EDR vs. XDR vs. SIEM vs. MDR vs. SOAR

What is EDR (endpoint detection and response)?

Endpoint detection and response (EDR) is a security tool that detects, investigates, and responds to threats in endpoint environments. It’s intended to compensate for threats that bypass traditional preventative tooling such as firewalls and next-gen antivirus solutions.

EDR works on the endpoint like an always-on camcorder, recording all relevant behavior to detect malicious and anomalous behaviors. Customers who effectively leverage EDR tooling can gain extensive visibility into their endpoint activity. This visibility is accomplished by monitoring process and file system activity, registry changes on Windows systems, network connections, user activity, driver and kernel level events, and behavior and heuristic-based patterns. Some EDR tools also give visibility into memory and script execution from PowerShell, WMI, or JavaScript. 

The term EDR was coined in 2013 by Anton Chuvakin, a former vice president and security analyst at Gartner who is now a security product strategist. EDR was created to compensate for the inability of older antivirus software and EPPs (endpoint protection platforms) to completely thwart threats.

Because of the evolving threat landscape and the explosion of sophisticated attack methodologies, EDR has become a need-to-have instead of a nice-to-have. EDR’s primary use case is to provide visibility into endpoint behavior and detect and respond to sophisticated endpoint attacks.

What is XDR (extended detection and response)?

XDR (extended detection and response) is security tooling that aims to extend the coverage limitations found in EDR tools to identify, investigate, and respond to advanced threats that originate from various sources, including the cloud, networks, and email. XDR tooling often combines an organization’s existing security solutions into a single security system.

An XDR tool collects raw telemetry data from a variety of technologies, including cloud apps, email security, identity, and access control. It integrates data from across these different security planes to improve threat visibility and reduce the time required to detect and respond to an attack.

XDR is a relatively new cybersecurity concept compared to EDR, and was developed to help IT professionals sort through the flood of security alerts and detect threats more quickly across a growing number of security feeds. The inability of traditional security technologies like EDR to detect, correlate, and respond to threats that spanned across multiple vectors prompted the development of XDR.

In today’s cybersecurity environment, most EDR tools have matured to have XDR capabilities, and many have been renamed XDR to reflect this change. XDR is recognized as a critical technique for providing adequate coverage against complex threats. 

What is SIEM (security information and event management)?

SIEM, or security information and event management, is a tool that assists security organizations in identifying, assessing, and responding to security threats by consolidating and connecting multiple security feeds. It is a security management system that integrates security event management (SEM) and security information management (SIM).

SIEM is intended to increase visibility for a security team, allowing teams to respond to perceived events and security incidents more efficiently by stitching together events from different data sources that may traverse multiple teams. 

Early in the millennium, businesses recognized the need for a more comprehensive security solution capable of managing the massive amounts of data produced by their systems. This is when SIEM first emerged. Today’s typical business generates far too much data to manage manually.

A modest SIEM system can generate 1,500 events per second from up to 300 event sources. Because it provides a centralized view of all security-related data, a SIEM solution is an effective tool for security teams to monitor systems and report on suspicious activity.

This facilitates identifying threats and taking action. SIEM tools also offer forensic investigation and compliance reporting capabilities, both of which are essential for incident response and compliance.

What is next-gen SIEM?

Next-gen SIEM is the next step in SIEM tooling. It’s an advanced security information and event management system that goes beyond traditional log collection and correlation. Leveraging machine learning, User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA), and integrated SOAR capabilities, it can detect sophisticated threats faster and automate response. Most next-gen SIEMs are built for cloud, hybrid, and on-prem environments, offering high scalability, real-time threat intelligence, and intuitive investigation tools through a single pane of glass. These tools can be found in many modern security operations centers (SOCs).

What is MDR (managed detection and response)?

MDR (managed detection and response) is a cybersecurity service that can be offered by a managed security service provider (MSSP) or security tooling vendor. MDR is typically a combination of technology, processes, and people that collaborate to detect and respond to cyber threats.

MDR tools and services are designed to provide continuous cybersecurity threat protection, detection, and response. They employ a range of technologies like machine learning to investigate, alert on, and contain cyber threats at scale. Types of coverage and involvement of the managed service is dictated by agreed-upon SLAs (service level agreements). 

Organizations that utilize an MDR service are essentially able to outsource some of their security center roles and responsibilities and gain 24/7 coverage. This can be helpful for organizations that don’t have or can’t afford the specialized teams needed to gain comparable coverage for their environment.

