So you’ve heard about CrowdStrike but you’re not quite sure what it is or why it’s worth learning about. We get it, there are a ton of cybersecurity companies out there and it’s difficult to keep track. But trust us, CrowdStrike is one you should absolutely have on your radar.
These guys are pioneers in cloud-delivered endpoint protection. In 100 words or less, we’ll give you the rundown on CrowdStrike so you can understand exactly why this company is leading the pack when it comes to stopping breaches. Stick with us and we’ll demystify CrowdStrike for you.
What Is CrowdStrike?
CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity company that provides endpoint protection, cloud workload protection, and cyber threat intelligence. It uses crowdsourced threat data from millions of sensors to stop breaches.
Founded in 2011, CrowdStrike offers the Falcon platform, which provides agent-based and agentless protection for workloads across on-premises, virtualized, and cloud-based environments. The Falcon platform uses AI and behavioral pattern matching to prevent and detect threats, delivering real-time protection and visibility across the enterprise.
Some of the main components of the Falcon platform include:
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Falcon Prevent: Stops malware, exploits, and unauthorized access to systems.
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Falcon Detect: Finds threats that have evaded prevention mechanisms. Detects active attacks and compromised systems.
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Falcon Insight: Provides visibility into your environment by monitoring events and detecting threats.
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Falcon OverWatch: Elite security experts hunt for hidden threats 24/7.
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Falcon X: CrowdStrike’s cyber threat intelligence solution. Maps the threat landscape and adversary activity.
CrowdStrike takes an endpoint-centric approach to cybersecurity. It secures laptops, desktops, servers, virtual machines, containers, cloud workloads, and IoT devices across your environment. By focusing on endpoints, CrowdStrike is able to gain better visibility and control, simplifying security operations.
If you’re looking for an innovative approach to cybersecurity that leverages the power of the crowd, artificial intelligence, and the cloud, CrowdStrike provides a compelling solution. The Falcon platform offers comprehensive protection and visibility for modern workloads with a single, lightweight agent.
Key Features of the CrowdStrike Platform
CrowdStrike is a cloud-native endpoint protection platform that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to stop breaches. Their lightweight agent is installed on endpoints like laptops, desktops, and servers to monitor for threats and provide real-time protection. Some of the main features of the CrowdStrike platform include:
Cloud-delivered endpoint protection
The CrowdStrike agent communicates with their cloud platform to download the latest AI models and indicators of attack (IOAs) to prevent, detect, and respond to threats. No on-premise hardware or software is required, making the solution quick to deploy and easy to manage.
Next-generation antivirus
CrowdStrike’s AI-based antivirus engine stops malware, ransomware, and other threats in real time before they can execute. It uses predictive models to identify malicious software and activity, even if it hasn’t been seen before. The solution receives continuous updates to stay ahead of new threats.
Behavioral-based detection
The CrowdStrike agent monitors for suspicious activity and behaviors on endpoints that could indicate the presence of an intruder or malware. Things like unauthorized access, privilege escalation, and persistence techniques are detected using behavioral analysis.
Threat hunting and intelligence
CrowdStrike’s team of security experts hunt for new threats and analyze attacks to provide actionable intelligence to customers. Indicators of compromise (IOCs) and other threat data are shared across the CrowdStrike platform to block adversaries and uncover intrusions.
Visibility and control
The CrowdStrike Falcon platform gives you visibility into endpoint activity with full context to understand the “who, what, when, where, and how” related to events. You have control over quarantining suspicious files, killing processes, restricting user activity, and more—all from the cloud-based console.
CrowdStrike aims to stop breaches with a balance of human intelligence and cutting-edge technology. Their platform provides a simple yet powerful solution for protecting endpoints and workloads.
How CrowdStrike Stops Breaches
CrowdStrike works by using AI and behavioral analytics to detect and prevent cyberattacks before they happen. Their Falcon platform is made up of modules that work together to strengthen your security.
Falcon Prevent
Falcon Prevent uses AI and machine learning to detect and block malware, ransomware, and zero-day attacks in real time. It analyzes files, processes, memory usage and more to determine normal behavior and spot anomalies. If anything seems off, Falcon Prevent will stop the threat immediately without needing prior knowledge of the specific attack.
Falcon Insight
Falcon Insight gives you 24/7 visibility across all your endpoints. It monitors and collects data on user activity, network connections, and more so you have a better understanding of what’s happening on your systems. Falcon Insight uses AI to analyze this data, detect threats, and alert you to any suspicious behavior.
Falcon Discover
Falcon Discover hunts for threats that have evaded your other defenses. It combs through historical endpoint data to uncover signs of compromise like unusual login activity, lateral movement between systems, or command-and-control communications. Falcon Discover can detect threats up to six months after the initial intrusion, allowing you to conduct a full investigation and remediation.
