Bitdefender MDR — Managed Detection and Response

Why do you need managed detection and response?

The technology detects an incident at three in the morning - the question is who handles it then. An EDR platform produces signals around the clock, but the team able to assess them and decide to isolate a workstation works office hours. Building your own night and weekend shift is not a licence cost - it is the cost of people the market does not have enough of.

Bitdefender MDR (Managed Detection and Response) is a service in which the vendor’s analysts monitor GravityZone telemetry in your environment 24 hours a day, investigate detections and carry out agreed containment actions - and you receive an incident description and recommendations instead of a stream of alerts. How MDR differs from a classic MSSP is explained in the MDR entry in the nFlo glossary.

How does it work?

GravityZone telemetry as the source

The service includes the GravityZone Business Security Enterprise platform: the agent on workstations and servers delivers the EDR telemetry the analysts work on. There is no separate sensor to deploy and no third-party tool to integrate - MDR runs on the same platform the organization already uses for endpoint protection. GravityZone add-ons such as EASM or PHASR can also be activated on an MDR licence.

Three SOCs in a follow-the-sun model

Bitdefender operates three security operations centres: in North America (Texas), in Europe (Romania) and in the Asia-Pacific region (Singapore). Shifts are arranged so that during a customer’s working hours the centre in their region handles them, and outside those hours the next centre takes over seamlessly - which is where 24/7 coverage without handover gaps comes from.

Pre-Approved Actions

Before the service starts, the organization agrees with the vendor a catalogue of actions the analysts may take during an incident without asking for approval - for example isolating a host from the network or neutralising an account. Response therefore happens when time matters, not after someone on the customer’s side picks up the phone. After the incident the organization receives a root cause and impact analysis and a report of the steps taken; the vendor also runs enhanced monitoring to catch a repeat or a related incident.

Key features

Monitoring and analysis

• Continuous observation of GravityZone telemetry by the vendor’s SOC analysts
• The full alert lifecycle handled by the service: thousands of alerts reduced to a handful of responses and recommendations
• Threat hunting based on Bitdefender Labs data and the MDR threat intelligence team
• Contact with a named person on the customer’s side during an incident

Response and documentation

• Pre-Approved Actions: host isolation, account neutralisation and other agreed steps
• Root cause and potential impact analysis for the incident
• After-action report for internal review and for the auditor
• Enhanced monitoring after the incident is closed

Security posture improvement

• Expert recommendations: corrective actions that reduce the risk of further incidents
• MDR Portal with recurring reporting: incidents, trends, remediation guidance
• Bitdefender breach warranty - part of the vendor’s offer; scope and conditions are defined in its documentation

Vendor MDR vs. nFlo SOC - which to choose?

Criterion	Bitdefender MDR	nFlo SOC 24/7
Telemetry source	GravityZone (EDR)	SIEM + SOAR + EDR from multiple vendors
Who analyses	Bitdefender SOC analysts	nFlo analysts
Scope	Endpoints and servers protected by GravityZone	The whole infrastructure: network, cloud, applications, logs
Actions during an incident	Pre-Approved Actions catalogue	SLA and response scope defined in the contract
Best for	Organizations standardising on GravityZone	Organizations with a heterogeneous security stack

The two can be combined: the vendor’s MDR covers the endpoint layer, while the nFlo SOC correlates it with the rest of the infrastructure and runs the organization’s incident process.

Requirements and service model

Platform: GravityZone Business Security Enterprise is part of the service - EDR telemetry from workstations and servers is what the analysts work on.

Operating systems: Windows, macOS, Linux (GravityZone agent).

Onboarding: agreeing the Pre-Approved Actions catalogue, the emergency contact list and the scope of monitored systems.

Variants: Bitdefender also offers MDR PLUS and MDR for managed service providers - an nFlo sales representative will establish which variant fits your needs.

Who is it for?

• Companies without a night shift in the security team - incident response at night and at weekends without building your own SOC
• Organizations standardising on GravityZone - one agent, one console and a vendor team that knows the platform
• Essential and important entities under the KSC Act - evidence of continuous monitoring and documented incident response
• Companies with a limited IT team - the vendor’s analysts take over triage and the team receives ready recommendations

How does Bitdefender MDR support NIS2 and the KSC Act?

MDR adds to Article 21 of NIS2 and Article 8 of the Polish National Cybersecurity System Act (KSC Act) the people who work on the telemetry around the clock - three of the twelve areas whose full mapping we describe in our article on how GravityZone supports NIS2 and the KSC Act:

• Continuous monitoring and threat detection - the analysts of three SOCs watch GravityZone telemetry 24/7, investigate detections and run threat hunting; the organization has evidence that monitoring is continuous, not merely configured.
• Incident management and response - Pre-Approved Actions let the analysts isolate hosts and neutralise accounts without delay; the root cause analysis and after-action report document the course of the event and the steps taken.
• Cyber resilience and ransomware impact reduction - rapid containment limits the reach of encryption; the Business Security Enterprise platform included in the service detects encryption attempts and restores files, and the vendor’s warranty covers ransomware events on the terms set out in its documentation.

Which of these areas is your gap is what we establish in the NIS2 Readiness Check service.

Who is in scope, deadlines and penalties are covered in our NIS2 knowledge hub. GravityZone does not replace an ISMS, formal risk management, audits or the organization’s own accountability for NIS2 and KSC Act obligations - it supports their technical side.

Why deploy with nFlo?

• We match the MDR licence and variant to your endpoint count and the way the organization works
• We deploy GravityZone agents and tidy up the telemetry before the vendor’s analysts take it over
• We integrate MDR actions with your incident handling process, including KSC Act reporting obligations
• We combine the vendor’s MDR with the nFlo SOC where the infrastructure goes beyond GravityZone endpoints

How the vendor’s MDR fits together with nFlo correlation and incident handling is described on the Managed Detection & Response (MDR) service page; start a conversation about your environment via contact, and read about nFlo’s cooperation with the vendor on the Bitdefender page.