What Is Extended Detection and Response (XDR)? Definition, Components, Advantages, and Best Practices

Extended detection and response (XDR) is defined as a security technology that safeguards IT infrastructure by offering enhanced visibility, quick threat analysis, and faster response. It is an advanced version of endpoint detection and response (EDR) that employs deep analytics and automation to detect, analyze, and remediate potential security threats. This article explains the fundamentals of XDR, its key components, and the top 10 best practices for deploying and managing an XDR system in 2022.

What Is Extended Detection and Response (XDR)?
Key Components of XDR
Advantages of an Extended Detection and Response System
Top 10 Best Practices for Deploying and Managing an XDR System in 2022

What Is Extended Detection and Response (XDR)?

Extended detection and response (XDR) is defined as a security technology that safeguards IT infrastructure by offering enhanced visibility, quick threat analysis, and faster response. It acts as a security tool that integrates several security products into a unified security platform and strengthens the ability to detect and manage security incidents. It provides unified visibility into multiple attack vectors and gives organizations a comprehensive view of the threat landscape across the whole technology space.

XDR creates a unique attack story with advanced analytics and machine learning techniques that combine data from endpoints, networks, cloud resources, email systems, and other relevant sources. It simplifies the work of security analysts and improves the overall productivity of security teams.

It provides a single interface where all the data related to an attack can be viewed and responded to appropriately. Thus, XDR reduces the redundant tasks required to investigate and respond to security incidents, irrespective of the IT system being targeted. It helps uncover threats that are difficult to discover with traditional siloed security solutions and products.

Today, several security companies adopt a layered security practice known as â€˜defense in depth (DiD)’, to secure different parts of their IT environment. This approach uses multiple security solutions such as endpoint detection and response (EDR), network traffic analysis (NTA), and security information and event management (SIEM) to safeguard endpoints, networks, and cloud systems.

Although DiD is an effective practice, it has certain drawbacks. Security systems operate in silos in an organization. For example, a typical security analyst handles only specific silos such as an endpoint or network. When attacks transition or move across silos or impact several IT systems concurrently, the layered approach fails to detect and respond to such attacks simply because it lacks the ability to do so.

XDR tackles this problem effectively by offering a unified security platform that operates across security silos. It typically merges multiple security products and replaces traditional security solutions such as EDR, NTA, and SIEM.

The operation of XDR can be summarized in three steps: data analysis, threat detection, and attack response.

Three Steps of XDR

Step I: Data analysis

XDR collects data from several security points, including endpoints, networks, servers, and the cloud. Upon data aggregation, it performs data analysis to correlate context from various alerts that are generated. This saves security teams from dealing with large volumes of security alerts and lets them zero in on high-priority signals or alerts.

Step II: Threat detection

XDR offers excellent visibility into an organization’s IT infrastructure. This allows the system to examine signs of any detected threat and report the critical ones requiring a response. The visibility factor also enables companies to deep dive into the abnormal behavior of threats and investigate their origins before affecting other parts of the system.

Step III: Attack response

In the last step, XDR primarily contains and removes any detected threats. Subsequently, it updates security policies to ensure that a similar incident does not reoccur in the near future.

See More: Breaking Down Extended Detection and Response (XDR): Benefits, Hype, & Reality

Key Components of XDR

XDR is an evolved security system that extends the functionalities of traditional security tools such as EDR or NTA. These tools focus on security event correlation rather than event response. However, XDR is primed for instant incident response. An effective XDR system has six critical components that are considered a must by most organizations, which have been listed below.

XDR Components

1. Integration with everything

The primary objective of XDR is to consolidate an organization’s security armory into a single, integrated solution. This implies that XDR solutions possess strong API-centric integration capabilities. XDR also needs to query any tool in the security stack for additional data and context and subsequently receive the data feed. Additionally, XDR also initiates immediate responses upon threat detection without requiring analysts to log in to another tool.