Falcon Complete
Falcon Complete is CrowdStrike’s managed threat hunting service. Their experts monitor your environment 24/7, proactively hunt for advanced threats, and take targeted actions to eliminate them. Falcon Complete also includes ongoing management of your Falcon deployment, ensuring you get the most out of CrowdStrike’s security modules.
By using a multi-pronged approach focused on prevention, detection, and response, CrowdStrike is able to stop cyberattacks at every stage. Their AI-powered platform works automatically in the background to keep your systems secure so you can focus on running your business.
CrowdStrike Use Cases and Customers
CrowdStrike’s cloud-based endpoint security platform is used by organizations of all sizes across many industries. Some of the main use cases and types of customers include:
Small to Mid-Size Businesses
For smaller companies, CrowdStrike Falcon offers an easy to deploy and manage solution to help monitor, protect and prevent breaches. Without needing to hire dedicated security staff or manage on-premises hardware, SMBs can benefit from enterprise-level security through Falcon’s cloud-based platform and 24/7 managed threat hunting and monitoring.
Education
Many universities, colleges and school districts rely on CrowdStrike to help secure student and staff data, research, and other digital assets. Falcon’s cloud architecture scales easily to monitor the many endpoints across campuses and school networks.
Healthcare
Healthcare organizations have a critical need to protect sensitive patient data and hospital systems. CrowdStrike’s HIPAA-compliant solution is used by healthcare providers, payers and partners to monitor medical devices, employee endpoints and cloud workloads for threats.
Technology
As a tech company itself, CrowdStrike has a strong customer base within the tech industry. Falcon protects the endpoints and cloud infrastructure of software companies, e-commerce businesses, web service providers and more. CrowdStrike’s platform integrates with many common tech stacks and cloud environments like AWS and Azure.
Government
Local, state and federal government agencies including law enforcement and defense organizations use CrowdStrike to help meet security and compliance requirements. CrowdStrike holds several government certifications and authorizations needed to work with government entities.
CrowdStrike has over 4,700 subscription customers worldwide across all industries. Some of the most well-known include:
•General Motors •NVIDIA •Conde Nast •Emory University •UCSF Health •Rackspace •Zoom
FAQs About CrowdStrike
CrowdStrike is a leading cybersecurity company, but its services and solutions can seem complicated if you’re not familiar with them. Here are some of the most frequently asked questions to help demystify CrowdStrike.
What does CrowdStrike do?
CrowdStrike provides cutting-edge cloud-based protection against cyberattacks. They offer endpoint detection and response solutions, threat intelligence, and cyberattack response services to protect businesses and organizations from breaches and data theft.
What is the Falcon platform?
The Falcon platform is CrowdStrike’s integrated cloud-based security solution. It combines endpoint protection, threat intelligence, and cyberattack response in a single lightweight agent installed on each endpoint. The Falcon platform uses AI and machine learning to detect and stop cyber threats in real time.
How does CrowdStrike’s technology work?
CrowdStrike’s technology is based on the zero-trust security model. It doesn’t rely on signatures to stop threats, but instead uses AI and machine learning to analyze events in your system and detect malicious activity. The lightweight Falcon agent collects data from each endpoint and sends it to the cloud where CrowdStrike’s AI evaluates risks and detects threats. When a threat is detected, the agent takes immediate action to contain and remediate it.
Is CrowdStrike expensive?
CrowdStrike offers solutions for organizations of all sizes. Pricing depends on the specific products and features you need. While CrowdStrike may cost more than some traditional antivirus software, their advanced, cloud-based protection can help save money in the long run by preventing successful cyberattacks and data breaches. CrowdStrike’s pricing is often considered competitive compared to other enterprise-level cybersecurity providers.
Does CrowdStrike offer a free trial?
Yes, CrowdStrike offers a free 15-day trial of their Falcon Prevent and Falcon Insight solutions. The trial includes access to the full Falcon platform so you can see how CrowdStrike’s technology works to protect your endpoints and get advanced insights into events happening on your systems. At the end of the trial, you can subscribe to the Falcon platform if it meets your needs.
Conclusion
So there you have it, a beginner’s guide to CrowdStrike. We just scratched the surface of this innovative cybersecurity platform. Hopefully you now have a better sense of what CrowdStrike offers and why it’s one of the top choices for endpoint protection. As threats continue evolving, CrowdStrike promises to stay ahead of attackers with its cloud-native solution driven by smart AI and dynamic analytics. While complex under the hood, it aims to keep security simple for organizations. Consider giving CrowdStrike a closer look as you evaluate options to lock down your endpoints. Stay safe out there!
