Security teams today are under relentless pressure. Every hour, new threats emerge, threat actors innovate, and attack surfaces grow. Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) has become the go-to tool for many Security Operations Centers (SOCs), and for good reason. EDR provides visibility into endpoint activity, surfaces suspicious behaviors, and enables containment actions. But the truth is, EDR alone isn’t enough to defend against today’s advanced threats.

To move beyond reactive firefighting, SOCs need Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) solutions that dig deeper, preserve evidence, and provide forensic-grade investigation and response capabilities. Together, EDR and DFIR give SOCs both the speed to contain threats and the clarity to understand them.

The limits of EDR for modern threats

EDR has earned its place as a pillar in cybersecurity, but it comes with some pretty significant limitations:

1. Detection isn’t investigation: EDR is designed to detect suspicious activity, not to perform in-depth forensic analysis. An alert may indicate that a process is behaving strangely, but it may not reveal how the attacker gained access, what data they accessed, or whether persistence was established. Without these insights, SOCs risk treating symptoms rather than addressing the root causes.
2. Coverage gaps leave blind spots: Endpoints are no longer neatly confined within a corporate firewall. Remote devices, off-VPN systems, and unmanaged assets often fall outside the visibility of EDRs. Threat actors are aware of these blind spots and exploit them, leaving SOCs in the dark.
3. Attackers can evade EDR: Modern attackers use fileless malware, living-off-the-land techniques, and compromised third-party applications to avoid detection. In the case of a recent TransUnion breach, attackers exploited a third-party system, something traditional EDR tools would not flag.
4. Limited value for compliance and legal needs: EDR alerts may help with containment, but they rarely provide the court-defensible evidence needed for regulators, auditors, or insurers. In an age of SEC disclosure rules, GDPR fines, and DORA requirements, evidence handling is not optional, but mandatory.
5. Context switching wastes time: Even when EDR flags a compromise, SOC teams often need to pivot into other tools for deeper investigation, remediation, and reporting. This context-switching wastes time in moments when every second counts.

Why “EDR-plus” isn’t the same as DFIR

Some EDR vendors claim to deliver DFIR as an add-on capability. However, in practice, their solutions remain EDR-first, designed for detection rather than in-depth investigation. That EDR-bias manifests itself in three important ways:

• Shallow forensics capabilities: Most EDR platforms focus on telemetry and alerting, not forensic-grade evidence collection. They rarely provide tamper-proof logs, chain-of-custody integrity, or court-defensible reporting. That leaves organizations exposed when regulators, insurers, or legal teams require proof.
• Limited artifact collection: EDR-biased solutions might capture basic endpoint data, but they often miss critical artifacts, like volatile memory, registry changes, or third-party activity that only dedicated DFIR tools can preserve. Without these, investigations remain incomplete.
• Containment at the expense of evidence:  Many EDR-first tools prioritize speed of isolation or remediation, but in doing so, they overwrite or lose evidence that investigators need later. True DFIR solutions are built to act quickly without compromising the investigation.
• Compliance gaps: When vendors stretch EDR into “DFIR,” it often fails to meet the defensibility standards of auditors, regulators, or courts. Without repeatable forensic playbooks and audit-ready reporting, organizations can’t meet compliance obligations.

Why SOCs need both EDR and DFIR

The takeaway is clear: EDR is critical for fast detection and containment, but it is not built for deep forensic analysis. A mature SOC requires both EDR for speed and DFIR for comprehensive investigation.  Here’s why:

