What is XDR?

XDR is designed to help security teams:

  • Identify threats that are highly sophisticated or hidden
  • Track threats across multiple system components
  • Improve detection and response speed
  • Investigate threats more effectively and efficiently

XDR was developed as an alternative to point security solutions which were limited to only one security layer, or could only perform event correlation without response. It is the evolution of solutions like endpoint detection and response (EDR) and network traffic analysis (NTA).

While still useful, these layer-specific tools tend to generate greater volumes of alerts, require more time to investigate and respond to events, and require more maintenance and management. In contrast, XDR consolidates tooling and enables security teams to work more effectively and efficiently.

This is part of an extensive series of guides about cybersecurity.

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