XDR security vendor comparison and selection

Providing effective security for modern information technology (IT) environments is becoming increasingly difficult for several reasons. The attack surface that must be defended is growing exponentially with the addition of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and the distributed endpoints of a remote workforce. Combined with more sophisticated intrusion strategies employed by cybercriminals, traditional security measures can no longer keep pace and successfully protect an organization’s infrastructure.

Extended detection and response (XDR) is an innovative approach that identifies and addresses threats before they have a chance to cause damage to a computing environment. XDR solutions employ cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technology to provide enhanced threat detection capabilities.

An XDR solution detects weak signals that would have previously gone unnoticed and may indicate the presence of a threat to the infrastructure. By coordinating detected signals with the information in a threat intelligence (TI) database, XDR can identify advanced persistent threats (APTs) and other hidden intruders lurking in a computing environment. Defined responses can address and remove the threats before they have an opportunity to cause damage.

The addition of an XDR solution to a company’s security stack helps strengthen its ability to protect its computing environment. It can be challenging to select the right XDR solution.

Differentiating factors in XDR Solutions

XDR solutions are not identical and multiple factors differentiate the offerings of competing vendors. Understanding these differences is essential in choosing the right XDR solution.

• Endpoint protection features - XDR can provide endpoint protection through native capabilities and features or integration with third-party tools. This is an important difference as, with a native approach, you are constrained by the protection features offered through the XDR tool. Integrations with third-party solutions are beneficial as they allow for more flexibility and promote leveraging your existing security tools while avoiding vendor lock-in.
• Level of threat intelligence - The level of threat intelligence provided by an XDR solution is one of the most important factors when comparing the offerings of multiple vendors. Excellent threat intelligence such as that provided by Samurai XDR does not rely on a static database or a single source of information. Additionally, we have access to one of the largest tier 1 backbones providing an exceptional source of TI. The goal of XDR is to consolidate TI from multiple sources and employ AI and ML to continuously improve and optimize detection and response capabilities. TI on its own is just a collection of data, albeit a valuable one. The detections performed by an XDR platform on the other hand represent actionable outcomes.
• Open versus proprietary solutions - XDR solutions are broadly categorized as being open or proprietary. This distinction speaks to the way the tool gathers telemetry data. Comprehensive or native XDR solutions rely on a single vendor to collect the data necessary for threat detection. Open XDR employs integration with third-party tools to collect and ingest telemetry data. An open solution encourages incorporating existing security tools and adding new telemetry sources in the future. Another aspect of open solutions is their ability to focus on cross-domain threat correlation to identify threat actors moving laterally through an environment after gaining access.
• Compatibility and interoperability - These factors are addressed by an open solution that provides a range of integrations. Through integration with existing telemetry gathering tools, XDR can augment existing security solutions to provide enhanced security.
• Future development plans - The threat landscape is constantly evolving. An XDR vendor needs to incorporate development plans to keep up with threat evolution and provide more effective responses.
• Response capabilities - Response is a core component of XDR. Responses need to align with business requirements to provide the solution’s expected benefits to the organization and its security personnel.

Questions for potential XDR vendors

When considering a specific XDR solution, asking the vendor some specific questions can help determine its viability and value for your environment. Following are some of the questions that should be asked of your prospective XDR vendor.

How does the XDR solution leverage existing security investments?

Ideally, you want a solution that can integrate with your existing tools to provide additional value and strengthen security. Proprietary tools may require an organization to re-architect its security and telemetry gathering capabilities.

Does the XDR solution consolidate existing network software and telemetry data?

This question refers to the integrations available with the XDR solution. Look for a solution that has multiple integrations for your existing tools and plans to incorporate additional third-party integrations in the future. Ideally, the XDR solution should be able to link the activities of threat actors across multiple devices and technologies for enhanced detection.

What attack vectors are in scope for analytics?

You want a tool that provides analytics for as many diverse attack vectors as possible. This may necessitate integrating with external data sources to provide the required telemetry.

How does the tool support threat hunting?

Look for a vendor that supports complex queries to perform threat hunting across its data lake. A related issue is the length of time data is retained for this purpose. Samurai XDR’s advanced query feature enables you to hunt threats across the alert and event data ingested into the tool.

What level of response does the service provide?

You want to be sure that the responses available with the solution address your business requirements. XDR’s response capabilities allow organizations to automate and streamline incident response procedures. Effective, automated responses can be instrumental in enhancing security and reducing time-consuming manual efforts.

Does your tool or service provide enhanced visibility?

The XDR solution should provide enhanced visibility into the threat landscape and align with the information available from MITRE ATT&CK and other frameworks.

How will the XDR solution improve security decision-making through the use of information garnered through advanced queries?

Look for an XDR solution that prioritizes detected threats and supports triage so security decision-makers know where to focus their attention to provide optimal security for the environment. Security professionals can concentrate on actual threats and take quick action to address the risks.

What are your plans for future development?

You need to understand how the vendor plans on developing its solution to address the changing threat landscape. You want to know if there are plans for further integrations and enhanced, customized incident responses.

Can you see the tool in action?

Ideally, you would like to see the solution in action through beta tests and a free trial that allows you to perform a full evaluation before committing to a purchase.

Making your XDR Vendor Selection

The decision to implement a specific XDR solution should not be taken lightly. One needs to take the differentiating factors into account to identify how the solution fits into your overall IT security.

Samurai XDR is an open solution with an impressive array of supported integrations. They also have plans to develop many additional integrations to further its utility and ability to perform advanced threat detection. Third-party integration provides endpoint threat detection and remediation.

Threat intelligence is gathered from multiple external and internal sources to identify emerging risks before they damage your environment. TI is curated so the most relevant and informative sources are given priority. Samurai’s TI is bolstered by access to NTT’s Tier 1 internet backbone which monitors 25% of the world’s Internet traffic. The platform is powered by cutting-edge machine learning so it can handle threats today and in the future. An alert dashboard enables centralized alert management and facilitates the streamlining of security operations.

Contact Samurai and sign up for a 30 day free trial to see how the tool operates.