Last updated: April 29, 2026
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents are the richest source of security telemetry in most environments. They see every process that launches, every network connection that opens, every file that gets written, and every registry key that changes — on every endpoint, in real time. This module covers what an EDR agent actually captures, how it differs from legacy antivirus, the main vendors you will encounter, and how the SOC uses EDR telemetry beyond the automated detections the vendor ships.
EDR vs antivirus — the actual difference
Traditional antivirus (AV) was a file scanner: given a binary, decide benign or malicious using signatures and heuristics. That model broke around 2015 as fileless attacks (PowerShell, JScript, WMI) became common — there was no file to scan.
EDR keeps the AV capabilities (signature scan, heuristics, quarantine) and adds continuous endpoint telemetry recording plus remote response. The defining shift is:
- AV: “scan this file, is it bad?”
- EDR: “record everything that happens on this endpoint, make it queryable, let me act on it remotely”
Modern EDR products (CrowdStrike Falcon, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne, Sophos Intercept X, Elastic Defend) include AV as a feature, not a product.
Custom team training + practitioner advisory
Beyond the free academy — we run private workshops, vCISO advisory, and red-team exercises tailored to your stack. For Indian SMBs scaling past their first hire.