Picture this: you’re about to log off for the night when a fileless (no files written to disk) LOLBin-driven ransomware attack is already in motion. Traditional AV solutions flag nothing, and your SIEM platform is drowning in thousands of minor alerts. Today, we’re tackling continuous ransomware monitoring why mdr beats legacy defenses and how you can lock down your environment.
By the end, you’ll see exactly what 24/7 threat detection looks like, the key ingredients for full-spectrum monitoring, and why partnering with an MDR (managed detection and response) provider slashes your detection and response times from hours to minutes.
AV and SIEM-only stacks miss fileless LOLBin-driven ransomware
Your AV solution relies on signature matching. It’s great at catching known malware, but fileless attacks hitch a ride on trusted system tools like PowerShell or Windows Management Instrumentation. These living off the land binaries (LOLBins) evade traditional detection because they aren’t new files—they’re just commands running in memory.
Meanwhile, your SIEM grabs logs and hunts for patterns, but when you’re drowning in noise, subtle threats slip by. Without unified context from endpoint, identity, and cloud signals, those stealthy ransomware operators roam free until it’s too late.
Where DIY stacks fail
Putting together separate tools sounds efficient until you need to connect the dots. Those DIY stacks lose you precious minutes—sometimes hours—when every second counts. Ever spent ages chasing alerts that lead nowhere?
Alert fatigue delayed triage lack of 24x7 eyes (T1059 T1218)
When dozens of alerts fire every minute, your team quickly hits alert fatigue. Humans simply can’t triage hundreds of low-priority warnings without burning out. Plus, most organizations don’t have the budget for round-the-clock coverage. That gap gives attackers the runway they need—often using MITRE ATT&CK techniques T1059 (command and scripting interpreter) and T1218 (signed binary proxy execution) to stay hidden.
By the time your on-call engineer reviews alerts the next morning, an attacker could have moved laterally, scoped out high-value systems, and launched encryption routines.
Fragmented endpoint identity and cloud visibility
You might have an EDR (endpoint detection and response) agent on every workstation, identity logs in another console, and cloud telemetry scattered across multiple services. Without a single pane of glass, correlating a suspicious endpoint process to a compromised service account in the cloud feels like solving a jigsaw blindfolded.
That fragmentation slows investigation and leaves critical blind spots—exactly where advanced ransomware gangs love to hide out.
What continuous monitoring requires
Continuous ransomware monitoring isn’t just more alerts—it’s smarter data, unified context, and automated action. Here’s what you need to build a proactive defense.
Full-fidelity telemetry across EDR identity cloud and network
You want every corner of your environment instrumented:
- Endpoints: full-packet captures, process execution logs, registry changes
- Identity: Azure AD sign-in logs, service principal audits, Conditional Access events
- Cloud: workload telemetry, threat protection alerts, container insights
- Network: DNS queries, firewall logs, east-west traffic flows
Collecting this full-fidelity data ensures you never miss a stealthy fileless injection or token-theft attack.
ATT&CK-aligned analytics anomaly detection and behavior rules
Mapping your alerts to MITRE ATT&CK tactics and techniques gives you a structured way to hunt. Implement analytics that look for:
- Unusual script execution (T1059 variants)
- Abnormal account privilege escalations (T1068)
- Suspicious lateral movement patterns (T1021)
Behavioral rules and anomaly detection (user and entity behavior analytics, or UEBA) pick out oddball activity that signature-based tools ignore.
SOAR playbooks for auto-containment quarantine disable token revoke
Once a high-confidence threat surfaces, automated response is your friend. A SOAR (security orchestration, automation, and response) playbook should:
- Isolate affected endpoints in your EDR platform
- Quarantine suspicious files or processes
- Disable compromised user accounts or service principals
- Revoke active sessions and tokens in identity services
- Notify your security team with a summary and next steps
With these runbooks in place, you move from detection to containment in minutes.
Tooling patterns that work
Piecing together best-of-breed tools can give you both breadth and depth. Here are two proven patterns.
XDR plus SIEM fusion Sentinel MDE MDI Defender for Cloud
Combining an XDR (extended detection and response) suite with a SIEM powerhouse delivers rich telemetry plus advanced threat hunting. Consider Microsoft’s stack as an example:
| Component | Scope | Key capabilities |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Sentinel (SIEM) | Log aggregation, analytics | Custom workbooks, alert correlation, automation rules |
| Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (MDE) | Endpoint EDR | Behavioral protection, device isolation, live response |
| Microsoft Defender for Identity (MDI) | Identity threat detection | Lateral movement alerts, suspicious account activity |
| Microsoft Defender for Cloud | Cloud workload security | Compliance scoring, threat intelligence, vulnerability management |
In this pattern, Sentinel ingests logs from MDE, MDI, and Defender for Cloud, enriching them with threat intelligence and drive automation via playbooks.
Threat intel enrichment sandboxing retro-hunt workflows
Raw alerts get a turbo boost when you fold in external context and retro-hunting:
- Threat intel feeds add reputation and adversary context to IPs, domains, and file hashes
- Sandboxing unknown executables gives you verdicts on malicious behavior in an isolated environment
- Retro-hunt jobs scan historical telemetry for indicators of compromise (IOCs) tied to known ransomware families
This layered approach ensures you catch both brand-new and recycled ransomware tactics.
Why MDR wins
Even the best technology can’t replace expert analysts running 24/7. That’s where MDR shines.
Always-on analysts plus automation equals minutes not hours
With an MDR service, you don’t need to staff a full Security Operations Center yourself. Skilled analysts monitor your telemetry 24/7, validate alerts, and kick off automated containment. Instead of waiting on your team to sift through noise, you get actionable insights in minutes.
Proven ransomware playbooks from initial access to recovery
Top MDR providers have battled ransomware incidents across industries. They’ve honed playbooks covering every stage:
- Initial access and reconnaissance
- Lateral movement and credential theft
- Encryption deployment and data exfiltration
- Post-infection containment and guided recovery
With that experience baked in, you avoid painful trial-and-error during a live attack.
Monitoring checklist
Use this quick checklist to validate your continuous ransomware monitoring posture. You can also reference our ransomware readiness checklist 2025 edition for a deeper dive.
Telemetry everywhere
- Agent deployed on all endpoints, servers, and virtual machines
- Identity logs (Azure AD, on-prem AD) forwarded to your SIEM/XDR
- Cloud workload and container telemetry enabled
- Network traffic captured or mirrored into analytics tools
ATT&CK mapped detections
- All critical techniques from Initial Access through Impact have detection rules
- Custom analytics for environment-specific attack paths
- Regular review of MITRE updates to refine detection coverage
Automated containment
- SOAR playbooks tested quarterly under red-team scenarios
- Endpoint isolation, file quarantine, and account disable runbooks in place
- Notifications and escalations defined for your on-call rotation
Continuous validation and reporting
- Monthly table-top or simulated ransomware drills
- Automated maturity scoring dashboards for leadership
- Clear SLA on time to detect, time to contain, and time to recover
Conclusion
Only continuous MDR keeps pace with 2025 ransomware
If you’re still leaning on AV plus a siloed SIEM, you’re handing modern ransomware an open door. Continuous monitoring backed by 24/7 analysts and automated playbooks is the only way to stay ahead.
Quzara Cybertorch MDR real-time detection analyst-led response and guided recovery across endpoint identity and cloud
Ready to upgrade from patchwork defenses to a proactive, expert-driven service? Quzara Cybertorch MDR delivers real-time detection, analyst-led response, and guided recovery across your endpoint, identity, and cloud layers. Get in touch to see how we can stop ransomware in its tracks.
