MDR vs. MSSP vs. SIEM: Which Best Fits Your Security Operations Needs?
By Judd Robins, Executive Vice President
Keeping up with the increase in sophisticated cyberattacks while managing a team of security experts can feel like an uphill battle — even more so with AI. There’s not enough time in the day and getting your arms around your security tools while managing alert fatigue can feel draining.
And looking for the right mix of services and solutions to best complement your security operations can feel overwhelming. Most even say it resembles alphabet soup between all the acronyms and terms. But the value of a well-rounded cybersecurity program can’t be overstated enough.
From enabling a proactive cyber defense posture to covering the chinks in your security armor, you need the right set of capabilities to secure your sensitive data and keep threat actors out of your digital environment. This guide was created with you in mind.
We cover the top services and capabilities used today — MDR, MSSP, SIEM — so you have a good understanding of what will best meet your security operations needs, starting with MDR.
What Is MDR?
Managed detection and response (MDR) is a service that combines technical expertise with advanced technology and proactive threat hunting. The service provider acts as an extension of your team by continuously monitoring your digital infrastructure 24/7 for malicious activities or policy violations.
Think of it as an extra pair of eyes and hands that provide ground cover for flagging any abnormal activity across your threat surface. They help detect and contain attacks earlier, protecting your digital infrastructure and providing real-time support for mitigating a live security event.
An MDR service typically provides the technology to achieve continuous monitoring and pulls data from a SIEM (more on that later), vulnerability scans, log sources, cloud workloads, endpoints and more. SOC analysts then use the intel to parse out false positives and identify threat patterns across your ecosystem.
Benefits of MDR
The benefits of an MDR service include access to 24/7 threat monitoring and coverage, less noise, faster threat detection and remediation, greater cybersecurity resilience and proactive threat hunting. Another benefit is that you don’t have to overhaul your entire security tool stack either.
An MDR provider can enhance and complement your current security environment and even uplevel your security team’s skill set by working alongside skilled security professionals. Some providers, like TekStream, provide upskilling as part of their service offerings. Here’s one example.
Who’s a Good Fit for MDR
If your security operations are lacking the in-house resources (team, security tools, budget) to achieve real-time protection, then MDR is a good fit. Bonus points if you’re in a highly regulated industry, such as healthcare or finance, where there is a regulatory requirement.
When looking for an MDR service provider, it’s important to look at their maturity, scope and the security outcomes they deliver. Some providers say they provide MDR capabilities, but upon closer inspection, they could just be providing SIEM device management. Other parameters to consider include:
- Proven cybersecurity track record in your industry
- Technology stack
- Scalability
- Compliance reporting support
- Pricing transparency
What Is an MSSP?
A managed security services provider (MSSP) is a third-party provider that has a broader focus beyond threat detection and/or access to advanced security tools. MSSP is considered the oldest security category and can cover monitoring, device management, patching, firewall management, endpoint protection, and more.
Read more about the evolution of managed security here.
It’s important not to confuse an MSSP with an MSP (managed services provider). An MSP acts as an outsourced IT department for a business; an MSSP focuses on cybersecurity but is more reactive than proactive compared to MDR.
The goal of an MSSP is to make sure that all security controls are working as intended. While they flag suspicious activity, they don’t typically undertake the investigation and remediation of a threat.
Benefits of an MSSP
One of the main benefits of an MSSP is that your team is relieved of the responsibility of managing and monitoring your security tech stack. With fewer false positives to wade through, your team has more time to focus on higher-value-add tasks.
Another benefit is that MSSPs can be a cost-effective option for addressing foundational needs, like ensuring patch levels are always maintained and proper backups and policy updates are in place. And MSSPs are particularly useful for supporting regulatory compliance efforts.
Who’s a Good Fit for an MSSP
While MSSPs can address the needs of highly regulated industries, it’s important that threat detection and response capabilities are included in the contract scope to be sufficient. Typically, however, MSSPs are best suited for security operations that are seeking to establish the ground floor.
However, if your organization absolutely needs advanced threat hunting capabilities or real-time response, you’re better off with an MDR service. That’s because standard MSSP services complement, rather than fully close gaps in threat detection and response.
When looking for an MSSP provider, consider their ability and experience in integrating log sources like endpoint detection and response (EDR) and cloud identity. Also request a deeper dive into their incident response and escalation pathways while looking closely at their 24/7 monitoring capabilities and SLAs.
What Is a SIEM?
Unlike MDR or MSSP, a SIEM (security information and event management) is a software product that collects and analyzes data from several sources like network devices, endpoints, servers, cloud environments and security tools. It’s considered the foundation for a well-established SOC.
Some examples of SIEM solutions on the market include Splunk Enterprise Security, CrowdStrike Falcon Next-Gen SIEM, Microsoft Sentinel and IBM QRadar, to name a few. Because of technology advancements, SIEM tools can now also be used to generate security compliance reports, further cementing their importance.
A SIEM can be managed in-house, or you can leverage a managed SIEM service where a third-party provider operates and monitors your SIEM. A managed SIEM provider can also help right-size it based on your organization’s needs. However, you can also have your SIEM managed via an MDR or MSSP service.
