Enterprises encounter complex security challenges as the threat landscape continues to evolve. Extended detection and response is a software-as-a-service tool that provides a comprehensive view of an organization's security posture by collecting data from multiple sources and then using the collected data to detect and respond to threats. It provides robust protection and extensive visibility with features for threat prevention, detection, analysis, and remediation.

Is XDR necessary?

Enterprises need unified and proactive security measures to safeguard their digital assets, from legacy endpoints to mobile, network, and cloud workloads. Security teams struggle to keep threats under control when using disconnected tools and data sets from too many vendors. An XDR solution unifies threat data, enabling more efficient threat investigation and response.

XDR software detects and responds to threats across the entire attack surface instead of being limited to a specific area or device. It applies automated or manual actions to contain, investigate, and remediate the threat. It can also perform endpoint health checks, returning affected digital assets to a safe state by enacting healing actions like removing malicious forwarding rules or identifying compromised users in an organization's directory.

Outlined below are the top 5 best XDR software in 2024.

1 Wazuh

Overview

Wazuh is a free, open source, and enterprise-ready SIEM and XDR solution. It offers various capabilities such as threat detection, incident response, File Integrity Monitoring (FIM), regulatory compliance, and more. Wazuh is specifically developed to improve your organization's overall security posture and safeguard your IT assets. It values transparency, collaboration, and innovation, as it protects workloads across various environments, including; on-premises, virtualized, containerized, and cloud-based. Wazuh ensures threat detection and remediation at no cost, through the use of multi-platform security agents that collect security and runtime event data.

The Wazuh XDR solution aids regulatory compliance, avoiding costly fines and penalties. It supports compliance standards like PCI DSS, HIPAA, TSC, NIST 800-53, and GDPR. It can be customized to meet the specific requirements of organizations, providing users with greater flexibility and control over their environment. It also integrates with a wide range of security solutions, extending its threat detection capability for an effective security ecosystem.

Wazuh distinguishes itself by charging only for special support services and not for the software license. Users can interact with product developers and other users via multiple community channels where they access complimentary support services. These channels comprise Wazuh internal developers, users, and contributors.

Wazuh also provides automatic updates and health checks through the Wazuh cloud service so that customers no longer have to be concerned about maintaining the infrastructure. With more than 20 million annual downloads, it plays a crucial role in safeguarding organizations of various scales, ranging from SMBs to large enterprises.

Key features

Threat hunting

Wazuh maps detected events to the relevant tactics, techniques, and procedures used by attackers according to the MITRE ATT&CK framework, making it easier to identify potential threats. Analysts can investigate threats that may have bypassed initial security controls through log data analysis. Analysts can also create custom rule sets to target specific Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) and improve security operations effectively.

Behavioral analysis

Wazuh identifies security threats by monitoring system anomalies, such as changes in file integrity and user behavior, with advanced analytics.

Threat intelligence

Wazuh integrates with threat intelligence sources like OSINT (open source intelligence), commercial feeds, and user-contributed data to provide security teams with the most relevant information on potential threats. User-contributed data can be updated on a Wazuh Constant Database (CBD) list.

Incident response

Wazuh has an active response module that can quickly respond to incidents, reducing the average response time. Security teams can create custom actions based on their incident response plan. The Wazuh active response module helps to minimize the potential impact of threats on the infrastructure.

Cloud workload protection

Wazuh protects both native and hybrid cloud environments. Its advanced threat detection capabilities enable it to detect and respond to both existing and emerging threats, ensuring that your organization remains secure.

2 Sophos Intercept X

Overview

Sophos Intercept X offers multiple layers of security for a high level of protection against advanced attacks. It employs a comprehensive defense-in-depth approach to stop the broadest range of threats before they can disrupt operations and cause lasting damage. It contains powerful EDR and XDR tools that enable organizations to hunt, investigate, and respond to suspicious activity and indicators of attack.

Sophos provides cybersecurity solutions for real-world organizations to secure users, networks, and endpoints against a wide range of cyberattacks. Its platform is powered by threat intelligence, AI, and machine learning from SophosLabs and SophosAI. The company is the only vendor named a Gartner Customers' Choice in Endpoint Protection Platforms, Managed Detection & Response Services, Network Firewalls, and Mobile Threat Defense.

Intercept X, in particular, is the #1 rated malware detection engine, validated by third-party testing authorities. It can easily detect malware that slips by other endpoint security tools. It includes patented CryptoGuard technology to detect and stop ransomware, from new variants to local and remote ransomware attacks.

The XDR software also builds on the basic protection available in Microsoft Windows, adding 60 proprietary, pre-configured, and tuned exploit mitigations. It stops the techniques used throughout the attack chain to prevent file-less attacks and zero-day exploits.

Key Features

Malware Detection & Exploit Prevention

Powered by deep learning, Sophos Intercept X detects known and unknown malware without relying on signatures. It can also ward off evasive attackers and zero-day attacks in the network through exploit prevention. It blocks the exploit tools and techniques used to distribute malware, steal credentials, and escape detection.

Ransomware Protection

It utilizes behavioral analysis for ransomware protection. It leverages its CrypoGuard technology to stop and revert hijacked files without any interaction from the security team. It keeps track of remote computers and local processes that attempt to compromise documents and other files.

