What is Cybertorch MDR?

Cybertorch is Quzara's FedRAMP High Authorized Managed Extended Detection and Response (MXDR) platform. It provides 24/7 security monitoring, threat detection, incident response, and vulnerability management staffed entirely by U.S. citizens on Azure Government infrastructure.

How does Cybertorch help with CMMC compliance?

Cybertorch allows defense contractors to inherit FedRAMP High Authorized security controls rather than building their own SOC. This accelerates CMMC Level 2 compliance by satisfying continuous monitoring, incident response, and security operations requirements with a proven, audited platform.

Is Cybertorch FedRAMP authorized?

Yes. Cybertorch is FedRAMP High Authorized and operates on Azure Government, authorized for DoD Impact Level 4. It supports Microsoft GCC High environments and meets CMMC, FISMA, and NIST SP 800-171 requirements.

What is MDR? Managed Detection and Response Explained

Managed Detection and Response Defined

MDR: A Federal Buyer's Definition

Managed Detection and Response, commonly abbreviated as MDR, is a managed cybersecurity service (also called managed SOC or MDR cybersecurity) that combines advanced detection technology, threat intelligence, and human security analysts to detect, investigate, and respond to cyber threats on an organization's behalf, around the clock. An MDR provider operates the security operations function so the customer does not have to build, staff, and run an internal Security Operations Center. For federal agencies, Defense Industrial Base contractors, and cloud service providers, managed detection and response has become the default security operations model.

A FedRAMP-authorized MDR provider passes inheritable security controls directly into the customer authorization boundary. That is why MDR authorization status is now treated as a procurement gate, not a nice-to-have. A complete managed detection and response service combines detection technology (EDR, SIEM, threat intelligence platforms), human analysts organized in tiers, threat intelligence from commercial and government sources, and documented response procedures.

Five operational phases

How MDR Works in Practice

A managed detection and response engagement progresses through five operational phases. Each phase is documented, repeatable, and auditable for FedRAMP continuous monitoring and CMMC assessment.

Phase 1: Onboarding

The MDR provider deploys monitoring agents and connectors into the customer environment, ingests log sources, and configures detection rules against the customer baseline. Typical onboarding lasts two to eight weeks. Federal environments with GCC High tenants or DoD authorization boundaries can extend onboarding to twelve weeks or longer.

Phase 2: Continuous Monitoring

Once agents are deployed, the MDR platform ingests telemetry continuously. Endpoint events, identity events, cloud control plane events, network flow data, email security events, and SIEM logs all flow into the provider detection engine. Detection engineering is performed by the provider.

Phase 3: Triage

When the detection engine generates an alert, a Tier 1 analyst reviews it within minutes. Most alerts close as benign or as duplicates. A well-run MDR service maintains a false positive rate below five percent at the escalation tier.

Phase 4: Investigation

Alerts that pass Tier 1 escalate to Tier 2 investigation. The Tier 2 analyst correlates the original alert with adjacent telemetry, performs forensic capture if needed, and determines whether the activity represents a true security incident. Timelines range from tens of minutes for routine alerts to hours for complex cases involving lateral movement or credential abuse.

Phase 5: Response

Confirmed incidents escalate to Tier 3, which executes response actions per the contracted scope. This may mean active containment (host isolation, account disable, network segmentation, session revocation) or coordinated handoff to the customer internal response team. Either way, the response is documented for audit purposes.

MDR vs EDR vs SIEM vs MSSP vs XDR

The MDR category sits adjacent to several related categories that buyers frequently confuse. Each represents a different layer of the cybersecurity stack, and the differences matter for federal procurement decisions. EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) is a technology, not a service. EDR products such as CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne Singularity, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, and Trellix Endpoint Security generate detections from endpoint telemetry. EDR is one of the data sources an MDR provider uses. Buying EDR alone gives you the tool but not the analysts to operate it. SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) is also a technology, not a service. SIEM products like Microsoft Sentinel, Splunk, Elastic, and Sumo Logic aggregate and correlate log data from many sources. Like EDR, SIEM is one input to an MDR service rather than a substitute for it. MSSP (Managed Security Services Provider) is the older category MDR evolved from. Traditional MSSPs focused on monitoring and alert forwarding. MDR added the investigation and response functions. Most modern MSSPs now offer some form of MDR. XDR (Extended Detection and Response) refers to a detection architecture correlating signals across endpoint, identity, cloud, email, and network. Managed XDR (MXDR) is the corresponding service category. MXDR is essentially MDR with a broader telemetry footprint and tighter cross-domain correlation. SOC as a Service (SOCaaS) is often used interchangeably with MDR. The practical question for a federal buyer is not which acronym applies, but which outcomes the contract covers and whether the provider can demonstrate them under FedRAMP and CMMC scrutiny. For a buyer view of the market, see the 2026 SOC-as-a-Service buyer guide at https://quzara.com/blog/top-soc-as-a-service-providers-2026 or return to the Federal MDR Hub at https://quzara.com/mdr.

