[eBook] 7 Signs You Might Need a New Detection and Response Tool

It’s natural to get complacent with the status quo when things
seem to be working. The familiar is comfortable, and even if
something better comes along, it brings with it many unknowns.

In cybersecurity, this tendency is countered by the fast pace of
innovation and how quickly technology becomes obsolete, often
overnight.

This combination usually results in one of two things –
organizations make less than ideal choices about the software and
tools they’re adding, or security leaders simply cannot stay
abreast of new developments and opt to stay put with their existing
stack.

The problem is that once you let one update pass you by, you’re
suddenly miles behind. A new eBook from XDR provider Cynet
(download here^[1]) offers insights into
factors that are clear signs organizations need to upgrade their
detection and response tools to stay with the times.

The eBook highlights several factors and questions that
companies can ask themselves to determine whether they are okay
with the level of security they have, or if they should upgrade
their detection and response capabilities.

Looking for signs

There’s a variety of reasons why an organization’s detection and
response tools might need a refresh, ranging from the critical to
the less obvious.

One of the first signs, however, is clear for most organizations
– the number of alerts they must sift through daily.

Today’s security stacks produce thousands of alerts daily,
forcing many teams to pick and choose which they can investigate
and for how long. As a result, critical alerts are prioritized, but
they only make up a small percentage of the total amount.

Ideally, an organization should explore every alert – even the
false positives. The inability to cope with alerts, or simply
reduce the number of alerts, is a clear indicator that
organizations should upgrade their security stack.

The eBook also takes aim at security stacks and tools that
require dozens of add-ons and extensions to operate adequately.

For many organizations, installing and setting up a new EDR
includes the process of finding the extensions that offer the tools
necessary. Even worse, in some cases, add-ons are required simply
to provide baseline services. On the other hand, the eBook argues,
XDRs come set up out of the box to provide all the tools and
features necessary to offer full functionality.

Some of the other signs you might need a new detection and
response tool include:

• If only one person knows how to operate and manage an
  organization’s EDR. Large security stacks have steep
  learning curves, and most organizations don’t have the skills or
  resources to devote to training a whole team. So, a single person
  gets appointed to manage and orchestrate the security strategy.
  This is problematic for several reasons and is a key indicator a
  simplified tool such as an XDR can help.
• If your existing EDR suddenly claims to have upgraded
  to XDR, without any notable changes. A side effect of a
  rapidly evolving industry is that every vendor wants to hop on the
  next big thing – in this case, XDR. Therefore, many vendors will
  claim to offer XDR or “XDR-like” capabilities without actually
  offering a noticeable improvement or even added functionality.
• If you look longingly at deception technology, but
  can’t afford it. Some tools are still not quite
  necessities, but they’re valuable assets to have. The problem, as
  is the case with deception technology, is that it’s costly and
  complicated to set up. On the other hand, a solution that has it
  included natively offers significant benefits.

You can learn more about indicators of whether you need a new
detection and response tool here.^[2]