As cybersecurity tools and platforms continue to evolve, a strategy centered solely around endpoint detection and response (EDR) no longer provides the holistic protection organizations need. According to Exabeam’s report, The State of Threat Detection, Investigation, and Response, organizations can typically only monitor about 66% of their IT environments, leaving significant gaps in visibility. While EDR solutions like CrowdStrike have made significant strides in identifying and mitigating threats, relying on a single vendor, or a one-size-fits-all approach, exposes organizations to dangerous blind spots. In a world where cyberattacks are becoming more sophisticated and diverse, it’s critical to move beyond the confines of EDR-only strategies and embrace a comprehensive, context-aware security model.

The Power of the SOC Visibility Triad

To address these blind spots and provide more robust protection, forward-thinking organizations are turning to the Security Operations Center (SOC) Visibility Triad. The triad consists of three essential components: endpoint detection and response (EDR), network detection and response (NDR), and security information and event management (SIEM). Each of these pillars plays a vital role in creating a holistic security posture:

1. EDR: Tracks activities on endpoints in far greater detail than a logging only solution can provide, helping security teams identify malicious behaviors and processes.

2. NDR: Focuses on network traffic and illuminates traffic and interaction between managed and unmanaged devices. The reality is there are significant numbers of entities on your network that do not send logs and cannot have an EDR solution installed on them. NDR provides insight into threats that bypass endpoint security.

3.SIEM: Aggregates data, logs and 3rd party alerts from across the environment, offering centralized analysis and a broader context for decision-making.

When these elements work together, security teams achieve a more comprehensive level of visibility, making it easier to detect advanced threats, even if they manage to avoid detection by one of the individual pillars.

Context is Key to Security

One of the critical lessons cybersecurity professionals have learned in recent years is that context is essential to understanding and responding to threats. EDR-only solutions may give you a glimpse into what’s happening on your endpoints, but they can miss critical information about how a threat moves laterally through your network or interacts with other accounts and assets. This lack of context or ancillary information can delay response times or, even worse, allow threats to be incorrectly identified.

By adding NDR and SIEM to your security architecture, you gain much-needed context and visibility. You can see not just what is occurring on individual devices but also how threats interact with your network and your broader environment. This multi-layered visibility enhances threat detection and accelerates response times, allowing your team to identify and stop attacks before they cause significant damage.

Avoiding Vendor Lock-in: The Risk of Single Vendor Solutions

While it may seem convenient to rely on a single vendor for your complete platform purchase, this approach can limit your flexibility and leave you vulnerable to the shortcomings of that provider’s technology. A single vendor might not excel at everything, and their solutions could lack the breadth necessary to address all the unique challenges your organization faces.

Instead, organizations should embrace a best-of-breed approach. By selecting the strongest solutions for EDR, NDR, and SIEM from different vendors, you not only reduce risk but also ensure your security stack is tailor-made to meet your organization’s specific needs. It’s a forward-thinking strategy that maximizes the strengths of each tool while minimizing the weaknesses inherent in any one solution.

Conclusion: Elevate Your Security with Comprehensive Visibility

The days of relying solely on endpoint detection are over. With cyber threats growing more complex, the need for comprehensive, context-aware security has never been more critical. According to IBM’s most recent Cost of a Data Breach Report, the average cost of a data breach is now $4.88 million globally, $9.36 million in the US, making the financial consequences of an attack devastating for businesses.

By embracing the SOC Visibility Triad and selecting the best tools for each layer of protection, organizations can significantly enhance their ability to detect, respond to, and mitigate today’s most advanced threats, ultimately reducing the risk of costly breaches and ensuring stronger, more resilient security.