5 Ways Trellix NDR 4.1 Advances the SOC

By Ravi Adireddi and Haroon Malik · December 16, 2025

Executive summary

We’re excited to announce the release of Trellix Network Detection and Response (NDR) 4.1. This version delivers a number of advancements to increase SOC analyst productivity and strengthen overall cyber resilience: 

• A new no-code or low-code hyperautomation service
• Integration with Nozomi Networks to unify IT and operational technology (OT) visibility
• New AI-powered detections, all of which can be deployed in on-premises and air-gapped environments (as well as cloud and hybrid)
• The unique capacity to evolve legacy intrusion detection and prevention system (IDPS) capabilities while preserving detections
• The capability to detect phishing attacks on the network using email threat intelligence
• Read the press release | Request a demo

These updates directly address core challenges facing modern SOC analysts overwhelmed by alerts, false positives, and time-consuming manual tasks. They aim to optimize how security teams operate by reducing the time between detection and response by up to 60%, closing critical visibility gaps, and simplifying complex, sprawling security stacks.

Let’s dive into the most significant takeaways from the release.

Takeaway 1: Speeding response times with no-code automation

Even when a high-fidelity threat is detected, the clock is ticking. The manual follow-up—enriching the alert, containing the threat, and creating a ticket—takes far too much time, giving adversaries a critical window to advance their attack.

Trellix NDR 4.1 addresses this delay head-on with its new hyperautomation service. Think of it as a security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) platform built directly into NDR, but with a crucial difference: it’s based on a no-code, drag-and-drop framework. 

This allows SOC teams to build and execute entire response playbooks without writing a single line of code. They can drag and drop actions to integrate with both Trellix and non-Trellix products to automate tasks like blocking an IP address or quarantining a host.

Contrast this with other NDR vendors’ more code-driven, point-to-point app integrations. Susceptible to failure in deployment, quality, and vulnerability, these integrations are not scalable. With Trellix NDR 4.1, SOC teams can develop their own apps for internal tools and integrations that are not available in the marketplace.

These capabilities translate into a dramatic reduction in the time between detection and response. By automating investigation and remediation workflows, we estimate that NDR 4.1 can reduce mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to respond (MTTR) by up to 60%, especially for anomalous encrypted traffic detection, lateral movement, and DNS tunneling, among other areas.

The result? An increase in analyst productivity, reduced burnout, and stronger overall cyber resilience. 

Takeaway 2: Bridging the critical IT/OT security gap

For many industrial organizations, the boundary between their IT and operational technology (OT) networks is a dangerous blind spot. Threats can easily hide between your IT and OT boundaries, as noted in our recent Operational Technology Threat Report, moving from a compromised corporate laptop to a critical industrial control system undetected.

Our latest release tackles this gap through a direct integration with Nozomi Networks, a leader in OT and ICS visibility. Trellix NDR 4.1 injects the Nozomi alerts, assets, insights, and network behaviors and correlates them with enterprise traffic to deliver unified visibility across IT and OT environments. Cross-domain attack path analysis connects OT events with IT identity and cloud or endpoint agents and prioritizes those alerts, combining Nozomi's OT context with Trellix NDR 4.1 advanced behavioral analytics. 

In practical terms, this allows security teams to:

• Detect OT protocol misuse that is part of a larger enterprise lateral movement campaign
• Identify a compromised IoT or OT device that is communicating with a malicious external host
• Automate firewall actions using hyperautomation when a threat is detected crossing the IT/OT boundary

This is a prime example of the no-code hyperautomation detailed earlier, applying powerful automated response directly to the IT/OT boundary. This convergence of IT and OT intelligence in a single platform closes a critical visibility gap that has long plagued industrial security teams.

Takeaway 3: Detecting threats in air-gapped and on-prem environments

Drawing on the incorporated AI capabilities of Trellix Wise, Trellix NDR 4.1 adds a number of new advanced anomaly detections including, but not limited to: 

• DC sync
• DC shadow
• ASREP roasting
• Kerberos roasting
• Wireless malware transfer
• DNS hijacking
• Fast flux 
• RDP anomalies

Notably, Trellix NDR 4.1 detections work in air-gapped and on-premises environments, in addition to complex cloud and hybrid environments. This capability addresses critical limitations found in competing solutions and ensures comprehensive security coverage for organizations that require strict, noncloud-dependent deployments.