Integration is thus a key for any XDR solution as it tends to adapt to the organization’s requirements rather than being tailored to a vendor’s portfolio. Hence, it is essential to ensure that new integrations are made into the XDR as and when they are rolled out. Rapid developments can be integrated by organizations themselves or through vendors.

2. Simplified response automation

Automation in XDR allows better threat detection and speeds up response outcomes. Security incidents such as malware or phishing attacks tend to repeat themselves. Response automation standardizes incident response based on the predefined playbook logic and delivers effective resolutions for known offenses. The automation intelligence in XDR thus adapts to the unique variables to a specific threat and automatically responds to them based on the associated risks.

3. AI/ML modules

AI in an IT environment drives XDR’s usability and adoption. With AI techniques, mathematical calculations are made on the fly to assess the threat and risk probability. Additionally, the XDR system learns about a specific environment, determines what modules to configure, and how to do it effectively. A potent XDR system with embedded AI/ML modules therefore learns, adapts, and also possesses the ability to deliver unique configuration guidance depending on what it learns from the business needs.

4. Deep analytics

A successful XDR deployment can distinguish between actual threats and false positives without letting the real attacks escape. A potentially good XDR ties threat data together and dynamically applies various analytical methodologies to detect, investigate, and verify the threat’s validity before initiating a response.

Good XDR systems, therefore, have the ability to assess the different tactics that an attacker may use to infiltrate an organization just by observing the pattern of every potential threat vector at one place or edge. This can enable the XDR to deliver deep threat detection and consequently generate an appropriate threat response.

5. Inexpensive & extensible data layer

Traditional SIEM storages are expensive as they are primarily built on outdated architectures. This is because the system finds it difficult to segregate near-term data necessary for threat detection and older historical data that aids in standardizing past threat trends. This implies that the data that needs no immediate analysis is still stored, making the overall storage system expensive as the volume of data grows with time.

On the other hand, an effective XDR can differentiate between the two data sources and, at the same time, employ low-cost methods to retain historical data records. Such XDR methods give access to older data without having to face any financial burden.

6. Flexible deployment

Each organization has its own XDR deployment requirements and preferences. Keeping this in mind, an XDR solution supports flexible deployments. It may be an on-premise and cloud-based implementation or managed deployments where organizations lack the requisite resources to manage them independently.

Typically, cloud-based and managed deployments support multi-tenancy features and stay compliant with certifications such as Service Organization Control 2 (SOC 2) to ensure that the platform operates in a secure environment. That being said, the requirements and preferences are subject to change over time. Hence, XDR needs to adapt and quickly migrate between two different deployment options.

Â See More: What Is Endpoint Security? Definition, Key Components, and Best Practices

Advantages of an Extended Detection and Response System

XDR offers a viable alternative to point security as it provides consolidated tooling to security teams, which allows them to watch over the organizational cybersecurity infrastructure more effectively. Its additional functionalities go beyond traditional EDRs, thereby giving it an upper hand in offering a holistic security solution to an organization’s IT environment.

Listed here are the various benefits of an XDR system:

XDR Advantages

1. Greater visibility and context

Compared to EDR and third-party security services limited to endpoints or workloads, an XDR system provides a 360-degree view of the organization’s security environment. It allows security analysts to view even those threats that utilize legitimate software to enter the organization’s boundary.

Security teams can use XDR to track threats at each security layer and subsequently note various parameters on how a particular attack happened, what the entry point of the attack was, who was affected by it, what the origin of the threat was, and how it spread. This contextual data around attacks and analytics is crucial to generate a quick response action against the identified threats.

2. Easy prioritization

IT and security teams are continually bombarded with thousands of alerts generated by different security services active in their organization. As such, it becomes difficult to manage and optimize threat resolution. However, XDR’s data analysis and correlation capabilities allow security analysts to group alerts that relate to each other and prioritize them accordingly. Security teams can thereby focus on addressing the most critical threats by delaying the resolution of not-so-severe threats.

3. Automation

XDR’s automation support speeds up overall threat detection and response procedures. It eliminates the manual tasks involved in security processes. Thus, an XDR system allows IT teams to handle large volumes of security data at a particular time with enough room to perform complex processes redundantly.

