Ransomware variants like REvil and Ryuk target backup systems before encrypting production data. Did you detect the threat before encryption started, or after?
MSPs and IT teams evaluating security investments face a practical decision: build hunting capabilities requiring scarce analyst talent, or leverage managed services for immediate coverage. The right answer depends on organizational maturity, staffing, and risk tolerance.
This guide maps threat hunting and managed security services to maturity levels and budget scenarios.
Why You Need Threat Hunting
Threat hunting finds attackers already inside your environment that automated detection missed. Traditional security monitoring waits for alerts to trigger investigations. Threat hunting flips that model: analysts start with the assumption that threats are already present and evading detection. They develop hypotheses about adversary behavior, then test those hypotheses against organizational telemetry using frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK.
Automated detection misses sophisticated threats. Attackers using credential abuse, living-off-the-land techniques, and fileless malware don’t trigger signature-based alerts. They dwell in environments for weeks or months, moving laterally and escalating privileges while security tools report all-clear.
Threat hunting finds them before encryption starts or data exfiltrates. CISA and NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 recognize threat hunting as a formal security control for this reason.
Threat hunting follows three primary methodologies:
- Hypothesis-driven: Analysts develop theories about adversary behavior based on threat intelligence, then test those hypotheses against organizational telemetry
- Intelligence-driven: Focuses on specific threat actors and their known tactics, techniques, and procedures
- Behavioral: Identifies anomalies through baseline deviation analysis
Most mature programs combine all three depending on threat context.
What this looks like operationally: an analyst hypothesizes that attackers might use credential abuse for lateral movement after initial compromise. They query authentication logs for unusual access patterns, multiple failed attempts followed by success, privileged account usage outside business hours, or access from unexpected geographic locations. The investigation discovers compromised credentials that signature-based detection missed entirely.
Attackers are getting stealthier. The SANS 2025 Threat Hunting Survey found that 76% of nation-state actors, 59% of ransomware groups, and 44% of espionage attackers use living-off-the-land techniques to evade detection. These methods exploit legitimate system tools rather than deploying malware, which means traditional defenses often miss them entirely.
Threat hunting discovers what automated tools cannot. While EDR and SIEM solutions catch known patterns, proactive hunting finds adversaries already inside your environment who have bypassed those controls.
Understanding Managed Security Options
Organizations that can’t build internal hunting teams have two primary paths: Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) and Managed Detection and Response (MDR). These aren’t interchangeable terms, and understanding the difference matters for budget decisions.
MSSPs handle broad security operations: firewall management, vulnerability scanning, log monitoring, and compliance reporting. MDR focuses specifically on threat detection, investigation, and response—including the proactive hunting that finds attackers already inside your environment.
Most organizations need elements of both. The question is which capabilities to prioritize given your maturity level and risk profile.
What MSSPs Deliver
MSSPs handle the operational burden of security infrastructure so your team can focus on higher-value work. They manage firewalls, intrusion detection, vulnerability scanning, and compliance reporting—tasks most IT teams lack bandwidth to maintain alongside other responsibilities.
For MSPs, MSSP partnerships enable security service delivery without building internal infrastructure. For corporate IT teams, MSSPs provide coverage that would otherwise require dedicated security operations staff.
The coverage typically includes:
- Firewall and network device management
- Vulnerability scanning and patch status reporting
- Log collection and retention for compliance
- Alert monitoring and ticket escalation
- Compliance reporting for frameworks like HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and SOC 2
The tradeoff: MSSPs emphasize reactive alert response. They keep security infrastructure running and escalate when something triggers an alert. They don’t proactively search for threats evading detection—that requires a different capability set.
What MDR Delivers
Managed Detection and Response combines technology with human expertise to perform threat hunting, monitoring, and response. Where MSSPs focus on infrastructure management, MDR focuses on adversary detection.
MDR services deliver:
- 24/7 threat monitoring with human analyst oversight, not just automated alerting
- Proactive threat hunting using behavioral analysis and threat intelligence
- Investigation and response when threats are detected, including root cause analysis
- Active remediation that contains threats, not just tickets that notify you about them
The play here is understanding what each service actually does when something goes wrong. MSSP tells you your firewall is configured correctly and escalates alerts when thresholds trigger. MDR tells you whether attackers are already inside despite that firewall—and stops them.
MDR analysts actively search for indicators of compromise, test hypotheses about attacker behavior, and investigate anomalies that automated tools flag but can’t interpret. This is where threat hunting lives as a managed service.
Comparing MSSP and MDR
MSSP and MDR answer different questions. MSSP asks “who manages our security infrastructure?” MDR asks “what threats are already inside our environment?”
| Capability | MSSP | >MDR |
| Primary focus | Infrastructure monitoring | >Adversary detection |
| Approach | Reactive to alerts | Proactive investigation |
| Coverage | Broad technology portfolio | Deep analysis of specific threats |
| Staffing model | Alert triage and escalation | Hypothesis-driven investigation |
| Output | Incident tickets and compliance reports | Discovered threats and attack narratives |
| Response | Notify and escalate | Contain and remediate |
Organizations facing sophisticated threats often need both: MSSP for breadth across security infrastructure, MDR for depth on threat detection and response. The budget question is which to prioritize first—and that depends on your current maturity level and the threats you actually face.
