Extended detection and response (XDR) is a unified security solution that automatically collects, aggregates, and analyzes data from multiple point products–email, endpoints, servers, cloud workloads, and networks—to detect, analyze, hunt for, and remediate cyber threats, and help security operations teams improve the efficacy of threat detection and accelerate incident response. This innovative approach to security operations integrates traditionally siloed security tools into a cohesive platform, enabling organizations to identify and respond to sophisticated threats that might otherwise go undetected.
Why is XDR important in today’s cybersecurity landscape?
XDR has risen in popularity because of several critical factors in the modern security environment:
Traditional security tools operate in silos, making it difficult to detect sophisticated attacks that span multiple entry points. These siloed approaches create blind spots in security coverage and prevent organizations from seeing the complete picture of an attack chain. XDR breaks down these silos by providing a unified view across all security layers, enabling security teams to track threats as they move through different parts of the infrastructure. This comprehensive visibility is crucial for detecting and stopping advanced persistent threats (APTs) and other sophisticated attack techniques that exploit gaps between traditional security solutions.
Security alert volume and complexity have become unmanageable for security teams, often leading to alert fatigue and missed threats. Many organizations receive thousands of alerts daily from various security tools, making it impossible for security teams to investigate each one thoroughly. XDR uses advanced analytics and automation to correlate alerts across different security tools, reducing alert fatigue and highlighting true threats. By combining data from multiple sources and applying machine learning algorithms, XDR can identify patterns and connections that would be impossible for human analysts to detect manually, effectively separating critical threats from background noise.
Organizations need faster threat detection and response capabilities, as cyber attacks become more sophisticated and damaging. XDR’s automated correlation and response capabilities significantly reduce the time from detection to containment, enabling security teams to respond to threats more efficiently. This automation is particularly crucial in today’s threat landscape, where attackers can move laterally through networks and exfiltrate data in minutes. Traditional manual investigation and response processes are often too slow to prevent damage, making XDR’s automated capabilities essential for modern security operations.
What services does XDR provide?
- Cross-layer visibility
XDR collects and correlates data from multiple security layers, providing comprehensive visibility into threats across the entire IT environment. This visibility extends beyond simple log collection to include deep inspection of network traffic, endpoint behavior, cloud workload activities, and email communications. The platform can track threats as they move between different security layers, providing context that would be impossible to obtain from individual security tools. This comprehensive visibility helps security teams understand the full scope of security incidents and identify all affected systems and assets. - Advanced analytics
Most XDR platforms use machine learning and behavioral analytics to identify complex attack patterns and reduce false positives by understanding normal behavior patterns. These analytics capabilities go beyond simple rule-based detection to include sophisticated anomaly detection, user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA), and threat intelligence integration. The platform continuously learns from new data and security incidents, improving its ability to detect threats over time. This advanced analysis helps security teams focus on genuine threats while reducing the time spent investigating false positives. - Automated response
XDR automates threat investigation and response actions, enabling rapid containment of threats before they can spread across the environment. This automation includes predetermined response playbooks for common threats, automated evidence collection for investigations, and orchestrated response actions across multiple security tools. The platform can automatically isolate affected endpoints, block malicious network connections, quarantine suspicious emails, and take other containment actions without requiring manual intervention. This automation significantly reduces the time required to contain and remediate threats. - Threat hunting capabilities
Sometimes providers offer threat hunting alongside XDR capabilities, and sometimes it’s priced separately. Security teams can proactively search for hidden threats using XDR’s comprehensive data collection and advanced query capabilities. The platform provides powerful search and investigation tools that enable analysts to hunt for indicators of compromise (IoCs) across all security layers. These capabilities include retrospective analysis of historical data, advanced query builders for complex searches, and visualization tools for understanding attack patterns. Threat hunting teams can leverage these capabilities to identify previously unknown threats and develop new detection rules based on their findings. - Integrated security stack
XDR unifies security tools and data sources into a single platform, simplifying security operations and improving efficiency. This integration includes native connectivity between different security components, unified management interfaces, and standardized data formats for analysis. The platform eliminates the need to switch between multiple security consoles and tools, reducing the complexity of security operations and improving analyst productivity. This integration also enables better coordination between different security functions and teams. - Continuous monitoring
XDR provides real-time monitoring and analysis of security events across all protected surfaces. This monitoring includes continuous data collection from all security layers, real-time analysis of security events, and immediate alerting on detected threats. The platform maintains constant vigilance over the environment, ensuring that security teams are immediately notified of potential threats. This continuous monitoring capability is essential for detecting and responding to threats quickly before they can cause significant damage.