According to a 2021 report by ResearchAndMarkets.com titled â€˜XDR: The Journey Towards Revolutionizing Cybersecurity Operations and Generating Triple-Digit Growth in the Coming Years’, XDR solutions are set to revolutionize cybersecurity operations through meaningful automation.

4. Operational efficiency

Organizations employ a fragmented set of security tools to safeguard their infrastructure from attacks. On the other hand, XDR merges all these tools to give a holistic view of the threats across the environment. Moreover, it provides centralized data collection and threat response features coupled with the XDR environment, thereby offering a wider security cover to the entire IT ecosystem.

5. Faster detection and response

With all these advantages and the added operational efficiency of XDR, an organization enjoys an effective security posture. Deep contextual analysis allows the XDR system to identify the root cause of the threats and resolve them accurately at a faster pace. Today, quick threat detection and faster response are essential in a security landscape.

6. Sophisticated responses

Traditionally, EDR systems have responded to threats by isolating the target endpoint. The mechanism works fine when the endpoint is a standalone user device. However, if the endpoint is a server, it could pose a serious problem. XDR tailors sophisticated responses to specific systems with greater visibility and advanced capabilities. This leverages additional control points in an IT environment and minimizes the overall impact of the threats on it.

Companies such as Microsoft and Trend Micro seem to be leveraging the benefits of XDR, with The Forrester New Wave for Extended Detection and Response (XDR), Q4 2021 naming them as leaders from amongst the 14 most significant XDR providers.

See More: How Enterprises Can Secure Endpoints With Extended and Managed Detection and Response

Top 10 Best Practices for Deploying and Managing an XDR System in 2022

An appropriately configured XDR system helps protect, detect, and respond to cyberattacks. To make the most of the deployed XDR system, organizations need to roll out the DiD strategy by setting XDR policies in line with the continually evolving security threat landscape.

Below are some of the highly recommended best practices that should be considered while configuring, deploying, and managing an XDR system in 2022.

XDR Best Practices

1. Practice effective XDR management

XDR is an integral part of network and endpoint security, and it is important to have a good understanding of its commissioning process. Management of XDR involves general tasks such as upgrading, ongoing monitoring, and incident management. This requires considerable human resources, and organizations need to pay attention to it.

A not-so-well-managed XDR can easily misconfigure the whole XDR system, thereby affecting the network and associated devices adversely. Following are some of the management tasks to consider after deploying XDR:

Document the XDR access control list and formulate the advanced firewall rules
Adhere to the change management policy while changing XDR configurations
Monitor firewall logs and intrusion detection & prevention system (IDPS) events
Perform regular software updates and upgrades installed on appliances
Set up a robust incident response plan depending on business use cases

2. Perform configuration backup

Organizations must ensure that the current XDR configuration is backed up before making major changes. This should be done to avoid any possible misconfigurations. This can be achieved by utilizing the configuration backup and restore application along with the bare-metal backup application. Moreover, companies can also consider taking an encrypted backup of XDR configurations. This practice enhances the secrecy of the configurations by adding an extra security layer. Configuration backup and restore applications can be used for taking encrypted configuration backups.

3. Adopt a role-based administration policy for XDR

An â€˜administrator application’ can be used to create a robust, role-based XDR administration policy. Through this, admins gain the power to ensure that certain areas of the XDR have restricted access and some users are given read/write access rights based on their designated roles. Additionally, the least privilege policy should be enforced to ensure that users are given access rights depending on their core functions.

4. Prevent single point of failure on the XDR network

XDR must actively use the â€˜high availability’ feature to ensure continuity of services, irrespective of the possible node failures in the network. This can be achieved by placing two firewalls where the configuration of primary XDR is in sync with secondary XDR, which will prevent a single point of failure on the network.

Moreover, enterprises should focus on improving the overall quality of the service by ensuring that the resources at hand are available 24/7.