• DFIR Provides Root Cause Analysis: While EDR raises the flag, DFIR uncovers the story. DFIR tools enable analysts to collect forensic artifacts, reconstruct attacker timelines, and track activity across multiple devices. This level of detail allows SOC teams to understand not only what happened, but also how and why it happened.
• DFIR Extends Visibility Beyond the Endpoint: Modern DFIR solutions provide cross-environment monitoring, capturing activity even on off-VPN or remote systems. They also integrate with SIEM and SOAR platforms, ensuring incidents, whether from internal endpoints or third-party vendors, are triaged in the SOC immediately.
• DFIR Preserves Evidence with Integrity: Every forensic collection is logged and hashed, maintaining chain-of-custody. This is critical for regulatory filings, legal proceedings, and insurance claims. DFIR provides security leaders with confidence that the evidence is defensible and audit ready.
• DFIR Enables Smarter Containment: Instead of choosing between speed and accuracy, DFIR allows SOCs to do both. Compromised endpoints can be remotely isolated while maintaining forensic access. Malicious processes and files can be remediated automatically without losing the evidence needed for investigation.
• DFIR Strengthens SOC Maturity: In a mature SOC aligned with zero-trust principles, DFIR plays a pivotal role in advancing operational resilience. By enabling red team/blue team exercises, breach simulations, and repeatable forensic playbooks, DFIR makes sure that every incident becomes a learning opportunity. It strengthens continuous verification and visibility (key principles of zero trust) by providing forensic-level insights into how threats evade existing controls. Over time, this transformation enables the SOC to shift from a reactive unit to a proactive force, continuously refining detection, response, and containment strategies to reduce dwell time and enhance readiness.

A real-world example

Consider a possible scenario: An EDR tool flags suspicious PowerShell activity on a laptop, triggering containment, but the SOC still needs answers:

• Was this an isolated incident or part of a broader campaign?
• Did the attacker escalate privileges or move laterally?
• What files were accessed or exfiltrated?
• Is there persistence left behind?

EDR can’t answer all of these questions. DFIR can. With forensic timeline reconstruction, analysts can trace the attacker’s path, identify persistence mechanisms, and determine whether sensitive data was compromised. Without DFIR, the SOC is left guessing.

The business value of DFIR for cyber resilience

Beyond the technical benefits, digital forensics and incident response deliver tangible business outcomes that get the attention of executives, boards, and regulators:

• Reduced Risk: Faster detection and containment shrink dwell time, limiting exposure and preventing costly breaches.
• Regulatory Compliance: Audit-ready reports and chain-of-custody evidence meet the demands of GDPR, HIPAA, SEC, and other regulators.
• Operational Efficiency: Automated collections and artifact-driven workflows cut investigation times from days to hours, reducing analyst fatigue.
• Consumer Trust: Faster, more transparent incident response protects brand reputation and minimizes fallout.
• Resilience: By integrating forensic insights into daily SOC operations, organizations continuously improve their defenses.

Why OpenText^TM Endpoint Forensics & Response complements EDR

At OpenText, we see DFIR as a core capability for every modern SOC. OpenText Endpoint Forensics and Response combines forensic investigation and incident response into a single solution.

• Gain real-time endpoint visibility - even across off-network devices -so SOC teams can maintain full situational awareness and respond to threats faster, reducing operational blind spots.
• Automate threat detection with IoC and YARA-based scanning, helping SOC analysts quickly identify beaconing malware, unauthorized processes, or registry tampering, minimizing manual workload and speeding up investigations.
• Enable remote incident response by isolating compromised endpoints, terminating malicious processes, and remediating threats while preserving forensic evidence and ensuring legal defensibility. This minimizes dwell time and business disruption.
• Produce audit-ready reports that meet the needs of regulators, executives, and cyber insurers, supporting compliance, reducing regulatory risk, and strengthening business trust.
• Support SOC maturity and resilience by enabling repeatable, forensically sound playbooks that improve response times, facilitate red/blue team exercises, and drive continuous improvement across the security program.

In short, OpenText Endpoint Forensics & Response complements EDR by giving SOCs both the speed to respond and the forensic depth to respond confidently.

Building a SOC ready for today’s threats

The reality is clear: EDR alone is not enough. Attackers are too sophisticated, threats evolve too quickly, and regulators demand too much of organizations to rely solely on detection.

A mature SOC combines EDR with digital forensics and incident response (DFIR). While EDR identifies suspicious activity and initiates containment, DFIR provides the deep investigation, evidence, and response needed to fully resolve incidents. Together, they enable organizations to respond faster, make smarter decisions, and build greater resilience.

WithOpenText Endpoint Forensics & Response, SOCs don’t just react to threats - they investigate, contain, and emerge stronger.

Ready to strengthen your SOC with forensic-grade response? Contact OpenText today to learn how our OpenText Endpoint Forensic and Response DFIR solution complements EDR to reduce risk, improve compliance, and build lasting resilience.

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