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XDR: The Secret to Highly Effective Managed Detection and Response (MDR) Services

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Even the most sophisticated extended detection and response (XDR) system can benefit with help from human experts.

Security talent is expensive, especially in the current job market. Companies across all industries are struggling to hire and hold on to talented employees. The cost and scarcity of security specialists has made it so half of all organizations cannot afford to keep a full in-house Security Operations (SecOps) team.

Your organization may hope that sophisticated automation and threat intelligence tools can mostly replace your IT staff. Sadly, that assumption does not hold up to scrutiny. Enterprise security is complicated and all tools need to be configured and maintained by human specialists.

Fortunately, your company can easily benefit from both human expertise and sophisticated threat remediation technology without the costs associated with in-house IT staff.

In fact, an XDR solution works best when complemented by managed detection and response (MDR) outsourced to security experts who can take care of your company’s SecOps at a fraction of the cost.

By combining XDR and MDR into one comprehensive approach, your organization’s cybersecurity can benefit in 5 simple ways:

  1. Respond to Threats Across Data Sources
  2. Automate Threat Detection
  3. Complement Human Expertise
  4. Customize Security to Your Organization’s Needs
  5. Leverage Integrations to Improve Threat Remediation

1. Respond to Threats Across Data Sources

Traditional Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) platforms are slow, clunky, and not build to handle modern threats.

Without proper contextual information, your security analysts can’t evaluate security incidents quickly, let alone in real time. These delays could create significant financial losses for your organization, as it’s estimated that an average cyber attack costs the affected company $2.4 million.

XDR solves this issue by integrating security-related information across your company’s entire infrastructure to create a full picture of any risks you might be facing. A member of your MDR partner’s team can then leverage those connections between data logs to trace any alerts to their source and help you resolve core vulnerabilities.

2. Automate Threat Detection

Over two-thirds of alerts are never investigated, because security teams simply don’t have the time.

Instead, with XDR you can take advantage of sophisticated machine learning to respond to threats a lot quicker. An experienced MDR partner can assist you in identifying the parts of your cybersecurity system that could be automated for real-time threat detection and remediation.

Once configured, automation tools can learn from previous investigations and provide relevant suggestions to your MDR analysts, removing repetitive tasks off their plate and helping them protect your enterprise even more efficiently.

3. Complement Human Expertise

To stay ahead of attackers, your organization has to take advantage of the full cybersecurity toolkit available to you. With a combination of XDR automating your threat response and human MDR analysts ensuring that those automations actually work to protect you, your business can minimize any potential cyber risk.

4. Customize Security to Your Organization’s Needs

With MDR, human analysts ultimately filter and control your threat response program, so you can rest knowing that your business assets are in safe hands.

After all, even the most sophisticated automated tools cannot account for every unique factor affecting your cybersecurity needs. Your MDR partner can conduct a comprehensive security assessment based on your organization’s industry, size, risk tolerance, and existing technology.

5. Leverage Integrations to Improve Threat Remediation

Improve attack surface visibility by combining multiple security tools, building up from the technology that you already use.

Fully automated systems tend to be more one-size-fits-all, so any pre-built integrations could lack important functionality for your organization. On the other hand, a human specialist can incorporate your unique needs and risk tolerance into a custom configuration to help you take full advantage of any tool within your XDR system.

Protect Your Business with The Best of Both Worlds

Even if you can’t afford to maintain an in-house SecOps team, you don’t have to choose between human experts and sophisticated automation.

By outsourcing your cyber program management to a reputable MDR provider, you can enjoy the best of both worlds.

If you’d like to see how a combination of MDR and XDR can improve your cyber maturity, please contact Pareto Cyber’s team. We will be happy to help you with your security operations.

 

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