In the world of threat detection and response, alert fatigue and tool sprawl are real problems. Security professionals are struggling to manage different tools and control points and still relying on manual processes, which results in security that is fragmented and reactive. Analysts need better visibility and control, more context, and better use of automation so they can cut through the noise and respond to threats faster and more effectively.

Extended Detection and Response (XDR) is the latest buzz word in the security industry and garnering significant attention. Industry analysts each have their own definition. Meanwhile, security vendors are quickly jumping on the bandwagon, recasting their products as XDR solutions. And it’s safe to assume many more will unveil XDR products in the months ahead.

We in cybersecurity just love new, buzzy acronyms. The latest is “XDR,” otherwise known as extended detection and response. No doubt, you’ve already read an article, watched a webinar, or listened to a podcast on XDR.

Elastic Security's newest features define the potential of XDR for cybersecurity teams. Our single platform brings together SIEM and endpoint security, allowing users to ingest and retain large volumes of data from diverse sources, store and search data for longer, and augment threat hunting with detections and machine learning. Security vendors are using the term “XDR” with increasing frequency, applying varied definitions to suit their respective technologies.

We are pleased to announce the general availability (GA) of Elastic 7.14, including our Elastic Enterprise Search, Observability, and Security solutions, which are built into the Elastic Stack — Elasticsearch and Kibana. Elastic 7.14 empowers organizations with the first free and open Limitless XDR, which delivers unified SIEM and endpoint security capabilities in one platform.

Let’s take a trip — back about eight years — when a Gartner analyst coined the term endpoint detection and response (EDR). He was describing security systems that both detect and investigate suspicious activities on computers and other devices and use automation to help security operations center (SOC) teams quickly identify and respond to threats. Since then, EDR has become a critical component of a modern security stack for organizations of all sizes.

It’s easy to get lost in product categories in security these days. And XDR (eXtended Detection and Response) is a new addition to the landscape, which makes people wonder – what exactly is that? We’ve previously held that XDR and SIEM are effectively the same thing, although many vendors and Gartner analysts would probably disagree.

On the heels of announcing the closing of $22.5 million in new financing as a result of strong performance in 2020, I’m proud of our team’s latest innovation that we’re announcing today, ThreatQ TDR Orchestrator is a new data-driven approach to SOAR and XDR that accelerates threat detection and response across disparate systems for more efficient and effective security operations.

XDR (Extended Detection and Response) is a new trend by large security vendors, and too often people find themselves asking “okay, what’s the difference with SIEM?”. According to Gartner, the main difference is that it is natively integrated with products, typically from the same vendor, which helps in providing better detection and response capabilities. But let’s take a look into what this means in practice.