Here’s why this capability matters:

• Ensuring Full Feature Functionality On-premises. This means that every advanced detection Trellix NDR 4.1 offers, including AI-based detections, will work when deployed in an air-gapped or on-premises environment.
• Addressing Competitor Limitations. Most other NDR vendors rely on cloud connectivity for their more advanced, AI-based detections. When these competitors are deployed on-premises, some of their advanced detections won't work. For example, these vendors may stipulate that certain features work only with cloud connectivity. Trellix NDR 4.1 explicitly does not have that limitation.
• Serving Critical and Specific Needs. This on-premises, air-gapped capability is essential for customers who are completely air-gapped or who operate environments—such as specific OT environments—where connecting to the cloud is not feasible or permitted.
• Reinforcing Architectural Strength. This deployment flexibility contributes to Trellix NDR 4.1’s overall architectural strength, enabling it to work in environments where many other NDR vendors cannot serve the need.

This makes Trellix NDR 4.1 the clear choice for organizations needing an on-premises/air-gapped solution that can ensure every advanced detection is available, regardless of cloud connectivity.

Takeaway 4: Providing a pathway from IDPS to NDR

While most NDR vendors position their tools as a layer on top of existing security infrastructure, Trellix NDR 4.1 is designed to evolve your legacy intrusion detection and prevention system (IDPS) capabilities while preserving the detections. Trellix NDR 4.1 enhances IDPS capabilities such as alert prioritization based on risk and machine learning detections, and uses AI to speed up alert triage, adding context and understanding of an attack.

This is a unique and powerful differentiator. Typically, a CISO looking to adopt NDR must budget for both the new solution and the ongoing maintenance of their existing IDPS. Trellix offers a direct “pick up and replace" model, giving customers a no-compromise path to evolve legacy IDPS without losing detections, workflows, or audit continuity, something cloud-first NDR tools cannot provide. This capability is rooted in Trellix’s deep IDPS heritage, which provides the mature, robust, and trusted detection engine necessary to serve as a primary security control, not just an overlay.

Trellix NDR 4.1’s combination of heritage-grade (aka, not blade) IDPS, the ability to preserve detections, and full on-premises/air-gapped autonomy is a game-changing proposition for security leaders struggling with tool sprawl and complex budgets. 

Takeaway 5: Catching phishing attacks after the click

When most analysts hear phishing, they immediately think of email security gateways and user training. It's often seen as "an email thing." However, there's a critical distinction between a potential threat and a confirmed compromise.

Trellix NDR 4.1 leverages its platform-native intelligence to make this distinction clear. A phishing threat detected in an email is a warning. But a phishing detection on the network means something far more serious: "somebody clicked on that." This transforms the alert from a potential threat into a high-severity indicator of an active breach in progress.

This capability is possible because Trellix is a platform, not a point solution. Trellix NDR 4.1 is continuously informed by its email threat intelligence, allowing it to spot the network traffic associated with a successful phishing attack. This is a level of correlated insight that pure-play, NDR-only vendors simply cannot deliver. 

For a SOC team, this provides a higher-fidelity alert that allows them to bypass the noise and focus immediately on a confirmed compromise. Just as Trellix’s IDPS heritage enables a smooth transition from legacy tools, our integrated email intelligence provides a level of network-level phishing insight that standalone NDR solutions cannot match.

Beyond features to foundational change

The updates in Trellix NDR 4.1 represent a direct response to some of the top challenges facing modern security operations: the crippling delays of manual response, the dangerous visibility gaps between IT and OT, the cost and complexity of a sprawling security stack, and the overwhelming noise of low-fidelity alerts.

Trellix NDR 4.1 combines deep visibility, advanced behavioral analytics, OT intelligence, and automated response to empower your SOC teams with faster threat detections, tighter IT/OT convergence, and higher-fidelity alerts. By focusing on deep automation, unified visibility, and platform-level intelligence, these changes promise to deliver not just better tools, but a more resilient and efficient operational model. 

To learn more about how your organization can benefit from Trellix NDR 4.1, contact your customer account manager or request a demo.