Why Most Organizations Can’t Build Internal Threat Hunting Teams
Building internal threat hunting capabilities requires solving three challenges simultaneously: talent, technology, and operational continuity.
The Talent Gap Problem
The ISC2 Workforce Study documents the scale of the problem: the vast majority of organizations report skills gaps on security teams. Significant portions experience higher stress than five years ago. Many cannot afford needed expertise, and some acknowledge under-secured operations.
Threat hunting demands specialized skills beyond general security operations: forensic analysis, malware reverse engineering, threat intelligence interpretation, and deep knowledge of attacker tactics. These analysts command premium salaries and face constant recruitment pressure.
The Continuity Problem
Operational continuity presents the second major barrier. Internal teams struggle with coverage gaps from vacations, sick leave, and staff transitions.
Minimum staffing for 24/7 coverage requires multiple full-time analysts before accounting for specialized expertise in forensics, malware analysis, or specific threat actor tactics.
A single departure can eliminate institutional knowledge about the environment, investigation history, and ongoing threat campaigns. Rebuilding that context takes months.
How MDR Solves the Build-vs-Buy Problem
Managed detection and response services deliver continuous 24/7/365 monitoring with built-in operational redundancy. Staffing changes, training periods, and team transitions remain invisible to the customer organization. Coverage doesn’t degrade when an analyst takes vacation or leaves for another opportunity.
MDR providers distribute specialized talent across multiple clients, making economics work where individual organizations cannot. A forensic specialist or malware analyst serves dozens of customers rather than sitting idle between incidents at a single organization. You get access to expertise that would be cost-prohibitive to employ directly.
MDR providers also gain threat intelligence from their entire customer base. When they detect a novel attack technique against one client, that knowledge immediately informs threat hunting across all clients. These network effects create detection capabilities that individual organizations cannot replicate independently.
The tradeoff is organizational context. Internal teams develop deep knowledge of normal operations, business processes, and historical incidents that external providers can’t fully replicate. Effective MDR partnerships address this through onboarding, regular communication, and tuning detection rules to your specific environment.
N‑able’s Unified Approach to Threat Hunting and Cybersecurity: Before, During, and After
N‑able, offering an end-to-end cybersecurity platform, addresses the complete attack lifecycle through three integrated solutions.
Before: N‑central reduces attack surface through automated patch management and vulnerability assessment, hardening endpoints before threats arrive.
During: Adlumin MDR delivers the threat hunting capabilities most organizations can’t build internally. SOC analysts proactively search for threats evading automated detection, scanning environments daily with updated threat intelligence. Behavioral analysis learns normal user activity to flag anomalies that signal compromise.
After: Cove Data Protection delivers rapid recovery from immutable backups with AI/ML automated recovery testing with boot screen verification when other defenses fail.
Matching Security Services to Your Needs
The threat hunting versus managed services question isn’t either/or—it’s about layering capabilities appropriately for your organization’s risk profile and maturity level.
- Foundational coverage handles operational basics: firewall management, vulnerability scanning, patch compliance, and log retention. Every organization needs this baseline, whether delivered internally or through managed services. If you’re not doing this consistently today, start here.
- Threat hunting and active response require different capabilities. MDR services combine 24/7 monitoring with proactive hunting, behavioral analysis, and rapid incident response. This layer finds sophisticated attackers that slip past foundational defenses. Organizations handling sensitive data, facing regulatory requirements, or operating in targeted industries need this depth.
For most MSPs and mid-market IT teams, the practical path combines automated endpoint management with MDR for active threat detection. You get the coverage breadth from endpoint hardening and the detection depth from managed hunting, without building a SOC from scratch.
N‑able’s unified cybersecurity platform delivers this through N‑central for endpoint hardening, Adlumin MDR for threat hunting and response, and Cove for recovery when defenses fail. IT teams gain enterprise-grade protection across the complete attack lifecycle. MSPs deliver advanced security services across client environments at margins that work.
The result: protection that matches enterprise security programs without enterprise headcount.
Contact us today to see how unified security operations work in practice.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the main difference between threat hunting and managed detection and response (MDR)?
Threat hunting is an activity—proactive investigation searching for threats evading automated detection. MDR is a service delivery model that includes threat hunting alongside 24/7 monitoring, incident response, and active remediation.
How much does it cost to build internal threat hunting capabilities versus purchasing managed services?
Internal SOCs require multiple full-time analysts at competitive salaries plus technology infrastructure. Managed services deliver comparable capabilities at a fraction of the cost, making them easier to approve than headcount requests.
How do organizations address the cybersecurity skills gap when building security capabilities?
The ISC2 Workforce Study reports that most organizations have skills gaps on their security teams. MDR services provide immediate access to specialized analysts without in-house recruitment and training investment.
Can organizations combine managed services with internal security teams?
Yes, through co-managed approaches. The provider handles threat detection and hunting while the in-house team focuses on investigation and response. This works well for organizations building internal expertise while maintaining protection today.
How does MDR differ from MSSP services?
MSSPs manage security infrastructure—firewalls, vulnerability scanners, compliance reporting—and escalate alerts. MDR proactively hunts for attackers, investigates suspicious activity, and contains threats. MSSP provides operational breadth; MDR provides detection depth.