Extended detection and response (XDR) is a robust cybersecurity approach designed to address the expanding threat landscape. It offers a comprehensive strategy by integrating various security components like endpoint detection and response (EDR), identity threat detection and response (ITDR), and cloud workload protection (CWP). The seamless integration of these security elements creates a cohesive system, providing organizations with a unified and in-depth view of their cybersecurity posture.

The synergy between XDR and AI introduces a powerhouse solution — AI-native XDR — that offers a myriad of benefits to organizations. AI-native XDR advances an organization’s approach to cybersecurity, offering augmented threat detection, swift response capabilities, and a proactive defense against evolving cyber threats. This ensures that organizations can effectively safeguard their infrastructure from a wide range of security risks.

Benefits of native XDR

AI-powered native XDR can dramatically accelerate investigations for analysts of all skill levels with intelligent recommendations and unified context across key security domains. The table below provides an overview for the benefits of native XDR.

Native XDR
What is it?	Native XDR integrates security tools across key security domains to collect different forms of telemetry and conduct response tasks
Benefits	- An all-in-one, streamlined solution if tightly integrated - Takes less time to deploy
Best For	Businesses that have or want to adopt homogenous IT security and infrastructure
Flexibility	Offers a more standardized and cohesive security environment within the vendor's ecosystem
Scalability Options	Scalability within the vendor's ecosystem, potentially offering a one-stop-shop solution

What is the role of AI in native XDR?

Within native XDR, AI plays a crucial role in bolstering an organization’s security outcomes. AI excels in handling the substantial volume of data that an XDR solution ingests from disparate sources, adeptly correlating security alerts and events across diverse domains. This AI-enabled proficiency not only enhances the precision of threat detection but allows native XDR to distill vast volumes of data and alerts into actionable insights, identifying real and relevant security threats with unparalleled accuracy.

AI-native XDR encompasses a comprehensive approach that integrates AI capabilities to advance multiple security functions. AI/ML capabilities bring a clear advantage for XDR platforms, including:

Scalability and efficiency:

• AI enables security solutions to scale efficiently, handling large datasets and complex analysis in real time.

Threat detection and analysis:

• AI algorithms analyze and correlate data from numerous sources to surface potential threats.
• Machine learning models can learn from historical data to recognize new and emerging threats.
• AI helps reduce false positives by refining detection mechanisms and ensuring that security teams focus on genuine threats rather than dealing with a high volume of false-positive alerts.

Behavioral analysis:

• AI-native XDR can analyze the behavior of users, devices, and applications to establish baselines for normalcy and adeptly detect anomalies that may indicate a security incident.
• Behavioral analysis helps identify threats that typically go unnoticed by traditional rule-based systems.

Incident investigation and response:

• AI-powered XDR helps accelerate investigation by providing insights into the root causes of incidents and the timeline of events.
• Through advanced algorithms, AI swiftly identifies and prioritizes security events, which streamlines the triage process and provides greater efficiency for analysts.
• AI enables automated workflows and playbooks to respond to security incidents in real time. This response can include isolating compromised devices, blocking malicious activities, and implementing remediation actions.

CrowdStrike’s approach to AI-native XDR

CrowdStrike Falcon® Insight XDR is a leading AI-native platform for XDR. Falcon Insight XDR provides the flexibility to harness the power of native XDR based on your environment and needs. Native XDR correlates first-party CrowdStrike Falcon® platform data from across the entire platform at no additional cost to truly unify security operations and paint a complete picture of advanced attacks beyond the endpoint.

As an AI-native XDR solution, Falcon Insight XDR provides protection with advanced, integrated AI/ML that detects, prevents, and prioritizes evasive threats. Additionally, CrowdStrike® Charlotte AI™ unlocks generative AI workflows to help users of all skill levels stop breaches like the most seasoned experts.