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

Sophos integrates EDR to complement the robust prevention-first approach of Intercept X. Security teams can detect more threats with AI-driven analysis, investigate further, and respond with confidence.

Streamlined Management

Organizations can focus on threat prevention, detection, and response instead of administration, thanks to Sophos' cloud-based management console. It features strong default policy settings, ensuring protection is already in place. The endpoint solution can also help identify and address security issues through the Account Health Check within the console.

Sophos Intercept X can block a broad range of attacks with tools for threat surface reduction, prevention, detection, investigation, and response. It supports Windows 7 and above and runs alongside third-party endpoint and antivirus products. It offers multiple layers of protection to stop advanced attacks across all devices before they impact the system.

3 Trend Vision One

Overview

Trend Vision One equips teams with powerful risk insights, threat detection, and automated risk and threat response options. It leverages predictive machine learning and advanced security analytics to provide a broader perspective and advanced context. It combines ASM (attack surface management) and XDR in a single console to manage cyber risk across cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments.

It delivers a broad native XDR sensor coverage, providing richer activity telemetry across security layers with full context and understanding. The hybrid approach results in an earlier, more precise risk and threat detection and more efficient investigation. Security teams can develop more proactive and resilient programs with in-depth coverage across the attack surface risk management lifecycle.

Key Features

Predictive Risk Insights

Risk insights deliver a single source for teams across the organization to observe and evaluate the entire IT environment at varying and appropriate levels of detail. It offers central visibility into attack surface inventory, cyber risk score, vulnerable assets, operations efficiency, predicted impact, and recommended remediation tactics.

Trend Vision One automatically measures and weighs different risk factors to predict potential gaps for exploitation. It can also automate and accelerate mitigation actions across people, processes, and technology.

Zero Trust Secure Access

In observance of zero trust principles, Trend Vision One can strengthen the overall security posture by enforcing strong access control permissions. It provides a gateway to specific applications and resources, restricting access to everything within the network not being employed by the user. It can contain the level of access of hackers when credentials are stolen, reducing the blast area of any attack.

Purpose-Built XDR

Trend Vision One becomes the single pane of glass to help teams detect, investigate, and respond to new and emerging threats like suspicious behavior, malware, ransomware, and disruption. It correlates data across multiple security layers, empowering teams to develop plans to reduce risk and improve key performance indicators.

4 SentinelOne Singularity XDR

Overview

SentinelOne Singularity XDR unifies and extends threat detection, investigation, and response capability across the organization, providing security teams with centralized end-to-end visibility, powerful analytics, and automated response across the technology stack. It empowers users to see data collected by disparate security solutions from all platforms within a single dashboard.

It delivers increased flexibility, automation, and simplicity with unparalleled scale to every environment based on the foundation of EPP (endpoint protection platform) and EDR. It can also seamlessly integrate with leading ecosystem vendors, with no coding, massive time investment in custom business logic, or complex configuration necessary.

Key Features

Accelerate Triage and Investigations

Singularity XDR provides campaign-level insight by enriching event data with context and intelligence from connected security tools. This enables users to correlate events across different vectors to facilitate the triage of alerts as a single incident.

Analysts can automate elements of triage and uncover the cause of the breach. They get immediate visibility into suspicious privileged access before the endpoint infection; as a result, they can halt threats faster with insight into the privilege escalations paths and block them via attacks that can exploit them.

Automate Response Actions

Singularity XDR accelerates threat investigation and remediation recovery with automatic response actions, eliminating the need for manual intervention in resolving affected workloads and users. It can reverse unauthorized changes caused by malicious activity without complicated, human-driven scripts.

SentinelOne Singularity XDR can power future investigations with historical and real-time logs and data. It can provide visibility across the enterprise so users can achieve more coverage with unrivaled speed and efficiency, even resolving issues automatically to protect them from disruptions and other cyber-attacks.

5 CrowdStrike Falcon Insight XDR

Overview

CrowdStrike Falcon Insight XDR delivers enterprise-wide visibility, detects advanced threats, and responds automatically across the environment. It unifies third-party data sources across key attack surfaces, giving users comprehensive detection and response across third-party tools. It empowers analysts to detect, investigate, and respond at a fast speed with word class, embedded threat intelligence, and full MITRE ATT&CK mappings.

Key Features

Full Attack Visibility

Insight XDR can provide the complete picture of an attack for rapid decision-making. Users can conduct an enterprise-wide search across the endpoint estate since all key data sources are integrated. They can see details with complete cross-domain context to make informed decisions.

Simple, Fast, and Lightweight

It deploys a single lightweight agent in minutes. No reboot is required. It also features automated updates and a broad operating system to reduce the blindspots and operational complexity.

Industry-Leading Threat Intel

The CrowdStike XDR software also features built-in industry-leading threat intelligence to bolster detection and supercharge the security operations center (SOC). It offers a complete understanding of the threat and the adversary behind it.

Falcon Insight XDR improves threat visibility and situational awareness across the enterprise. Teams can create a cohesive and more effective cybersecurity ecosystem to protect their digital assets and stop breaches that siloed tools and legacy approaches often miss from one unified, threat-centric command console.

Conclusion

XDR offers a range of security benefits, from increased visibility to alert management and automated tasks. It is a proactive and unified solution to improve companies' security position. Allow faster threat detection and improved response times by choosing from the top 5 best XDR software in 2024. Gain full visibility across the system, including on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.