How does XDR compare to other security solutions?
Cloud detection and response
Cloud detection and response (CDR) is similar to managed detection and response (MDR) and extended detection and response (XDR) services, both of which rapidly detect, analyze, investigate, and actively respond to threats. CDR specifically monitors activity in cloud environments, identifying threats and suspicious activities in real time, including remote code execution, malware, crypto-mining, lateral movement, privilege escalation, and container escape. While CDR focuses exclusively on cloud security, XDR incorporates cloud security as part of its broader security coverage. CDR is often included in managed detection and response (MDR) solutions as a specialized component for cloud security monitoring.
Security incident and event management (SIEM)
While SIEM systems excel at broad log collection and compliance reporting, XDR focuses specifically on security-relevant data with built-in response capabilities. Though both platforms offer pre-built content, SIEM solutions typically require more extensive customization for security use cases, while XDR provides more security-focused detection rules and response playbooks out of the box. XDR’s specialized security focus enables faster threat detection and response compared to traditional SIEM solutions.
Endpoint detection and response (EDR)
Endpoint detection and response focuses solely on endpoint security, while XDR extends protection across multiple security layers. While EDR solutions provide deep visibility into endpoint activities, they lack visibility into other security layers such as network traffic and cloud workloads. XDR builds on EDR capabilities by correlating endpoint data with other security telemetry, providing a more complete picture of security incidents. This broader visibility enables XDR to detect threats that might be missed by EDR solutions alone.
Manage detection and response (MDR)
Managed detection and response is a service-based offering, while XDR is a technology solution. MDR providers offer managed security services that include 24×7 monitoring, threat detection, and incident response support. While MDR provides managed security services, XDR gives organizations the tools to enhance their own security operations. Some organizations choose to combine XDR technology with MDR services to get the best of both worlds: advanced security technology and expert security support.
Security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR)
Security orchestration and response platforms focus on automation and orchestration, while XDR provides a complete detection and response solution. SOAR platforms excel at automating security workflows and integrating different security tools but typically lack the advanced detection capabilities of XDR. XDR includes SOAR-like capabilities but adds advanced detection and analysis features, providing a more comprehensive security solution. While SOAR platforms require significant configuration and maintenance, XDR solutions often come with pre-built automation capabilities that can be deployed quickly.
Network traffic analysis (NTA)
NTA collects and analyzes data from network traffic to monitor communication between devices like routers, switches, firewalls, data centers, and IoT devices. While NTA provides deep visibility into network traffic, it lacks visibility into endpoint activities and cloud workloads. XDR incorporates network traffic analysis as one component of its broader security coverage, correlating network data with other security telemetry to provide a more complete picture of security incidents.
MDR providers vs XDR providers
When evaluating XDR capabilities, providers should be able to demonstrate several key competencies:
- System correlation and response capabilities across endpoints, network, and cloud simultaneously, including specific data source integration and analysis.
- Automated response playbook implementation, particularly focusing on how actions are coordinated between different security tools during threat detection and the underlying integration architecture.
- Threat hunting methodology across hybrid environments, specifically the ability to track and respond to threats as they move between on-premise systems and cloud workloads.
- Comprehensive reporting capabilities that showcase detections requiring correlation across multiple security layers and detailed attack chain analysis.
These capabilities demonstrate the provider’s ability to deliver true cross-layer detection and response, setting XDR services apart from traditional MDR services.
Conclusion
Extended detection and response (XDR) represents a significant advancement in cybersecurity technology, addressing the limitations of traditional siloed security approaches. By unifying visibility and response across multiple security layers while automating detection and correlation, XDR enables organizations to combat sophisticated threats more effectively. As cyber threats continue to evolve, XDR’s comprehensive and automated approach is becoming an essential component of modern security strategies, helping organizations strengthen their security posture while reducing operational complexity.
Expel’s approach to enhanced MDR
As a leading MDR provider, Expel delivers unified and correlated data across multiple security layers. Our SecOps platform automatically collects and analyzes telemetry from various security tools, including endpoint, network, cloud, and email security solutions, providing comprehensive visibility. Through extensive integration with existing security infrastructure, Expel’s MDR service enables automated threat detection, investigation, and response across the entire security ecosystem. This approach combines automated, multi-layer visibility with the expertise of managed security services, allowing organizations to benefit from both advanced technology and human-guided security operations without replacing their current security investments.
