Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) is one of the most common security solutions enterprises employ. As the name implies, it is used to protect endpoint devices and entails continuous monitoring and rapid response to cyber threats. It is designed to provide protection against hacking attempts and data theft.

EDR is a level higher than traditional antivirus (AV) protection developed partly because of weaknesses in standard AV solutions. Back in 2014, a Symantec study found that traditional AVs were essentially 49 percent ineffective. That's why businesses started adopting EDR solutions.

However, EDR is remotely foolproof. It also comes with disadvantages and weak spots. The use of Cross-Layered Detection and Response, or XDR, therefore merits consideration.

The disadvantages of EDR

To be clear, EDR is by no means a weak or irrelevant security system. Security firms have developed ways to make it better by integrating artificial intelligence, automation, and other technologies. A BitDefender whitepaper refers to it as a key instrument for incident management. "An endpoint protection platform will fight against the first four phases (exploitation) of the attack kill chain," the paper writes.

Still, EDR does not cover all cyber threats, especially emerging ones that incorporate creative ways to breach established security systems or take advantage of EDR's weaknesses. For one, EDR is known to generate massive amounts of data. As it strives to enable increased visibility, it produces large volumes of alerts, notifications, and details for security analysts to work with. This causes a scalability problem. It is difficult to sustain it as an organization grows.

Additionally, the abundant information generated by EDR results in the need for more time, resources, and effort for security analysis. It also means more bandwidth requirements. Relying on such a system can be costly without the full guarantee that all threats are prevented.

Moreover, classic EDR requires cloud connectivity. The system does not reside natively in the endpoint devices. As such, there are possible delays in protecting the endpoints it is designed to defend. A fraction of a second delay can be enough for an attack to compromise a machine, steal data, and remove traces of the attack.

Extending EDR into XDR

Also referred to as Extended Detection and Response, XDR is a security solution that goes beyond the capabilities of EDR. It notably increases the effectiveness of a security system's detection and response.

A study commissioned by Trend Micro notes that EDR tools are powerful as far as the aggregation and analysis of endpoint activity is concerned. It provides significant improvements over standard antiviruses and cloud-delivered Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), but it is not enough to tackle advanced new threats. "While security analysts use EDR tools daily to investigate threats and hunt for not-yet-identified threats already underway,

EDR tools alone aren't enough for most security teams," the study writes.

The use of an advanced XDR platform makes sense for enterprises whose security teams are overwhelmed by the information generated by their EDR systems. It also gathers vast amounts of information, but it employs automation and machine learning to contextualize data and sort out the most important details security analysts should be paying attention to. It provides a unified interface that enables complete security visibility and automated responses to attain full protection.

XDR solutions are designed to integrate various threat prevention technologies to prevent all kinds of attacks across different possible sources or exploitable areas. Some XDR systems draw from the strengths of next-gen antiviruses (NGAV), network analytics, user behavior analytics (UBA), deception detection algorithms, as well as EDR. 

Some would say that the ultimate outcome of doing this integration is similar to using multiple security solutions, but XDR is different in its seamless coordination of key security controls and the near-native combination of detection and response strategies.

Need for speed

An ESG whitepaper entitled The Need for Speed: Second Generation EDR suggests that XDR is a step up for EDR. "As EDR solutions mature, new detection and response solutions known as XDR are emerging, bringing together telemetry from endpoint, network, cloud, and email," the paper reads.

Through a chart, the whitepaper characterizes XDR cross-vector correlation as a security method that harnesses full automation and extended telemetry. It is a notable improvement over all versions of EDR, which already utilize automated detection and remediation as well as custom forensics.

Speed sums up the gap between EDR and XDR. The former does an excellent job detecting threats on endpoints, but it generates extensive amounts of information security teams are barely able to catch up to. The latter delivers faster detection and response with the help of artificial intelligence and automation. 

XDR employs AI to correlate information gathered from across multiple security layers and examine their context. By doing this, security alerts are identified so automated actions are implemented whenever applicable. Also, this contextualization makes it easy to sort security alerts and information, helping security analysts spot the most important concerns and provide the appropriate solutions without delays.

Conclusion

Enterprise IT systems are becoming more complex and difficult to manage. To protect these systems, security teams need to be knowledgeable and fast. The complexity and deluge of security information are not doing security teams any favor, even allowing cyber attackers to spot opportunities for their schemes to penetrate. XDR offers a viable solution to address the weaknesses of standard security systems including EDR.