Capabilities of a Mature MDR Service

A complete managed detection and response service delivers these capabilities, regardless of how the provider labels them. The federal MDR market raises the bar on every one.

24/7 Continuous Monitoring

Coverage cannot lapse on nights, weekends, holidays, or any other window. Mature MDR providers staff three shifts with primary and secondary analyst coverage on every tier, sustained year-round across all U.S. holidays.

Multi-Layer Detection

Endpoint, identity, cloud workload, email, and network telemetry are correlated together. Detection that relies on a single source has high false-positive rates and misses lateral movement entirely. The mature MDR detection stack ingests at least five telemetry sources.

Human Analyst Triage and Investigation

Automated detection generates alerts. Humans determine which alerts represent real threats. AI-augmented triage is appropriate for noise reduction. AI-only triage is not yet operationally trusted at federal-buyer threat models, which is why every federal MDR provider maintains tiered human analyst coverage.

Documented Response Procedures

The provider operates from documented playbooks for each major incident type, aligned to a recognized framework. NIST SP 800-61 Rev 2 is the federal default for incident response procedures. Playbooks should be reviewed and tested at least annually.

Threat Intelligence Integration

The provider ingests threat intelligence from multiple sources: commercial feeds, industry sharing organizations such as InfraGard, and government sources such as DC3 and DCISE for Defense Industrial Base contractors. Threat intel that arrives only after a public CVE is published is too late to matter.

Audit-Ready Compliance Reporting

Monthly and quarterly reports satisfy continuous monitoring obligations under FedRAMP, CMMC, FISMA, and other frameworks. Forensic capture preserves chain of custody for potential legal or regulatory action. The reporting cadence should match the customer authorization boundary review cycle.

Procurement criteria for federal, DoD, and DIB MDR

What Federal Buyers Should Evaluate

The commercial managed detection and response market is large and competitive. The federal MDR market is narrower, and the evaluation criteria are different. The criteria below should appear in every federal MDR procurement evaluation.

FedRAMP authorization status The most important question for federal buyers is whether the MDR provider holds a FedRAMP authorization, and at what baseline. A FedRAMP Moderate or High Authorized MDR provider can pass inheritable controls into the customer authorization boundary. A non-authorized provider cannot. Verify provider status on the FedRAMP Marketplace at fedramp.gov/marketplace. The Marketplace now uses a Class A through D system, where Class D corresponds to the High baseline.

Analyst citizenship Federal agencies, DoD program offices, and many DIB contractors require U.S. citizens to operate security functions, both for clearance compatibility and for ITAR compliance. Providers using offshore analyst pools, including in allied countries, may not meet these requirements. Verify the citizenship requirement is contractually documented, not just marketed.

DoD Impact Level coverage For DoD missions, the relevant Impact Level authorization matters. Most federal-capable MDR providers operate at IL-4. Few operate at IL-5. Confirm the customer environment IL classification matches the MDR provider authorization, not just the underlying cloud platform.

GCC High and Azure Government native support If the customer environment runs on Microsoft 365 GCC High or Azure Government, the MDR provider must support those environments natively, not through middleware or workarounds.

Inheritable control documentation A mature federal MDR provider can produce, on request, a Customer Responsibility Matrix or equivalent document showing exactly which NIST SP 800-53 controls are inherited from the provider authorization and which remain customer responsibility. Ask for this document during the RFI stage, not after award.

Contract vehicle availability GSA Multiple Award Schedule, GSA HACS, CIO-SP4, SEWP, and other federal contract vehicles each carry different procurement implications. For 8(a) and Women-Owned Small Business set-asides, the provider small business certifications matter. A small-business MDR provider on GSA HACS can move significantly faster than a Fortune 500 vendor for the same scope.

CMMC Level 2 readiness for DIB For Defense Industrial Base contractors, the MDR provider should articulate how its service supports the contractor CMMC Level 2 assessment, including the specific practices that are inherited. See MDR for CMMC Level 2 at https://quzara.com/solutions/cybertorch/cmmc-managed-security for the inherited-controls model.

