The digital landscape across Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) (APEJ) is characterized by rapid growth in the acceptance of Managed Detection and Response (MDR), and driven by a corresponding surge in cyber threats, according to IDC’s just released report IDC MarketScape: Asia/Pacific (Excluding Japan) Managed Detection and Response Services 2025 Vendor Assessment.
IDC recognized Trustwave, A LevelBlue Company, as a Leader in the report.
According to IDC's Future Enterprise Resiliency and Spending Survey, conducted in June 2025, a staggering 77% of APEJ enterprises were hit by a ransomware attack in the past 12 months. Even more alarming, 48% of these organizations reportedly paid a ransom of up to $1 million. This underscores not just the frequency of attacks, but the devastating financial impact.
The IDC report noted that as organizations in the region navigate accelerated cloud adoption, hybrid work models, and a sophisticated adversary landscape, the traditional approach to security is no longer sufficient.
The urgency for advanced security capabilities has never been greater, and this is where MDR is emerging as the essential foundation for business resilience.
Beyond Monitoring: The Rise of MDR
For years, many organizations relied more strictly on traditional Managed Security Services (MSS), which primarily focused on monitoring logs and ensuring compliance. MDR, however, represents a fundamental shift, IDC said.
MDR services are a distinct, proactive category of security service centered on:
- Proactive Detection: Continuous, 24/7 monitoring and analysis.
- Intelligence-Led Hunting: Expert human analysts actively searching for hidden threats that bypass automated tools.
- Rapid Response: Swift containment and remediation to minimize damage.
In the face of complex adversaries and growing regulatory pressure, organizations across financial services, government, manufacturing, healthcare, and critical infrastructure now view utilizing an MDR security service not as an optional add-on, but as a board-level priority vital to maintaining operations and trust, the IDC report said.
The Most Effective Defense Tools
When asked which technologies were effective in preventing attacks, enterprises in APEJ highlighted a mix of endpoint, network, and analytics-driven tools. Network detection and response (NDR) emerged as the most effective technology, with 47% of enterprises indicating it successfully prevented attacks.
This was followed by identity analytics and user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) at 37% and endpoint detection and response (EDR) at 35%. Security information and event management (SIEM) was cited by 31% of organizations, while packet capture and network packet monitoring (PCAP/NPM) ranked at 28%.
Network Detection and Response (NDR) emerged as the leading technology. This suggests that threats involving lateral movement, network-level anomalies, and the exploitation of inter-system communication are a major concern, and enterprises are seeing the value of network visibility alongside endpoint protection (EDR).
The Evolution of MDR: Convergence and Customization
MDR providers in APEJ are rapidly evolving their offerings to meet the dynamic threat landscape:
1. MDR and Incident Response Convergence
The line between MDR and Incident Response (IR) is blurring, IDC noted. Leading MDR vendors are now building comprehensive IR readiness into their core services. This includes:
- IR Readiness Elements: Tabletop exercises and adversary emulation drills.
- Sector-Specific Playbooks: Tailored response strategies for industry-unique incidents.
- AI/GenAI Acceleration: Leveraging AI to speed up incident triage, forensic analysis, and automated reporting, making the overall response process faster and more effective.
2. Verticalized Use Cases and Compliance
Security is not one-size-fits-all. MDR delivery is increasingly being tailored for regulated sectors like BFSI (Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance), Healthcare, and Critical Infrastructure. Providers are focusing on:
- Sector-Specific Playbooks: Optimizing response for industry threats.
- Compliance Alignment: Incorporating frameworks to meet stringent mandates on data sovereignty and residency, which are critical in a region with diverse regulatory requirements.
3. Hyper-Customized Threat Intelligence
Generic threat feeds are no longer enough. MDR providers are moving beyond standard lists of Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) to deliver highly contextual and actionable intelligence:
- Custom Detection Engineering: Developing sector-specific MITRE-aligned use cases.
- Regional Threat Profiles: Reflecting localized attack patterns unique to APEJ.
- Personalized Intelligence: The ultimate differentiator—providers are beginning to map intelligence directly to a client's specific asset inventory and attacker exposure.
This personalized approach drastically reduces noise and false positives, leading to faster investigations and shorter response times—critical outcomes that define the success of an MDR engagement in APEJ’s high-stakes cyber environment. While AI is being used to enrich this intelligence, human validation remains crucial to ensure accuracy and applicability in complex regional environments.
In short, MDR is the new backbone of resilience, enabling APEJ enterprises to move from simply monitoring threats to actively hunting, containing, and recovering from them with speed and intelligence.
