Welcome to 2021, and welcome to another year of new and emerging technologies. Although XDR rose to fame in 2020, we felt the need to bask in the XDR limelight as we kick off the new year. Before we go into details regarding if and when XDR will become the next big thing in cybersecurity, let’s start by covering the basics of this powerful platform.
What is XDR?
XDR, or Extended Detection and Response, provides robust, cross-layered detection and response by collecting and automatically correlating data across multiple security layers—whether it be at the email, endpoint, server, cloud, or network layer.
Why is XDR Valuable for Your Organization?
XDR brings a new shade of color to the world of cybersecurity! With its ability to prevent and detect adversarial attacks hiding within your environment, your security analysts can improve their investigation and response times.
From a business perspective, this can enable your organization to prevent cyberattacks from happening in the first place, as well as simplifying and strengthening your overall security processes. This improved security posture allows you to better serve your end customers and accelerate initiatives to meet your business goals.
Who Are The Pioneers of XDR?
With companies like Cisco and TrendMicro entering the XDR space as early as last year, Palo Alto Networks has truly been the innovator of XDR with their cross integration of XDR onto one of their flagship products, Cortex XDR™.
Cortex XDR™ is the industry’s first extended detection and response platform that provides prevention, detection, and response across your endpoint, network, and cloud data. This makes it possible to break down security silos across your organization in order to boost security through seamlessly integrated defenses!
When it comes to selecting an XDR provider, it should come down to consolidation. Do you want to have numerous security providers, or just have one security provider that serves across your whole organization? Many enterprises we see are not just a one-stop shop. They use a slew of technologies to protect their organizations and all valuable assets.
What About My SIEM Tool? How XDR Serves As Your Extra Set of Hands
We have gone on before to discuss how cumbersome the alerts generated by your SIEM can be, and now with XDR, the possibilities are endless. To be more specific, an XDR won’t eliminate alerts; instead, what it does is triage alerts generated from your SIEM by priority. This allows your internal IT staff to focus on other more significant projects and ignore distractions.
Although you don’t have to pair the two tools, or any at all really, XDR can live on its own. With a robust XDR solution, you’ll be able to redefine the sort of alerts your team should be notified of, track cybersecurity risks within your environment, and:
- Free up time on house-keeping tasks from your internal IT teams with automation
- Feed data into one ranked compound where your teams can then thoroughly review alerts by category
- Understand your threat level more efficiently with more concise data that can be easily reported to directors and board members
Does Implementing XDR in Your Organization Mean You Can Downsize Your Internal IT Staff
With all this automation, you’d think so, but no! This just removes another burden from your staff’s daily review of logs and reporting. XDR is here to benefit your internal IT staff and make their jobs easier, not replace them. With the ability to hone in on actual threats and not be distracted by a million alerts, your IT staff becomes more efficient and effective! Like any cybersecurity tool, XDR is a tool that needs administrators and cybersecurity professionals to fine-tune its capabilities every so often to match the threat climate.
Speak With Our Experts Now to See How XDR Can Fit Within Your Environment
Like the many shiny new cybersecurity tools out there, Extended Detection and Response (XDR) is another instrument to help organizations better visualize their threats. The result? IT teams that can respond quicker and more efficiently to better safeguard your business, its customers, and its data.
Contact our team of experts today and see how XDR can shine light on silos within your organization, revealing vulnerabilities you may not have even been aware of and bringing an immediate return on your investment in a complete cybersecurity stack.