‘XDR’ – Extended Detection and Response – is the X Factor in cybersecurity. The “X Factor” is defined as an elusive circumstance, quality or entity with a strong positive influence. Simply put, the X Factor is what makes something cool.

Sometimes dismissed as merely an extension of EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response), the scope and power of XDR extend far beyond the endpoint and traditional detection and response. It will disrupt the way CISOs and SOCs approach threat detection, incident response, and data volumes.

Launching a new era of analytics-based threat detection solutions, XDR lets enterprise cybersecurity teams punch above their weight through integration of advanced security operations capabilities. In particular, XDR addresses today’s snowballing threat-scape by amplifying the speed, scale and scope of threat detection, connecting the dots across sparse data sources and siloed telemetry, and tracing an attack all the way back to its roots.

XDR is also well suited to today’s cybersecurity business environment where organizations face a shortage of technical talent, new logistic challenges and exposure from the COVID-19 response, and an ever-growing onslaught of attacks and breaches.

More than just a new buzzword, XDR takes a holistic approach to cybersecurity: XDR leverages big data, AI and ML to deliver on the promise of integrating best-of-breed ecosystem components while for an accurate detection of missed threats.

Despite the big promise, since its emergence last year, the XDR market is dominated by big vendor lock-ins, disabling a “best-of-breed” security ecosystem. Organizations can increasingly find products to correlate events and log data from across cloud workloads-to endpoint-and firewall, but only when committing to a single vendor.

In practice, security needs change and evolve along with your business: conducting M&As with deployed security tools, transitioning into SaaS-based programs and virtual networks, expanding into branches, or a global pandemic that forces greater agility and data security in remote work. These are just some examples we are all familiar with. With cyber security needs so varied and dynamic, how is it reasonable to base organizational security stack on one vendor solely?

Considering that, and some other aspects, XDR may just be THE novel approach to cybersecurity, bearing a promise to the oldest challenge in the space – undetected attacks. XDR is not only a product, but a capability that transcends data sources, IT environments and security solutions.

Hunters hosted a special webinar titled: ‘ The ‘X’ Factor: How to Extend your Security Solutions into an XDR’. The webinar featured Forrester Principal Analyst,  Josh Zelonis. Josh has been covering this new category since it erupted, and often discusses its relations to EDR and SIEM solutions.

The webinar covers:

  • Why XDR is the new security analytics, and how it finally connects the dots in your organization
  • How it serves modern threat detection and response efforts
  • How to enable this powerful capability on your current technology stack

XDR is the X Factor in cybersecurity. Watch the webinar to learn why.