Benefits of a SIEM
SIEMs are now considered the bedrock of cybersecurity operations because they consolidate, normalize and analyze security telemetry across your security operations. Using dashboards and reports, your security team is better able to investigate and remediate security events.
Another benefit of a SIEM is the ability to create rules that enable it to automatically suss out suspicious activity and flag it for security teams to do a deeper dive. When paired with machine learning capabilities, creating playbooks at scale is easier — significantly reducing threat detection and response times.
Who’s a Good Fit for a SIEM
A SIEM is table stakes in cybersecurity operations. Security teams need a way to prioritize risks and alerts to ensure they are focusing on the right things. Operating a SIEM in-house may seem more affordable at first glance compared to an MDR, MSSP or managed SIEM service provider, but it’s not without its drawbacks.
For one, a SIEM needs constant reconfiguration and benefits from deep platform expertise to ensure you’re getting the most of your investment. It’s one of the reasons why companies rely on our expertise to ensure they are maximizing their Splunk instance, for example.
Second, because of the level of expertise needed, it can result in a long deployment time and strain your internal security staff if they’re not sure how to configure the SIEM for your environment. It’s partly why most customers cite false positives as a number one challenge, in addition to cost creep.
Finally, securing your cloud or hybrid environments can be challenging without the right level of expertise and resources. For these reasons, managing a SIEM in-house is typically best reserved for robust organizations with the team and resources to manage it. Otherwise, a third-party provider might be the best choice.
Deciding Between MDR vs. MSSP vs. SIEM: Key Differences At-a-Glance
Understanding what these services and tools are and what they cover is only one part of the equation. Equally important is knowing the key differences between the services and solutions to architect your security operations. Below is an at-a-glance view.
| MDR | MSSP | SIEM | |
| Scope | Detects, investigates, hunts and implements response actions | Manages security tools and functions, can include MDR | Consolidates and analyzes security telemetry |
| Human Oversight | 24/7 SOC analysts | Oversight varies by contract, can include 24/7 monitoring | No analysts included with the software |
| Incident Response | Active or guided | Varies by contract; may escalate alerts or provide MDR capabilities | Supports detection and automated workflows |
| SIEM Relationship | May use your SIEM, provide a solution or present a hybrid approach | Commonly manages SIEM | Can be managed in-house or co-managed with third-party provider or as part of MDR or MSSP |
| Compliance Support | Scope varies; provides incident evidence and response metrics | Often supports control management, reporting and audit evidence | Supports compliance by centralizing logs and reporting |
So Where Does a SOC Fit Within MDR, MSSP or a SIEM?
A security operations center, best known as a SOC, is an in-house or outsourced team of security professionals charged with monitoring an organization’s IT infrastructure. The main objective of a SOC is to reduce your threat surface by detecting, responding and analyzing threats in real time.
Securing an organization from cybersecurity attacks requires the SOC to manage all cybersecurity technologies and the continual monitoring of threat data to be successful. A SOC can be managed in-house, with a SIEM serving as the nucleus. It can also be managed via an MDR or MSSP provider via an outsourced or co-managed model.
A way to visualize a SOC is to think of it as the manifestation of your security operations. Your security operations house the strategy, policies, tasks, etc., and the SOC is the mechanism or organized team by which you bring your SOC to life and encompasses:
- Monitoring and Detection: They typically operate around the clock using advanced security tools to look for signs of unusual activity or breaches. This is where a SIEM comes in.
- Incident Response: Because everything is consolidated under a SOC, leveraging a SOAR tool enables you to further orchestrate your operations to quickly deploy investigative work and automate respective tasks such as alert triaging and incident response. The result is a reduction in downtime and greater cyber resilience.
- SOC Team: Putting the SOC into action typically requires a team of dedicated cybersecurity analysts. A team is usually comprised of a SOC manager, security analysts, threat hunters and incident responders.
- Collaboration and Reporting: To effectively protect an organization’s digital infrastructure, the SOC must work with IT, legal and compliance to develop a unified approach to cybersecurity. This ensures that all potential risks are being accounted for.
While creating a dedicated SOC is a great approach to fortifying your cybersecurity operations, it can be costly to stand up. Again, this is where leveraging an MDR or MSSP provider can help.
The Verdict: It Doesn’t Have to Be One or the Other
Acronyms are both a blessing and a curse in our space. On the one hand, they provide us with shorthand that makes it easy to remember key concepts and terminology. But on the other, they can create more problems than they solve. It’s therefore not surprising that some may think of MDR, MSSP or SIEM as mutually exclusive.
They’re not.
Yet that doesn’t mean that you must choose between an MDR service or an MSSP, for example, when it comes to your cybersecurity program. Depending on your needs, blending all three might be what’s required to achieve your security goals. It’s not uncommon for organizations to take a layered approach to their security model.
Some use an MSSP to handle the foundation of their security operations and their SIEM, while leveraging an MDR provider to access SOC capabilities at cost and at scale. Pairing these solutions together can give you more strategic control long-term than taking everything in-house.
But regardless of where you end up, the key to getting it right is starting with what capabilities you need covered. If you feel like you’re still drowning in alphabet soup and would appreciate expert guidance on finding the right combination of technology, coverage and expertise, our team is a click away to get you started down the right path.