What is NDR?
Network detection and response (NDR) is a cybersecurity approach focused on monitoring network traffic using behavioral analysis and baselining for advanced threat detection. NDR analyzes network traffic and network data in real time and alerts security teams of any irregularities.
Essentially, an NDR tool “learns” what your network traffic is supposed to look like and then constantly checks if it’s behaving as intended. Over time, the tool’s threat detection capabilities grow more sophisticated because it maps your “normal” network traffic, allowing it to identify threats and changes.
What is XDR?
Extended detection and response (XDR) is a cybersecurity approach that uses multiple security tools to provide broad visibility across your IT infrastructure. It offers more comprehensive threat detection because it can monitor multiple security layers for any irregularities.
XDR is ideal for organizations looking for a strong threat detection and response solution. It can monitor everything from your network and cloud environments to endpoints, providing a better view of potential security risks. XDR also helps security teams by automating threat responses and improving the efficiency of incident response processes.
NDR vs. XDR: Top 10 main differences
While both NDR and XDR use advanced threat detection and response to protect your data, they differ significantly.
1. Primary focus
NDR specializes in network security, focusing on understanding traffic patterns and identifying anomalies within network communications. XDR takes a broader approach, integrating security data from networks, endpoints, cloud services, and email systems to provide comprehensive visibility across your entire IT infrastructure.
2. Data sources
NDR analyzes network traffic data, monitoring the flow of information between devices and servers within your infrastructure. XDR collects security information from multiple sources, including firewalls, endpoint protection systems, cloud applications, identity management systems, and email gateways, to create a comprehensive threat detection capability.
3. Visibility scope
The visibility scope of NDR tools is strictly limited to network activity. They monitor network traffic, events, and data, enabling them to establish your normal network behavioral pattern. XDR also has visibility over network activities but extends oversight to endpoints, such as devices used to access the network and cloud environments within your IT infrastructure.
4. Range of detection
The network-wide coverage of NDR tools allows them to create a behavioral baseline of your network activity and compare irregularities against this baseline in real time. NDR has a range of detection that monitors all network traffic, regardless of user, device, or type of data being transferred.
XDR tools centralize detection for a bigger overview of your IT infrastructure’s threat landscape. This capability enhances monitoring and gives security teams more options to manage incidents as they occur, including automating security responses.
5. Correlation engine
Any correlations that an NDR tool makes are all based on network activity. This feature means it can miss attacks exploiting vulnerabilities in devices and endpoints. While making correlations based on network activity remains a sound security approach, many modern attacks are targeting vulnerabilities in other areas outside of NDR’s scope.
XDR’s cross-layer correlation helps you get deeper insights into security threats, including active attacks. This capability enables more accurate detection and faster response to security risks, especially when combined with XDR’s use of machine learning.
6. Alert context
NDR categorizes and prioritizes alerts based on severity, which is built on its analysis of what your normal network traffic looks like. Any deviation from what it considers your normal activity will be flagged, which can sometimes lead to a high rate of false positives.
XDR avoids alert fatigue by leveraging cross-domain insights to contextualize alerts. It automates root cause analysis, giving you more detailed insights about an attack and allowing you to develop more effective responses to ongoing or future threats.
7. Investigation workflow
NDR primarily investigates threats by comparing activity against what it recognizes as normal network behavior. This broad approach flags any deviations from typical network activity, regardless of whether they are an actual threat.
XDR leverages its visibility across different security layers and security tools to provide a more contextualized analysis of the threats it investigates. Because it’s not limited to network traffic, XDR examines endpoint details, timelines of flagged events, and other related data.
8. Response actions
NDR supports both automated and manual response actions to detected threats. Most response actions of NDR tools include isolating, blocking, or quarantining suspicious connections or files within the network.
XDR leans heavily on automation for its response actions, which are primarily informed by its oversight across multiple security domains across your IT infrastructure. It offers more flexibility with its responses, enabling actions like network segmentation, updating threat intelligence, or deploying pre-determined threat responses depending on the severity of the risk it detects.
9. Analyst efficiency
If you have a dedicated or large IT security team, NDR can be highly effective for proactive threat hunting. While it doesn’t provide complete visibility into your entire IT system, network traffic is still a valuable data source for identifying potential threats, especially if you happen to have a large network with plenty of traffic.
