difficult to master. A threat hunter is more of a Sherlock Holmes-type detective than a traditional beat cop.

Threat hunters don’t respond to alerts. Instead, they generally look at massive amounts of user and program data. Based on their years of experience, they might get a feeling that something is wrong, even if no alarms have been triggered. They then launch an investigation, look for clues, link seemingly unconnected network behaviors and might even perform a stakeout to nab their suspected adversaries.

EXPLORE: Early detection helps K–12 schools stop bad actors in their tracks.

Needless to say, threat hunters are highly skilled and highly compensated, and there are not enough of them to go around. To help, CrowdStrike provides access to an entire team of expert threat hunters through its OverWatch program, which is part of the Falcon Insights EDR platform.

Armed with robust data from the platform, this team of talented experts will look at protected networks and launch investigations whenever they feel one is needed. They can operate in conjunction with a school’s internal cybersecurity team or act as the primary means of threat hunting.

If they uncover a threat, the OverWatch team works side by side with the school’s internal security team, providing expert advice to handle the situation and configure protections so that adversaries can’t exploit the same loophole again. By combining top-tier automated protection with human-led threat hunting, CrowdStrike can provide high-end protection for endpoints.