Why Switching from Endpoint Protection to XDR is Important?

Why Switching from Endpoint Protection to XDR is Important?

As the number of devices accessing business data grows in this new remote workforce culture, Security Operation Centers (SOCs) are struggling to keep security intact. Disparate control points and tools are making security teams inefficient. This increase in the endpoints enables the attackers to penetrate and move in the network laterally without being detected. Hence, there is a need to move beyond standard endpoint protection towards what is known as XDR – eXtended Detection and Response. But before delving deeper into why the move is necessary, let’s dig into what these approaches individually mean.

What is Endpoint Protection?

Endpoint protection (EPP) is a security solution that aims to detect standards and known risks, such as file-less attacks, zero-day vulnerabilities, etc. This means that EPP works on signature-based protection. It monitors endpoints in real-time to detect suspicious behavior and respond to threats. A standard endpoint protection platform typically consists of the following four protection:

• Web Control
• App control
• Device control
• Anti-virus

Using these pillars, an EPP solution helps provide deep visibility into a single endpoint for enhanced threat mitigation.

Peeking into Advantages, Disadvantages, and Limitations of Endpoint Protection

Just like every other network security approach and tool, endpoint protection has its set of advantages, disadvantages, and limitations.

Advantages

• Enhanced visibility: Since this solution monitors each endpoint, it adds an extra layer of visibility to quickly detect and respond to known threats.
• Simplified patch management: Patching vulnerabilities can lead to a 30% increased downtime. Through constant monitoring, endpoint protection can facilitate the patching process and help troubleshoot any vulnerabilities.
• Data protection: Most modern-day endpoint protection solutions offer data loss prevention by preventing data transfer from or to unapproved endpoints.

Disadvantages and Limitations

• Signature-Based: EPP takes a signature-based approach, meaning it can only detect known threats. While it provides enhanced endpoint monitoring, it cannot detect and respond to unknown threats, which is a must as cyber attackers are constantly innovating new ways to penetrate a network.
• Cannot detect and respond: EPPs do not leverage AI and ML functionalities to detect adversary behaviors. Furthermore, if the protection fails and an attacker penetrates a device, EPPS cannot respond by isolating the devices or killing the processes. Hence, EPPs lack detection and responding capabilities.
• Limits scalability: Endpoint protection focuses only on mitigating known risks. Hence, it limits scaling the solutions to the current ecosystem where the remote workforce is the new norm.
• Lack of connectivity: Many endpoint solutions cannot be deployed on IoT devices, making them easily vulnerable.
• Increases complexity: Endpoint protection solutions add another tool to an already overloaded security stack consisting of Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), antivirus, and other tools.
  Narrow view: EPP offers an in-depth view of endpoints but cannot provide relevant information about network-level events or other security tools for a context-based response.

XDR: The Future of Endpoint Security

Extended Detection and Response (XDR) is a next-generation end-to-end cybersecurity solution that is not limited to the endpoint but goes beyond and protects the entire IT infrastructure, including endpoint, firewall, network, routers, cloud, etc. It extends the concept of Endpoint Detection Response (EDR) and SIEM to bring together data across systems to integrate security visibility throughout the organization. This leads to having a single pane of glass for security inspections. It further enables your IT team to monitor and detect any suspicious activities across the environment.

The IT infrastructure is growing complex, with remote employees accessing business data through smartphones, personal computers, a vast array of cloud-based tools, and other devices. XDR provides a context across all these endpoints and tools so that cybersecurity experts can connect dots for quick and enhanced threat detection and response.

Advantages and Disadvantages of XDR

Here’s a list of the benefits and drawbacks of using XDR.

Advantages

• Increased Connectivity: XDR solutions go beyond endpoints to combine data across multiple touchpoints to provide the necessary context.
• Secures Everything: As XDR is not limited to endpoints, it secures everything that an attacker can exploit, be it the endpoints, cloud, network, or anything else. Also, with more context, your IT team can quickly identify and respond to threats that wouldn’t have been detected with EPP or even EDR solutions.
• Unified Platform: XDR platforms offer a unified view rather than having different tools and operating them individually. Thus, deploying, scaling, and managing the platform becomes hassle-free.
• Lower Costs: Since XDR has a single source view and analysis, it reduces the total cost of ownership.
  Security orchestration: Almost all XDR solutions leverage AI and ML capabilities to orchestrate and automate repetitive tasks. This increases productivity while ensuring most suspicious behaviors are flagged and triggered quickly.

Disadvantages

• Limited Protection: XDR solutions are limited to only protection, detection, and response. This means that you still need other tools for compliance and awareness, thereby increasing the stack complications.
• Compliance Regulations: XDR solutions do not provide any compliance regulation or cloud security assessment features. For instance, they do not offer Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) assessment capabilities, an essential part of a cloud security strategy. CSPM enables assessing and managing everything pertaining to security risks and compliance across the cloud infrastructure.
• Choosing the Right Fit: XDR varies depending on a multitude of different features and functionalities. Hence, selecting the right fit for your organization becomes a challenge.
• Vendor Selection: Finding a suitable vendor who has expertise across all the XDR features can be hectic considering the vast array of functionalities of the solution.

Why Move From Endpoint Protection to XDR?

Covid-19 pushed organizations and the workforce to go remote. Moreover, Gartner predicts that almost half of the employees will continue to work remotely post the pandemic. With this in mind, businesses are trying to find a security solution that can enhance risk detection and response, and XDR seems to be the best fit. In fact, moving to XDR is the most significant trend in today’s security landscape. Considering the extensive benefits of XDR over standard EPP solutions, it does not come as a surprise.

Here are a few differences between EPP and XDR that will clarify the need for this journey.

How is SharkStriker’s XDR Different and Effective from Others?

The core focus of all XDR solutions is to extend detection and response functionalities. However, not all XDR solutions are the same. They can vary significantly based on the features, algorithms used, and other capabilities. For instance, you need to have a specific vendor’s firewall for some XDRs to work efficiently. On the other hand, Open XDRs can seamlessly integrate with your existing firewall, network switches, and the entire infrastructure. This enables quick deployment for reduced hidden costs and optimal security.

Due to the diversity of XDR solutions, it is essential to choose a solution wisely. While XDR solutions provide extended protection, they are still limited to protection, detection, and response. This is where SharkStriker’s XDR stands out from the rest. Here’s how our XDR solution differs from others.

• Our XDR solution goes beyond traditional XDRs by addressing compliance and assessment limitations through our ORCA (Observe, Response, Compliance, and Awareness) approach. Hence, our XDR becomes a one-stop solution for all your cybersecurity requirements.
• Our solution is an Open XDR that can be seamlessly integrated with any existing tools from any vendor across data touchpoints for enhanced threat Intel collection.
• A vast array of features ranging from machine accelerated threat hunting to 24/7 incident management to managed SIEM to vulnerability management and more.
• We offer fully managed services with 24/7 monitoring and not just the XDR so that our clients do not have to bother about security.
• SharkStriker’s XDR is a cloud-native product and comes with a cloud-managed platform. Thus, you don’t even have to install or make changes to your existing hardware infrastructure.
• Our XDR is built for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) as it is entirely white-labeled. This means that MSPs can leverage our XDR to offer security to their clients and take the credit while we happily do all the hard work in the backend.

The world is making a move to XDR solutions. It’s time to act fast before your organization becomes an easy target to the cyber attackers out there, constantly looking for opportunities to exploit networks. SharkStriker’s cloud-based XDR allows you to easily incorporate the solution into your existing infrastructure without any need for technical expertise.