They’re a top choice at the moment, with many preferring them over endpoint detection response (EDR) or signature-based detection.
Why this preference? Is it time to completely ditch your EDR or signature-based detection systems? Let’s take a step back first and look at what each has to offer.
Signature-based detection relies on known patterns of malware to identify threats. As you may have guessed, it’s ineffective against new threats and against polymorphic malware that will change its code to evade detection.
EDR tools continuously monitor and respond to threats on endpoints—laptops, desktops, mobile devices, etc. They detect anomalies using behavioral analysis and they offer capabilities for incident response, like forensic analysis and remediation.
EDR tools are powerful, but since they’re limited to endpoints, they can leave your systems with a pretty big blind spot, as they don’t offer security across the entire network.
This gets us to XDR tools. They are similar to EDR tools but cover multiple security layers, including servers, networks, and the cloud. Usually, they will provide advanced analytics, cross-layer threat correlation, unified data collection, and automated threat response, so that you’re always one step ahead of potential attacks.
They may not be infallible—sadly, no security measure truly is—but their broader visibility and detection and higher efficiency make them a better solution in most cases.
Next time, we’ll take a closer look at signature-based detection tools, how and when they can still be useful, and why most companies switched to different tools.
