How to Choose the Best XDR Solution for Your Organization? – Source: heimdalsecurity.com

The fact that malicious software gets smarter and more sophisticated every day that goes by is no news to any IT professional. Add the fact that the attack surface continues to expand as our lives get highly connected to the Internet, and you have the perfect storm.

Cybersecurity experts’ first response – to get more security tools – proves to be a dead end.

More tools mean more work for your employees to manage them. This is not a solution because many organizations are short staffed in the IT department and may lack the money to acquire all the necessary layers of security.

Even more, these security solutions may come from different vendors, and work independently, leaving blind spots in your online environment for threat actors to exploit.

Meaning that even if all your assets are theoretically secured, there could still be paths and processes left unsupervised for cybercriminals to prey on.

Extended Detection and Response (XDR) solutions were the next logical step. They can solve all these issues while offering protection across the entire online environment.

But a new question emerged: How to choose an XDR solution for your organization? This article will give you the key aspects to guide yourself in your XDR journey.

What Is XDR?

Extended Detection and Response (XDR) represents a sophisticated cybersecurity solution that serves to both monitor and mitigate incidents. This innovative technology gathers and correlates data across an array of security layers, including endpoints, emails, servers, clouds, and networks.

Through this all-encompassing strategy, XDR equips your security team to go beyond simple endpoint detection and discover, investigate, and combat threats spanning all across the IT environment. By adopting XDR, you open doors to improved security, increased awareness, and stronger reaction capabilities, while encouraging increased productivity and reducing costs.

XDR plays a pivotal role in the identification of threats by conducting a thorough analysis of both internal and external traffic to pinpoint potential attacks. Moreover, it leverages integrated threat intelligence, such as insights about attack tactics, sources, and tools. This toolkit gives XDR the ability to stop similar attacks in the future and detect zero-day vulnerabilities.

How to Choose an XDR Solution?

When choosing an Extended Detection and Response solution for your organization there are multiple aspects you should look for:

Extended Detection

XDR solutions need to collect data from across the organization, correlate, and analyze it. In this manner, a large amount of unprocessed data concerning security occurrences is reduced to a smaller number of high-fidelity specifics.

It is more likely that you will be able to identify an active threat if you have threat telemetry for more attack vectors.

Keep in mind that collecting data is only part of the process. You also have to assess the analytic capabilities of an XDR solution.

Extended Analysis

When a security incident is discovered, multiple inquiries become imperative. You need to know how serious this event is, if it is linked to a more significant attack if it is isolated, etc.

In our contemporary landscape, numerous cyber assaults unfold in multiple stages, with components vanishing once their role is fulfilled. So, the absence of certain indicators doesn’t mean you are in the clear.

If this task is handled by security employees, it requires a lot of time and manpower. An investigation involves scrutinizing the potential incident, strategizing the investigative and validation process, and subsequently determining the appropriate sequence of actions to rectify the situation and restore safety.

An XDR solution powered by artificial intelligence (AI) can automatically inquire into alerts. This AI system should be capable of fulfilling this process within seconds. Furthermore, it can be scaled with greater ease and cost-effectiveness compared to the challenges of sourcing and relying solely on scarce human investigators.

Extended Response

The investigation and confirmation efforts have to result in a response to the problem. This response has to make use of a range of resources, implementing well-coordinated and effective countermeasures.

Furthermore, this reaction mechanism needs to be pre-established and repeatable. This approach will increase its effectiveness and permit an intervention while an attack is still in progress (at any of the 14 stages of an attack, as mapped by the MITRE ATT&CK Framework).

The final goal should be to solve the security flaws that allowed the network to be breached in the first place.

The Ability to Gather and Compare Information Across Different Sources

With digitalization, the number of attack vectors is increasing, and so is the number of security tools meant to protect them.

XDR is designed to take over all these separate security software solutions. But you have to pay attention to how many attack vectors your XDR solution covers.

Any vector that your XDR solution does not cover can be used to your disadvantage.

You need a solution that addresses every aspect of security, such as:

• Endpoints (corporate and personal devices, IoT devices, etc.)
• Network
• Cloud
• Cloud and third-party applications
• APIs
• Email
• Identity access
• Wired or wireless access
• Web and mobile applications, etc.

A Consolidated, Cohesive Approach that Provides Visibility

This end-to-end security across the entire IT infrastructure of an organization leads to great visibility.

Having a clear idea about what and where is happening, allows faster and more exact detection and response activities.

Dramatically reducing the time until remediation in case of attack translates into less downtime and, consequently, less impact on your revenue.

Maximum Protection

XDR solution can go beyond detection, analytics, and response capabilities to cover compliance and awareness.

It can offer you services as:

• Meeting compliance with international laws and regulations
• Penetration testing and vulnerability assessments regularly to proactively look for any flaws
• Monitoring file integrity to look for and react to harmful files

How Can Heimdal® Help?

Heimdal’s XDR gives you the peace of mind that comes from having a thorough, integrated approach to cybersecurity by doing away with the difficulty of administering different security solutions.

Our technology can handle complicated, multi-vector attacks as well as sophisticated malware infections. Waiting until it’s too late won’t help you safeguard your company from cyber threats. Experience the power of our unified, cloud-delivered XDR platform right away.

This security solution includes accurate threat detection, automated responses, simplified processes, and the ongoing improvement of your security posture. XDR is more than a tool when navigating the cybersecurity environment, it is also a valuable ally.

Final Thoughts

The next phase of cybersecurity is called XDR. However, not all XDRs are created equal, so you must pick the one that works best for your company. Keep this list in mind when you evaluate your options.

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