For many South African organisations, the real test of their cyber security resilience is not whether they have the right tools in place, but whether anyone is actively watching their environment when attackers make their move and can respond immediately when something looks suspicious.
That is the core value of managed detection and response (MDR). The service seamlessly delivers a critical advantage for businesses providing access to a dedicated team of cyber security experts working around the clock. These specialists proactively hunt, investigate and neutralise threats across your network. Operating 24/7, MDR ensures swift and effective action whenever an incident arises, minimising risk and maintaining business continuity.
The cost of inaction
The risk landscape has shifted dramatically. Global ransomware recovery costs climbed to an average of $2.73 million in 2024, highlighting how quickly incidents can escalate once they slip past the first line of defence.
In most cases, breaches are not the result of sophisticated “Hollywood-style” hacking. They tend to start with something as ordinary as stolen credentials or an unpatched vulnerability. Once inside, attackers use legitimate tools, blend into normal network activity and often strike outside office hours. Research shows that almost 88% of ransomware attacks begin after hours, when most IT teams are offline.
For South African organisations, especially those with small or distributed IT teams, this creates a major gap. Security operations are complex and expensive to staff continuously. Many businesses struggle to prioritise which alerts need immediate attention. MDR fills these gaps by providing constant vigilance and expert human analysis that automation alone cannot achieve.
Why MDR, not just technology?
Solutions such as EDR and XDR are valuable, but they still depend on in-house teams to interpret alerts and take action. MDR goes further. It is a service, not merely a tool. It combines people, process and technology to deliver continuous monitoring and a rapid, human-led response on behalf of the business.
A trusted MDR service provides continuous monitoring by qualified analysts, human-authorised containment of active threats, comprehensive visibility across all key control points and proactive threat hunting to identify and neutralise risks before they escalate.
By incorporating MDR into their broader security strategy, resellers and their clients gain both speed and confidence. They can respond in minutes rather than hours, without the cost or complexity of maintaining an internal security operations centre.
The outcome
The results speak for themselves: shorter incident dwell times, stronger response capabilities, improved compliance readiness and greater confidence from insurers and auditors who increasingly expect evidence of continuous monitoring.
Just as importantly, MDR frees internal IT teams to focus on strategic projects and service delivery rather than constant firefighting.
Duxbury Cybersecurity sees MDR as one of the most practical ways for South African businesses to access 24/7 expertise and proven defence capabilities without expanding headcount. By partnering with leading security vendors such as Sophos, Duxbury Cybersecurity enables its resellers to deliver MDR services that keep their customers protected against threats that never sleep and ensure their defences always remain active.
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