Extended Detection and Response (XDR) is a cybersecurity technology that provides a holistic approach to threat detection and response. It collects data from various security tools across an organizations technology stack, including endpoints, networks, clouds, and applications, and applies analytics and automation to detect, analyze, hunt, and remediate threats. XDR improves on the capabilities of endpoint detection and response (EDR) systems by proactively identifying and collecting security threats and employing strategies to detect future cybersecurity threats. XDR is an alternative to reactive endpoint protection solutions, such as EDR and network traffic analysis (NTA) .

Key features of XDR include:

• Visibility: XDR provides extended visibility, analysis, and response across endpoints, networks, clouds, and applications.

• Detection: XDRs superior visibility allows it to sift through alerts and report on the ones that require a response. That same visibility allows it to create baselines of normal behavior within an environment to enable the detection of threats that leverage software, ports and protocols, and to investigate the origin of the threat in order to stop it from affecting other parts of the system.

• Response: XDR provides advanced threat detection and response capabilities, including automation to contain and remove threats.

XDR is an evolving security category that unifies threat prevention, detection, and response. It promises to consolidate multiple products into a cohesive, unified security incident detection and response system. XDR solutions bring a proactive approach to threat detection and response, allowing cybersecurity teams to identify hidden, stealthy, and sophisticated threats proactively and quickly.

Compared to EDR solutions, XDR takes a wider view, integrating data from endpoint, cloud, identity, and other solutions. EDR solutions do not offer integrations with other tools and data sources for full visibility, so they cannot provide holistic protection. Managed detection and response (MDR) services complement XDR by offering dedicated personnel and technology to improve the effectiveness of security operations in threat identification, investigations, and response.

In summary, XDR is a cybersecurity technology that provides a holistic approach to threat detection and response by collecting data from various security tools across...