Friends or Foes? Is Managed Detection & Response (MDR) the Same as eXtended Detection & Response (XDR)?

What are MDR capabilities?

Managed Detection & Response (MDR) is an outsourced cyber security service that provides complete visibility and threat monitoring to secure an organisation against cyber-attack. It focuses on identifying and responding to threats through an experienced Security Operations Centre (SOC) team.

MDR works by integrating Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), Network Detection and Response (NDR), and Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) capabilities to provide an all-in-one service. This approach ensures your complete IT estate is monitored and secured.

MDR provides

Actionable insights: Guidance on addressing threats and preventing future attacks.

Cost optimisation: Free up your internal team to focus on core business functions. An MDR service is usually also more cost-effective compared to an in-house security team as clients benefit from larger economies of scale.

Expert resource: Currently, there is a global shortage of highly skilled cyber security professionals making it difficult to attract and retain talent. With a needed growth rate of 12.6% per year to fill the gap and an actual growth rate of 8.7%, the skills gap is not closing anytime soon.

Scalability: An MDR solution can easily grow alongside your business.

Predictable pricing: Provides a simple monthly fee with no setup fees or hidden costs.

Built-in compliance regulation: Access to pre-built reports and dashboards that comply with all standard accreditations and regulations. This technology can highlight potential violations against industry standards.

Continuous monitoring: Ongoing oversight to detect and respond to threats.

What are XDR capabilities?

An eXtended Detection and Response (XDR) solution collects threat data from siloed security tools across an organisation’s infrastructure, including endpoints, clouds, networks, email, etc.

The XDR platform aggregates and correlates data from across the infrastructure to gain comprehensive visibility. This improves security operations and reduces threat risk. XDR tools analyse this data, prioritise potential threats according to their severity, and streamlines the information, delivering it to expert security teams who can take appropriate action. Essentially, XDR refers to tooling that provides a holistic approach to threat detection, response, and mitigation.

XDR provides

A diverse, multi-domain security solution: Addresses threats across various areas of the infrastructure.

Threat detection: XDR can detect in-progress cyber threats using machine learning and behavioural analysis.

Actionable insights: Provides recommendations for actions based on industry standards and compliance.

Threat response: Automated threat investigation and response to help analysts employ the best techniques to eliminate threats.

Improved productivity: AI automation simplifies human workload and eliminates unnecessary tasks.

So, what is the difference between MDR and XDR?

With MDR you have a team of experts securing your organisation. An MDR provider takes full responsibility for investigating and responding to threats accordingly. XDR, on the other hand, provides visibility and threat detection through data ingestion, providing alerts and insights to an inhouse security team.

Both MDR and XDR offer quick and streamlined responses to threat detection and mitigation. A fundamental distinction between the two is that MDR provides security services. In contrast, XDR is a security product designed for in-house security teams.

The Red Helix Solution

At Red Helix, we offer an MDR service for your business, taking away the stress of daily security management. Our cost-effective, 24/7/365 monitoring, detection, and response service helps protect your business from potential threats.