5 Benefits of Migrating to an XDR Platform

It’s not all that hard to think of a few ways to protect yourself from oncoming threats on the digital landscape. In fact, in most cases, businesses already have a tool or two in place already. Through these tools, a measure of detection, response, or both can be applied appropriately to each threat that appears. But every new threat requires new tools to combat it, and that’s just as true with what businesses are facing today. For the newest and most prevalent threats, businesses are benefiting more regularly from use of XDR.

But what is XDR, and why is it considered such a powerful solution? XDR, or extended detection and response, is a type of cybersecurity software that extends beyond the endpoint, or the singular workstation, to actually defend the networks surrounding such endpoints. This “cross layer” approach makes XDR a more far-reaching version of other such defense softwares, and it’s used to cover various security gaps, be they in the actual endpoints, the network’s various segments, the network’s perimeter, or even in cloud services attached to your enterprise.

Why Should I Invest in an XDR Platform?

Because XDR is such a far-reaching and comprehensive protection platform, it has merit in various situations. But one thing you have to consider is that implementing XDR is an investment. It will take time and money to set up what will eventually be a long-lasting security solution, so there should be strong enough reasons to take the plunge and make the transition to this program. Those strong reasons are seen below:

Quicker Threat Responses

You can’t always depend on a human response to be quick enough to handle certain detected threats — and you certainly can’t find humans that respond as quickly as a cyber attack might happen. In fact, many of these are programmed or automated attacks, simply occurring at the pull of some trigger. With XDR, though, you can have a tool that responds in kind, at the speed of automation — and more than that, it won’t rely on you or another user to manually take action on a detected threat. Detection and response systems already have built-in responses that they can take to make sure the threat is neutralized or isolated before it continues to do more damage.

Greater Holistic Visibility

Not only is it important to detect threats, but it’s imperative for any business to understand and see their processes and networks as a whole. That’s what the holistic view offered by an XDR platform can provide, making sure that you are able to see everything that’s going on in every corner of your intranet. You can also rest assured that the detail is much more intimately refined, as XDR delves into all those nooks and crannies to report on things such as user activity, file activity, and even significant changes in stored assets. There’s no reason to deal with tools that can’t offer you such details when you have one that can plainly display red flags, baseline behaviors, and more, all behind one pane of glass.

Reduced Alert Fatigue

Speaking of red flags, there’s one thing about many detection platforms that causes an issue: alert sensitivity. When a detection platform notices something out of the ordinary, it might flag you down and get your attention — but many things are considered “out of the ordinary” by the general rules defined in your detection softwares. That’s why XDR is different. It uses AI and machine learning to inform certain situations and make clear that there’s no need for a red flag. Activities that are unnecessarily flagged repeatedly can cause alert fatigue, but by implementing XDR, you can avoid such fatigue — only receiving alerts about the stuff that really should concern you.

Automated Detection and Contextualization

One thing that changes the game quite a lot is the ability for the XDR platform to not only detect potential threats automatically, but to contextualize them as well. As much as this contextualization aids in preventing alert fatigue, it also does something else: it brings you information on how to resolve potential issues, providing everything from the location of the threat to the type of threat it could be. This type of intelligence is gathered in part by using resource pools outside the platform, such as open source threat intelligence, which can be incredibly useful in defining strategies of how to deal with identified attackers in the first place.

Greater Offensive and Defensive Reach

Rather than being limited to protecting just the boundaries of the endpoint, XDR protects the network itself in a “cross layer” defense that works to establish a more secure interconnection overall. XDR’s protection, however, isn’t the only thing with an extended reach. XDR is also capable of threat hunting in the same boundaries, going on the offense in order to proactively protect what’s yours. By establishing such an extended reach in both of these strategies, XDR becomes more useful than other similar security tools by a long shot.

Conclusion

When battling the ever-growing threats of the cyber landscape, it’s clear that there are factors that might keep you from adapting: effort and price are chief among these. However, it’s through adapting to something like an XDR solution that makes businesses capable of reaching the benefits listed above: better offense, better defense, better information, and more. However you plan to protect your business, this has to be one of the most comprehensive and rewarding solutions out there.