Evolve With XDR – The Modern Approach to SecOps

By Kevin Cornejo · January 19, 2022

So, what’s all the continuous hype about XDR? Is it for you and what does it mean to your organization? What are XDRs and what are they not? What happens once you acquire components that add the “X-factor” to your threat detection and response (TDR) practice? And how can SOC teams use it for proactive investigation, prioritization, remediation, and hunting?

I’ll cover the basics in this blog and hopefully by the end I’ve piqued your interest enough to join us in this next-generation security approach that has the capability to turn today’s threats into tomorrow’s advantages.

From Doom and Gloom to Boom

For security practitioners, there’s one question that is top of mind – am I protected against the latest threats? Let’s face it, threats are evolving, adversaries are evolving too, and a shortage of talent make it near impossible to keep up with alerts – yet XDR is meeting these challenges head-on to provide a positive way forward.

Some of these challenges were outlined in research by ESG, The Impact of XDR in the Modern SOC March 2021 ^[1]:

1. 31% spend time addressing high priority/emergency threats and not enough time on more comprehensive strategy and process improvement for TDR.
2. Another 29% have “blind spots” on their network due to inability to deploy agents.
3. 23% find it difficult to correlate and combine data from different security controls, which impacts TDR efficiency/efficacy.

Advanced threats are now commonplace, challenging most security professionals to detect and respond before damage is done. We know these attacks leverage multiple attack vectors to gain a foothold and execute and it is time to use this knowledge to our advantage. XDR solutions bring together security telemetry across multiple controls, correlating and stitching together complex attacks so analysts can quickly assess and investigate. XDR is seen as having the potential to modernize the SOC with enriched, aggregated, and adaptive security analytics capabilities to accelerate investigations to resolutions – or thwart attacks or threats before they occur.

We’re here to help you evolve your SecOps practice into the next era of security analytics, threat detection, and response. Our tools provide visibility across multiple control points to not only detect threats but to help organizations improve their security posture. This way, you can move away from the burden of reaction and toward the benefit of greater efficiencies to focus on driving your business forward.

Whether you are building a SOC function with limited resources or maturing a well-established SOC, We are here to help you proactively identify, investigate, and mitigate threat actors targeting your organization before they can gain a foothold in your network. By combining the latest machine-learning techniques with human analysis, XDR connects and amplifies the early warning signals from your sensors at the network, endpoint, and cloud to improve situational awareness, drive better and faster decisions, and elevate your SOC. ^[2]

1 – ESG Research Report: The Impact of XDR in the Modern SOC by Jon Oltsik
2 – Cyber Cyber, Burning Bright: Can XDR Frame Thy Fearful Asymmetry?