Extended Detection and Response (XDR) is a proactive security mechanism that provides extended visibility and data analysis over the endpoints and also across the networks. XDR is more sophisticated and advanced than Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR).
XDR was introduced because EDR was facing certain limitations regarding security and performance. While EDR protects the endpoints (mainly the devices) from attacks, XDR extends those functionalities to multiple security control points, such as, networks, servers, and the cloud to detect threats faster by collecting data across multiple domains.
Since XDR has raw data access from different environments, it detects threats that are using legitimate software to gain the system's access. It automatically analyzes and detects malicious activity against the stored data by providing the required information that adversaries might use. For example, lateral movement, or unwanted connections. Moreover, XDR provides rapid action against threats as it has more knowledge of inflow attacks (due to its superior data collection process), thus improving the response of the system.
Since XDR has raw data access from different environments, it detects threats that are using legitimate software to gain the system’s access. It automatically analyzes and detects malicious activity against the stored data by providing the required information that adversaries might use, e.g., lateral movement, unwanted connections, etc. Moreover, XDR provides rapid action against threats as it has more knowledge of inflow attacks (due to its superior data collection process), thus, improving the response of the system.
Following are the components of XDR:
Data analysis: After the data is collected from multiple layers of security, data is analyzed to filter thousands of alerts into a smaller number of high-priority alerts.
Detection: Once data is analyzed and threats are filtered, XDR defines a lower threshold of the normal behaviors of data to allow rapid detection of threats that force the system's software and network to carry action against them to prevent further damage.
Response: Besides detection, XDR remembers the attack so that attacks of similar kinds are handled in the future.
Some of the advantages of using XDR are as follows:
Provides greater data visibility: XDR provides a wide view of all the system's sources and environments, resulting in a speedy response to threats.
Automatic detection of attacks: It ensures not only continuous (24/7) system data protection but also reduces manual steps of the security process, thereby increasing the efficiency of the mechanism.
Prioritization of threats alerts: Prioritizing ensures that more important threats are handled before, thereby improving the risk management of the network and also reducing the downtime on servers.
Restoration of data after the attack: Since XDR has all the knowledge of data, it can recover from an attack by directly targeting the affected data and reverting the damaged files.
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