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Certiv vs EDR

EDR watches what processes do. Certiv watches what agents intend. Both belong on the endpoint.

In short

EDR sees process and file activity, but an AI agent's malicious behavior lives in the reasoning chain — invisible to a process-level monitor. Certiv adds the agent-layer telemetry and pre-execution enforcement EDR cannot.

Capability
Certiv
EDR
Sees AI agent reasoning chains
Yes — agent-layer visibility
No — sees process / file activity only
Blocks risky agent actions before execution
Yes — pre-execution enforcement
Partial — kills the process after the action
Identifies which prompt led to a behavior
Yes — full reasoning forensics
No — operates below the prompt layer
Detects shadow AI agent installs
Yes — agent-aware discovery
Partial — sees the binary, not its agent role
Stops malware, ransomware, fileless attacks
No — different problem domain
Yes — core competency
Forensic timeline of process activity
No — agent timeline, not process
Yes — strong fit

Endpoint Detection and Response was built to catch malware, living-off-the-land binaries, fileless attacks, and lateral movement. It watches what processes are running, what files they touch, what network connections they open. For that threat model it remains the right tool.

AI agents render the threat model insufficient. The dangerous behavior isn't which process ran — it's why. A Python script that exfiltrates customer data looks identical to EDR whether the prompt was "please summarize this CRM record" or "send this CRM record to attacker.com". The compromise lives in the reasoning chain, a layer EDR doesn't have visibility into.

Certiv runs alongside EDR on the same endpoint, at the agent layer. EDR keeps catching ransomware. Certiv catches the agent that an attacker prompt-injected into doing something it was never supposed to. Together they cover the full surface.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Expand to view common questions.

Does Certiv replace EDR?
No. EDR detects and responds to malware, fileless attacks, and process-level compromise. Certiv detects and responds to AI agent behavior — what the agent reasons about, which tools it invokes, what data it touches. The two address different threat models on the same endpoint. Run both.
Why isn't EDR enough for AI agent security?
EDR watches process and file activity. When an AI agent reads a customer record and emails it to an attacker, EDR sees a sanctioned process making sanctioned API calls — exactly what it's supposed to do. The malicious behavior is in the reasoning chain (agent decided to exfiltrate), not in the process behavior (the process is just curl or a Python script). EDR is structurally blind to this.
How does Certiv complement EDR on the endpoint?
They sit at adjacent layers. EDR enforces below the application (OS syscalls, process trees, file operations). Certiv enforces at the agent layer (reasoning, tool calls, data flows). Many incidents will have correlated evidence in both — EDR sees the process forked, Certiv sees the prompt that asked it to.

Keep reading

Our approach

Why an endpoint position is right for agent intent, just like it was right for EDR.

The Lethal Trifecta

An agent attack pattern EDR cannot see, and how Certiv detects it.

See the product

Agent-layer discovery, monitoring, and policy enforcement.