Leveraging CNAPP & XDR Platforms for Improved Cybersecurity

As Extended Detection and Response (XDR) solutions mature, many still face challenges in aggregating, correlating, and analyzing massive amounts of security telemetry in time to identify and stop threats underway. While providing significant value compared to siloed solutions, too many XDR offerings struggle to keep up with the expanding threat landscape, allowing attacks to cause more damage than they should.

A new Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) white paper, “Secure the Expanding Cloud-native Attack Surface with Unified XDR and Cloud-native Application Protection,” explains how leveraging the power of a unified Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) and XDR platform can streamline data assembly and analysis, freeing up valuable time for proactive risk reduction.

Overcoming the Challenges Facing XDR Platforms

The biggest hurdle for XDR platforms is the massive amount of security data they produce. These platforms gather vast quantities of data from different sources, such as endpoints, networks, the cloud, and applications. Analyzing this extensive data set often causes alert fatigue, overwhelming resource-constrained security teams with a barrage of alerts. This makes it difficult to differentiate between real threats and false alarms. As a result, important security incidents can be missed, and incident response effectiveness is compromised.

XDR platforms are designed to offer a centralized, comprehensive look at security data by combining different security tools like endpoint detection and response (EDR), network detection and response (NDR), and cloud security solutions. However, the process of seamlessly integrating with existing security infrastructure can be challenging and time-consuming. Compatibility problems, API limitations, and a variety of data formats often make integration difficult, resulting in limited visibility and decreased effectiveness of the XDR platform.

The Dynamic Duo: Unified CNAPP and XDR Platforms

Achieving comprehensive visibility and protection is essential in today's cyber landscape. By combining CNAPP and XDR, organizations can create a security solution that spans across endpoints, networks, cloud environments, and applications. This dynamic duo offers granular visibility, enhanced threat detection, real-time incident response, and valuable data correlation.

With CNAPP's application-focused insights integrated into the XDR platform, security analysts gain a holistic view of the organization's security landscape. They can quickly identify and respond to threats, ensuring nothing goes undetected. CNAPP's expertise in detecting threats in cloud-native applications is complemented by XDR's capabilities in identifying suspicious activities and potential attack vectors in the broader IT environment.

ESG research highlights the critical need for organizations to enhance their security practices and drive efficiency to support the scale and growth of cloud-native development. By leveraging the power of a unified CNAPP and XDR platform, teams can streamline data assembly and analysis, freeing up valuable time for proactive risk reduction. 

While organizations look to CNAPPs to provide more context to drive efficiency and reduce risk, incorporating XDR and endpoint security provides more visibility for a more complete picture. Using a platform approach with a unified data model helps map out potential attack paths to help security teams better understand their threat exposure. 

ESG white paper, “Secure the Expanding Cloud- native Attack Surface with
Unified XDR and Cloud-native Application Protection,” May 2023

In cloud-native environments, real-time and automated incident response is crucial. CNAPP offers runtime protection and automatic policy enforcement for cloud-native applications, ensuring swift mitigation of unauthorized activities or malicious behavior. When integrated with XDR, these real-time incident response actions trigger wider defense mechanisms, mitigating the impact of cyberattacks and minimizing potential damage.

CNAPP and XDR are built on the principles of data sharing and correlation. By combining application-specific telemetry data with information from endpoints, networks, and cloud services, security analysts gain a unified view of the entire threat landscape. This seamless data sharing enables organizations to identify advanced, multistage attacks that would have remained hidden when analyzed in isolation.

In the face of growing cyber threats, organizations need to embrace innovative cybersecurity solutions. The combination of CNAPP and XDR presents a formidable defense duo, delivering comprehensive visibility, robust threat detection, real-time incident response, and valuable data correlation. By leveraging both technologies' strengths, organizations can effectively protect their cloud-native applications and enhance their overall security posture.

How Can Uptycs Help?

• A unified platform with consolidated XDR and CNAPP capabilities, including cloud security posture management, cloud workload protection, Kubernetes and container security, cloud detection and response, identity analytics, cyber asset inventory, audit, and compliance.
• Visibility and control from endpoints to cloud environments, from where the code is developed to where it is deployed.
• Normalized telemetry with data collected from multiple sources, normalized and streamed into a data lake for analytics processing.
• Powerful analytics engine using activity and flow logs and enabling security teams to enforce least-privilege policies, detect threats, and investigate incidents.

• Increased collaboration across teams.
• Increased operational efficiency, reducing manual work and analysis.
• Faster, more effective threat detection and response.
• A more complete picture of security posture that includes endpoints.
• Reduction in operating costs, including faster deployment and simplified management.