MDR can be traced back to the mid-2010s, when organizations began to recognize the need for comprehensive security solutions capable of dealing with the increasing sophistication of cyber threats. According to a report by ResearchAndMarkets.com, the global MDR market is expected to grow to USD 5.6 billion by 2027.

MDR has become an essential service for many organizations because it provides a proactive approach to threat detection and response, assists organizations in quickly identifying and mitigating threats, provides ongoing monitoring, and responds to cyber threats in real time. It is also a cost-effective solution for organizations because it does not necessitate additional specialized staffing, and can enable current team members to focus on other priority initiatives. 

What is SOAR (security orchestration, automation, and response)?

SOAR (security orchestration, automation, and response) is a tool that helps security teams orchestrate their various security systems to work together. SOAR tools also help teams automate repetitive and often time-intensive tasks like alert triage, enrichment, and simple response actions. These tools can also be effective in coordinating and executing response actions to eradicate or confine threats inline with established and predefined workflows.

SOAR tools are often used to improve the speed and efficiency of security operations. SOAR tooling can also enable task coordination, execution, and automation between different individuals, teams, and tools within a single platform. It can be summarized as the technology used to accelerate repetitive and predefined workflows to improve efficiency and reduce risk. 

SOAR has gained traction in the cybersecurity industry because it provides a streamlined way to accelerate incident management, reducing the need for manual procedures and various technologies. SOAR allows enterprises to easily plan, track, and report on incident management activities, which also improves incident response times and overall security posture.

What are the key differences between EDR, XDR, SIEM, next-gen SIEM, MDR, and SOAR?

SIEM, SOAR, XDR, EDR, and MDR are all cybersecurity tools that aim to provide better outcomes for the security center. However, the features and capabilities of these solutions differ significantly.

EDR solutions are designed to collect and correlate endpoint activity to detect, analyze, and respond to security threats in a traditional environment. They are primarily used for identifying and responding to threats on endpoints such as computers and on-premises servers to improve incident response time, as well as for forensic investigation.

XDR is the natural progression of EDR. XDR’s capabilities extend beyond typical endpoints to expand visibility. It can offer detection, analytics, and response capabilities across endpoints, networks, servers, and some cloud workloads. This can provide a more inclusive view of multiple attack paths through a single pane of glass. The primary functions of XDR include threat detection, analysis, and response capabilities.

SIEM solutions collect, aggregate, analyze, and store large volumes of log data from across multiple feeds. They are typically used for compliance, threat detection, and security incident management. SIEM is known for its broad approach, as it can collect data from almost any source across the enterprise to be stored for several use cases.

Where traditional SIEMs primarily focus on log aggregation and rule-based alerting, next-gen SIEMs incorporate machine learning, behavioral analytics, and cloud-native scalability for more intelligent and comprehensive threat detection. While SOAR platforms focus on automating response workflows, next-gen SIEMs unify detection, investigation, and response in one platform, often including SOAR capabilities natively.

MDR, or managed detection and response, is a cybersecurity service that is typically offered by a managed security service provider (MSSP) or other security tooling vendor. By combining technology and human expertise to perform threat hunting, monitoring, and response, MDR can provide a unique cybersecurity solution. An MDR service can allow customers to outsource the detection and response of security incidents to a third-party provider, allowing for 24/7 detection and response.

SOAR solutions are designed to allow organizations to automate and streamline many workflows of their incident response and security operations processes. They can receive data from their SIEM or security tools and automatically initiate workflows. They are typically used to coordinate and execute tasks between different teams, tools, and platforms. The SOAR capabilities that some SIEM solutions do not have include:

• Automated response: Some SOAR tools can automatically invoke investigation path workflows and shorten the time it takes to resolve alerts, where some SIEM tools require manual intervention from an analyst to determine whether further steps are required.
• Orchestration: SOAR can orchestrate and automate tasks across multiple security tools and systems, allowing businesses to streamline their incident response process. Some SIEM tools primarily focus on the collection and analysis of log data.

In summary, SOAR is used to automate and improve the efficiency of security tasks. XDR provides an extended view from what is visible with EDR. EDR’s primary focus is endpoint security. MDR is a service that can provide ongoing cybersecurity threat detection and response. SIEM is primarily used for signal aggregation and threat detection, compliance, and incident management.

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