Extended Detection and Response (XDR) takes a successful approach to endpoint security and expands it to cover a much wider range of network assets. It provides comprehensive protection against a wide range of cyberattacks and unauthorized activities.
XDR technology is part of a natural progression of capabilities that begins with Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR). Where EDR provides holistic protection for endpoint devices, XDR delivers broader capabilities that cover entire networks, cloud environments, and applications.
How does XDR work?
Both EDR and XDR work by monitoring individual assets using lightweight agents. These agents report on device usage and analyze activities to detect malware, security policy violations, and suspicious behavior.
Traditional security solutions typically operate in individual silos, without deep native integration capabilities. Cybercriminals exploit that lack of visibility to compromise network assets before analysts can put every puzzle piece together and launch a coordinated response.
Since XDR secures a much broader range of assets, it captures a much larger and more comprehensive set of security data points. This gives analysts the ability to correlate security events across many different assets and conduct investigations with greater speed and precision.
Modern threat actors no longer rely on single-vector attacks. Instead of relying on a single malware attack, they combine multiple forms of malware with credential-based attacks, data extortion, and more. XDR provides superior protection against these kinds of complex, multi-vector attack campaigns.
Benefits of XDR:
XDR platforms are designed to eliminate blind spots and provide comprehensive control over network assets. By grouping together devices and applications and managing them from a central platform, XDR enables security teams to improve event outcomes in four important ways:
1. Improved investigation and correlation workflows
Since XDR tools cover a much broader range of assets, they can provide deeper and more valuable insight into suspicious activity in real-time. This makes it much easier for analysts to focus on the highest-priority alerts first, investigating severe threats before moving on to other issues.
2. Analysis of internal and external traffic
Traditional detection technologies mostly focus on external threats. This provides an incomplete view of threat actor activities because it ignores insider risk. XDR solutions profile and analyze internal threats in a holistic way, enabling security teams to catch malicious insiders using behavioral modeling.
3. Customizable threat detection and response
Modern XDR platforms provide a wide range of customization features that dramatically improve operational security performance. Every organization has unique systems, user groups, and business logic. Expertly configured XDR implementations support custom detection rules that match the organization’s unique security risk profile.
4. Fast, reliable automation capabilities
Since XDR platforms can draw from multiple data sources to contextualize threat activity, they provide a robust platform for automatic threat response. Many enterprise security teams use XDR to automatically block harmful executions, isolate compromised endpoints, and terminate malicious processes — sometimes without relying on human intervention at all.
5. Machine learning-based detection
Instead of relying on known threat signatures, sophisticated XDR platforms use machine learning to identify threats based on their activities. They use advanced analytical techniques to report on assets interacting with sensitive system files or running suspicious scripts.
XDR implementation challenges:
Implementing extended detection and response capabilities can be challenging, especially for smaller organizations without specialist in-house talent on the payroll. Some of the challenges security leaders face when implementing XDR include:
- Automation configuration risks. Well-configured automation improves key performance metrics and boosts overall security. Poorly configured automation can have the opposite effect, disrupting usability and introducing new vulnerabilities with great speed.
- Difficulty integrating with existing tools. Security leaders need to integrate XDR with multiple tools and systems throughout the tech stack. Making sure every asset can communicate efficiently with a newly implemented XDR platform is a technically demanding task.
- Resource constraints. XDR tools can be resource-intensive applications. Implementing and managing them requires specialist talent that is not always easy to find. Outsourcing XDR management to a reputable third-party provider can help lift the burden.
- Building scalable architecture. Your XDR solution should grow as the company grows. That means taking full advantage of cloud computing workflows and building a distributed XDR architecture. However, few organizations have the in-house talent necessary to complete this kind of task successfully.
XDR vs. SIEM
With its focus on gathering data from multiple sources and supporting security analyst workflows, XDR platforms may seem similar to Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions. The two technologies do provide visibility and enhance security operations, but in different ways.
The main difference between XDR and SIEM is that SIEM platforms primarily focus on capturing log data from network assets and applications. XDR solutions use lightweight agents to capture more comprehensive telemetry data on every individual asset.
In a comprehensive, multi-layered security environment, both XDR and SIEM work together to provide complete visibility and coverage to every corner of the organization’s tech stack. Modern XDR tools like Rapid7 IDR actually rely on SIEM integrations to provide best-in-class detection and response.
XDR vs. SOAR
Modern XDR solutions also provide in-depth automation capabilities, which make them similar to Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) platforms. XDR is not a replacement for SOAR, but it can augment SOAR capabilities and improve the effectiveness of automated incident response playbooks.
XDR solutions work by installing powerful lightweight agents on devices and assets throughout the network. When integrated with a SOAR solution, this enables incident response teams to include those devices and their telemetry in their incident response playbooks. XDR and SOAR technology complement one another to improve security event outcomes.
Managed XDR enables operational security excellence
Novawatch offers Managed Extended Detection and Response (MXDR) solutions to security leaders that need visibility and control over complex IT environments. Our team leverages deep product knowledge with some of the world’s most sophisticated XDR platforms to manage complex threats in an effective, cost-efficient way.
Learn more about our MXDR security package and find out what fully managed XDR can do for your organization. Let our security analysts act as an extension of your team, providing insight and scalable performance at a fraction of the cost of a new in-house hire. Schedule a call with an expert to learn more.