5. Follow a change management policy

Change management policy here refers to a formal process followed and implemented to make changes to the XDR configurations. This implies that XDR administrators should know the latest software versions available for upgrades.

Also, it is recommended to have the automatic update feature enabled as it would allow automatic integration of the XDR appliance with the available feature release, which can improve or optimize XDR functionality.

6. Identify unknown or rogue devices connected to the network

A standard process to identify and revoke unknown or rogue devices connected to the network should be followed. One way to achieve this is to scan the XDR network regularly and map all the devices by assigning them nicknames through the network map application. This allows the administrator to easily identify a new device as it would fall under the unmapped device category of the network map application.

7. Formulate a robust internet gateway security policy

It is crucial to configure a comprehensive internet gateway security policy on the XDR network as it minimizes the ability of hackers to attack the network. This reduces the network intrusion possibility, and if at all a breach occurs, the attacker can be tracked down effectively.

Therefore, best practices should be followed to configure and implement the internet gateway security policy. Following steps can be considered while implementing security policies:

Identify & block malicious applications on the network: This can be achieved by using XDR features such as application whitelisting, which use application-based rules to block any malicious application and permit access to only whitelisted applications.
Secure the email gateway: Users behind the XDR system can be protected from email-related attacks such as phishing by configuring the email scanning gateway application.
Scan the XDR directories for malware: This can be accomplished by using a malware file scanner app that scans various directories of the XDR for malware.
Anti-phishing application: This application protects users from sites known to steal credentials and spread malware.

8. Segregate the XDR network into different zones

Network segregation is essential to ensure that attackers do not view the entire network as vulnerable. In turn, it restricts access to confidential information, credentials, services, and hosts. The XDR network should be segregated into various zones, where any internet-facing server lies in a separate zone than the LAN network. Moreover, further segmenting LAN zones into subnets can make the network even more secure.

9. Formulate a comprehensive internet usage policy

A comprehensive internet usage policy makes users in the XDR network aware of the appropriate use of company assets. This can further be enhanced by exercising the web and protocol filtering capabilities of XDR.

Following web and protocol filtering settings can be considered for the best XDR output:

Global exception IPs: This enables administrators to quickly permit certain IPs and exclude them from different block categories.
Global banned IPs: Here, the content filter blocks certain host IPs from accessing the internet.
Blacklisting website categories: This allows XDR administrators to blacklist websites associated with specific subjects such as abortion or alcohol.
Blocking content consisting of specific phrases: This can be enabled to filter relevant browsing content.
Blocking specific file extensions: This content filtering feature reduces the chances of malicious codes and viruses from being downloaded by the end users of the XDR network.

10. Â Implement advanced firewall rules

Organizations should set up advanced firewall rules under â€˜deny all traffic’ and â€˜permit-by-exception’ categories. Following factors can be considered on a case-by-case basis:

Risk assessment of incoming & outgoing network traffic: Risk analysis should be practiced for each permitted incoming and outgoing data flow.
Permit rules specific to IPs and ports: Permit rules specific to ports (TCP/UDP), and IP addresses should be formulated.
Firewall audit: XDR administrators should audit advanced firewall rules at regular intervals. This can be useful to identify unused rules and subsequently erase them.
Firewall rule logging: It is recommended to log all firewall rules as it aids in auditing and network activity monitoring.
Group firewall rules: Firewall rules should be classified under groups from WAN to LAN and LAN to WAN. This prevents human error and simplifies the administration of these firewalls.

See More: Is Extended Detection and Response (XDR) the Ultimate Foundation of Cybersecurity Infrastructure?

Takeaway

The future of XDR looks bright, as a 2021 report by MarketResearch predicts that the global XDR market is slated to expand at a triple-digit growth rate over the coming decades. This prediction reflects how XDR benefits organizations and their ongoing security efforts.

XDR offers greater visibility in the organizational network and helps in breaking down security silos. It allows organizations to visualize the entire attack chain and quickly respond to them. Companies can readily use this knowledge to build playbooks that can help automate key processes designed to combat complex threats.

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