State and local equivalents For SLED buyers, GovRAMP (formerly StateRAMP) authorization at the appropriate category may be required or preferred. The recent rebrand to GovRAMP reflects the program's expanded scope across state, local, tribal, and educational government buyers.

Pricing model and total cost MDR pricing varies based on per-endpoint, per-user, per-ingest-volume, and fixed-fee structures. Federal pricing is often higher than commercial equivalents due to authorization overhead, citizenship requirements, and contract vehicle administration.

When MDR is the right fit Managed detection and response works well for organizations that cannot reasonably build and operate a 24/7 SOC internally, that operate in regulated environments where audit and inheritance considerations matter, and that prioritize time-to-detection over absolute platform customization. MDR is a weaker fit for organizations with mature in-house security operations teams that already operate 24/7 and want maximum detection-engineering control.

Where to go next For practitioners, see Microsoft GCC High Security Operations Center at https://quzara.com/blog/microsoft-gcc-high-security-operations-center. For the full federal MDR procurement model, return to the Federal MDR Hub at https://quzara.com/mdr.

Common Questions About MDR

What is MDR? MDR stands for Managed Detection and Response. It is a managed cybersecurity service (sometimes called managed SOC or MDR cybersecurity) that combines detection technology, threat intelligence, and human security analysts to monitor, investigate, and respond to threats on a customer's behalf, 24/7. For federal buyers, a FedRAMP-authorized MDR provider also passes inheritable security controls into the customer authorization boundary, reducing FedRAMP, CMMC, and FISMA assessment scope. See the Federal MDR Hub at https://quzara.com/mdr for the full federal procurement model.

How much does MDR cost? Commercial MDR pricing typically ranges from ten to fifty dollars per endpoint per month, plus a base platform fee. Federal MDR pricing varies based on the FedRAMP authorization tier, the analyst citizenship requirement, the contract vehicle, and the scope of inheritable controls. Pricing models include per-endpoint, per-user, per-ingest-volume, and fixed-fee structures.

How long does MDR onboarding take? Typical MDR onboarding lasts two to eight weeks. Federal environments with stricter access controls, GCC High tenants, or DoD authorization boundaries can extend onboarding to twelve weeks or longer. The onboarding window covers agent deployment, log source ingestion, detection rule tuning, and documentation of escalation procedures.

What is the difference between MDR and EDR? EDR is a technology (a product); MDR is a service. EDR collects and analyzes endpoint telemetry but does not provide the analysts who investigate and respond to alerts. MDR uses EDR as one of multiple data sources, then adds human-led triage, investigation, and response on top.

What is the difference between MDR and MSSP? MSSP is the older category that MDR evolved from. Traditional MSSPs focused on monitoring and alert forwarding. MDR providers added investigation and response functions. Today the line is blurred, but the buyer-relevant test is whether the contract covers investigation and response, not just notification.

Does MDR replace cyber insurance? No. MDR reduces the likelihood and impact of incidents, which can affect cyber insurance premiums favorably. It does not replace the financial coverage cyber insurance provides for breach response costs, business interruption, and regulatory penalties.

Can MDR detect insider threats? A mature managed detection and response service includes identity-layer detection that flags abnormal user behavior, privilege escalation, and data exfiltration patterns. Pure endpoint-only MDR will miss many insider threat scenarios. Confirm identity, cloud, and email telemetry are in scope before assuming insider threat coverage.

Is MDR the same as a SOC? A SOC (Security Operations Center) is the organizational function that performs continuous security monitoring and response. MDR is one way to obtain that function, outsourced to a provider. Building an internal SOC is another way. SOC as a service and managed SOC are functionally equivalent to MDR for most buyers.

Do I need FedRAMP authorized MDR for federal work? For federal agencies, FedRAMP authorized MDR is effectively required to provide inheritable security controls in your authorization boundary. For DIB contractors handling CUI under CMMC Level 2, a FedRAMP authorized MDR provider materially reduces assessment scope. For commercial buyers, FedRAMP is not required but signals a higher operational baseline.

What is managed XDR (MXDR)? Managed XDR (MXDR) is the service category corresponding to the XDR detection architecture, which correlates signals across multiple security layers (endpoint, identity, cloud, email, network). MXDR is essentially MDR with a broader telemetry footprint and tighter cross-domain correlation.

Can MDR support CMMC Level 2 compliance? Yes, and a FedRAMP authorized MDR provider materially helps. CMMC Level 2 includes multiple practices in audit and accountability (AU), incident response (IR), and system and information integrity (SI) families that an MDR service satisfies directly. The provider should furnish a Shared Responsibility Matrix mapping inherited and shared practices.

What is MDR?