As the world becomes more and more connected through digital means, cases of security breaches and crimes have been on the line. With numerous companies and individuals falling prey on the regular, we all know that outside security operations facilities, detrimental breaches can happen anytime from anywhere. As such, professionals in this field are required to constantly stay abreast with threat detection, investigation as well as response.
People working in high-risk digital domains need to know how to manage the increasing threats in a more holistic and coherent manner. Security professionals on the other hand are urged to rely on more comprehensive integration and automation solutions in order to handle the increasing threats from hackers and cybercriminals who target workers and companies.
In this read, we are going to take a closer look at extended detection and response (XDR) solutions and the advantages they have to offer in real-world implementation.
XDR solutions are an area of interest as they conjoin threat detection, investigation as well as response. These solutions are capable of optimizing a company's cybersecurity operations and tools by utilizing comprehensive integrated real-time data from vital security systems. This data becomes useful in analyzing, triangulating, and investigating cybersecurity threats before notifying the company’s security systems to take the necessary automated actions/
Extended detection and response solutions not only improve threat detection and detection but boost the overall productivity of both security analysts and operations teams. Additionally, lower-level security analysts are able to accomplish much more with the help of better automation. With XDR, they do not have to deal with most of the false positives. Higher-level security analysts also benefit in that they get more comprehensive analytics and remediation recommendations on time. They also get insights allowing them to do better proactive security threat hunting.
When it comes to real-world usage, an XDR solution can link a try to alter a registry key on an endpoint by leveraging network telemetry from various systems to recognize the connection with traffic to an IP address, revealing how much information traversed internal switches in order to go to a high-risk website that sent a keylogger-infected attachment to the endpoint. These solutions can also capture email gateway telemetry, thus linking the same attack to the attempt to send emails that contain high-risk files from the attacked endpoints to other accounts throughout the company.
Extended detection and response solutions also feature machine learning analysis capabilities. This is based on an array of data sources, which allows for widespread data exfiltration attempt almost instantly. These solutions also recommend viable remediation and automatically execute it via the same linked systems.
Additionally, XDR has the capability to isolate all affected endpoints and launch an email gateway to get rid of any harmful emails received within the company before the discovery of the attack. Given that this analysis happens in near-real-time, such automated responses help prevent most of the infected emails from being opened within the organization’s network. In addition, through machine learning, the system uses the acquired data to develop a more robust strategy to instantly detect threats with similar traits, allowing it to respond faster and in a more accurate manner.
XDR Solutions Evaluation
With the knowledge of XDR benefits in regard to cybersecurity, security professionals are tasked with evaluating these solutions for their organizations. It is important to note that there are two distinct XDR approaches.
The first is referred to as native XDR. This solution encourages a company to utilize most or all of a cybersecurity firm’s stack. This calls for the organization to trust that the security provider will ascertain the integration of the native security systems that feed the extended detection and response system. Doing this means you are taking the risk of the security team locking in to subpar systems and also the risk that cybercriminals only have to evade one security company to gain access to your network and data. An even bigger problem is that this model may force you to abandon security systems that function optimally.
The second approach is referred to as open XDR. This allows a company to keep using the top-of-the-line security solutions that they already have in place. With open extended detection and response, you can integrate the tried and tested as well as owned security systems from multiple security firms to any new solutions that you wish to implement. It goes without saying that open XDR is the best solution for most companies.
Whether this is the first time your company is dipping its toes in the XDR field, or you have been using these solutions for years, we are here to help you determine the right set of tools and solutions you need and come up with a strategy for ideal initial or additional integration.
People in the security domain looking to learn more about extended detection and response could benefit from attending seminars and events based on this field. An example is the Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit.
We believe that the industry can only become better and more secure if we work together. That’s why our team spends most of our time and resources interacting with some of the leading cybersecurity companies out there. It’s also why we take the chance to attend and speak at cybersecurity conferences.
XDR & Email Security
XDR is without a doubt one of the trending topics and a major field of talk in security summits. Email also remains the primary target when it comes to cyberattacks. That is why our team focuses on these two aspects in in-person speaking sessions.
We live in a world where a data breach can bring down a company. XDR solutions are an integral step towards protecting your bottom line and trust.
