Cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated, and enterprise security teams are under constant pressure to improve and enhance their threat detection and response capabilities. But as security teams expand their security logging tools and capabilities, the burden of monitoring those tools and investigating alerts grows exponentially.

With so many overlapping and self-serving definitions of XDR (Extended Detection and Response), embracing the innovations in technology first require that we parse the alphabet soup. We agree with several industry analysts covering the space that XDR is a vendor push with no real customer demand, but the problem spaces within XDR are of significant customer interest. Consensus has emerged on a few XDR elements such as: cloud-native/SaaS, improved detection, and improved response.

We are excited to collaborate with IBM, which today unveils its new IBM z16 and LinuxONE Rockhopper 4 single frame and rack mount models, available globally on May 17, 2023. Powered by IBM’s Telum processor, these new configurations are designed for highly efficient data centers with sustainability in mind. CrowdStrike customers can make more effective use of their data center space while remaining resilient in the midst of ongoing global uncertainty.

Cybersecurity solutions have evolved from a basic investigation and discovery technology to behavioral analysis solutions that enable real-time detection and response. However, if they are to be truly effective, they must also protect against anomalous behavior that may seem harmless on its own, but after gaining a bigger picture by correlating and contextualizing detections, turns out to be an incident that needs to be responded to as soon as possible.

We have been talking about eXtended Detection and Response (XDR) for some years now, but despite being a buzzword in the industry, a fundamental question remains: what are we really talking about here? According to Gartner, which first defined the term in 2020, XDR is a vendor-specific threat detection and incident response tool that natively integrates multiple security products into a cohesive security operations system.

According to a Mandiant survey of 1,350 global business and IT leaders, when trying to secure their networks against cyber threats, nearly all respondents (96%) believe it’s important to understand the threat actors targeting their organizations. That’s hardly a surprise. But then there’s this finding: 79% of respondents say that most of the time, they make decisions about cyberattacks without insights into who could be targeting their organization.