To stop the intrusion,now security team only gets 92 minutes before the attackers begin moving laterally across the networks.Traditional security tools often fail to stop these intrusion within such a short timeframe. On average enterprises deploy around 45 siloed cybersecurity tools across their network,each with its own focus and functions.However co-ordinating them and integrating them is often complex and impossible task.
This is where Extended Detection and Response (XDR) comes into play. XDR offers a single unified and automated solution that can detect and respond to threats. In today’s modern threat landscape, modern threat protection without XDR implementation is non-negotiable. Therefore, in this blog, we will discuss the top benefits of implementing XDR for comprehensive threat protection.
1. Holistic Visibility across the IT environment
One of the main advantages of XDR is its ability to provide a centralized and holistic view of entire layers of your IT environment. Traditional tools often operate in silos, while XDR collects and correlates data from endpoints, servers, networks, cloud, etc. This makes detecting and mitigating threats easier for security teams. XDR can also detect threats that can slip through traditional tools as it only focuses on specific vectors.
2. Faster Response
XDR accelerates the threat detection and response through automation and analysis of security data from multiple sources in the network.With the help of machine learning(ML),XDR can identify anomalies and indicators of compromise(IOC) faster and accurately.
For instance,if an endpoint is compromised by threat actor,XDR by analyzing and correlating data from the endpoint’s network logs,user authentication,geographic locations etc and alert security teams.These alerts can trigger safety measures such as isolating the endpoint, blocking malicious IP, or quarantining the files associated with the endpoint, which can be done faster and without human intervention.
3. Cost Saving
One of the often-overlooked benefits of implementing XDR for comprehensive threat protection is for cost savings.XDR is a unified platform packed with multiple security tools, this can reduce the licensing, training, and maintenance cost associated with it. According to IBM,organizations that deployed XDR lowered breach costs up to 9% compared to organizations without XDR.
4. Scalability and Flexibility
As organization grow,complexities of the IT infrastructure and cybersecurity needs also grow.Traditional tools require tuning and expansion to keep up with the growing data volumes and new attack vectors. While XDR is designed to scale easily, as it is cloud-based.XDR solutions are flexible and can be customized based on the organization’s risk profile, regulatory requirements, and needs.
5. Alert Fatigue
Security teams face numerous alerts every day, many of which are false positives. On the other hand, XDR automatically correlates data from various layers of IT infrastructure and provides context for every alert it generates. For instance, XDR can link a series of alerts- a spike in network usage, login from different geographic locations, multiple login attempts, etc, into a single incident, showing how they may be part of an attack. With this approach, security teams can make decisions faster without alert fatigue.
6. Improved Operational Efficiency
Managing multiple endpoints and separate security solutions for network and email is complex and resource-intensive. XDR reduces this complexity by consolidating various security tools and functions into a single unified platform. This simplifies security operations and reduces the operational overhead associated with managing and maintaining multiple tools. With XDR, organizations can rely on a single platform for threat detection and response across the IT infrastructure.
7. Faster Restoration after an incident
Security incidents or cyberattacks can cause business disruption,restoring it quicker is better way to restore trust among stakeholders and customers but with traditional tools bringing systems online quickly is tougher and challenging.Organizations with XDR deployed shortened their breach cycle by 29 days.This stats highlights the importance of implementing XDR in comprehensive threat protection strategy.
8. Threat Intelligence Integration
Modern XDR platforms can be integrated with external threat intelligence feeds to enhance the system’s ability to detect and respond threats. With threat intelligence integration XDR can stay up to date with latest malware variants,tactics, techniques, and procedures(TTPs), and exploits.This continuous flow of intelligence helps security team to stay ahead of threat actors,improving overall security posture of the organization.
9. Cloud Environment Support
Traditional solutions are not suited for securing cloud environments. While XDR excels in providing visibility across distributed infrastructures. Many organizations use multiple cloud service providers, which makes it difficult to monitor and gain visibility. Moreover, the cloud introduces a new set of attack vectors, such as misconfigured cloud storage buckets, insecure APIs, and vulnerabilities in cloud environments. XDR can detect these cloud-native threats and monitor them across cloud environments to respond to threats in real-time.
10. Compliance Support
XDR plays a vital role in helping organizations to meet regulatory compliance. Many sectors are governed by strict regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS, which mandate the protection of sensitive data, as well as the ability to respond to and report security incidents related to sensitive data.
XDR’s centralized view and correlation across endpoints, networks, and cloud environments can map the data flow and users who accessed it. This reduces the risk of being non-compliant, and organizations can avoid paying heavy fines and penalties. Moreover, XDR documents every security event, which can be helpful in the future while doing compliance audits.
Conclusion
Implementation of Extended Detection and Response (XDR) offers integrated and comprehensive threat protection across multiple layers(endpoint, network, cloud, servers, and more) into a single platform. Traditional solutions often fall short of addressing the sophistication of modern threats, XDR overcomes those limitations and enables enhanced visibility and faster threat detection with the help of machine learning and automation. For those looking to improve their security posture, XDR can be a game changer and future-proof.
Related Reading:
The Role of XDR in Modern Cybersecurity Strategies: Why It Matters