XDR, on the other hand, consolidates insights covering the whole IT environment, making it easier for small security teams to manage threats. However, analyzing this data introduces complexity. Interpreting the dense, cross-domain data requires a higher level of technical expertise. Consequently, XDR is most effective when managed by an experienced IT team.
10. Complexity
Deploying an NDR solution is less complex since its visibility is only limited to network traffic. While other factors like the size of the network can affect setup and monitoring complexity, its narrower scope typically means a simpler infrastructure to set up and manage.
XDR’s cross-domain visibility demands careful setup, continuous monitoring, and thorough analysis, which adds complexity to your cybersecurity strategy. While XDR’s consolidated insights and automated responses offer significant benefits, organizations lacking cybersecurity expertise may find these tools overwhelming.
Let’s summarize the key differences between XDR vs. NDR solutions:
| | NDR | XDR |
|---|---|---|
| Primary focus | Threat detection and response limited to network traffic | Integrates multiple security tools to cover threat detection and response across entire IT infrastructure |
| Data sources | Network packets and activity | Firewalls, cloud networks, endpoints, and other security tools |
| Visibility scope | Only network activity, including traffic, events, and data | Network activity, endpoints, devices accessing the network, and cloud environments |
| Detection breadth | Monitors all network traffic, flags irregularities against baseline | Centralizes detection across IT infrastructure |
| Correlation engine | Correlates only network activity, may miss device/endpoint vulnerabilities | Cross-layer correlation |
| Alert context | Flags deviations from normal network behavior, may cause false positives | Contextualizes alerts to reduce alert fatigue |
| Investigation workflow | Flags deviations from network baseline without broader context | Provides context using endpoint data, event timelines, and related data |
| Response actions | Manual and automated responses for network-level threats | Automated and flexible responses across multiple security domains |
| Analyst efficiency | Effective for teams focused on network traffic for threat hunting | Consolidated insights benefit small teams but require higher technical know-how |
| Complexity | Less complex setup | More complex to manage |
NDR: Pros and cons
NDR’s focus on network traffic allows it to be efficient at monitoring network activity. When paired with an experienced security team, it can offer a strong defense against common cybersecurity threats.
However, using NDR tools comes with both advantages and limitations.
Pros
NDR tools constantly monitor your traffic in real time, though detection effectiveness varies depending on the threat type and environment. By building a baseline of normal network behavior, NDR can quickly identify potential threats and alert you as soon as it detects anomalies.
With NDR, security teams can proactively look for and mitigate security risks. NDR can scale its threat detection and response capabilities according to network size, provided it receives enough data to build an accurate baseline.
NDR’s capability to monitor network traffic in real time also allows it to adapt to changing behaviors, which is particularly useful against attackers deploying different tactics to infiltrate your IT system.
Cons
The most significant drawback of NDR is that its visibility is confined to the network traffic layer. More sophisticated attacks often target other areas like user devices, causing NDR to entirely miss some incoming threats.
Additionally, network size can impact NDR performance. Larger networks require increased monitoring and analysis. Real-time scanning may slow down the tool’s responsiveness.
Finally, NDR may generate more false positives than XDR tools. Because it flags activities that are “different” from your established baseline, even legitimate traffic may trigger alerts. Such false positives can lead to wasted time for manual investigations and alert fatigue.
XDR: Pros and cons
XDR’s comprehensive reach in analyzing security events across different domains, platforms, and security layers makes it a well-rounded solution for threat detection and response.
Pros
XDR is best suited for IT environments that demand extensive monitoring, analysis, and automated threat response. It’s highly beneficial in large infrastructures vulnerable to diverse cybersecurity threats.
Because of its extensive visibility, investigating incidents with XDR is often more efficient since it provides the full context of the attack. You can accurately trace data across endpoints, servers, network layers, and other vectors where the threat may have originated or spread.
Lastly, XDR’s centralized approach streamlines how you respond to threats. Your XDR tool will aggregate all relevant data and recommend appropriate actions in one place. With proper configuration, you can also automate these responses to act immediately on detected threats.
Cons
Complexity is the main consideration when evaluating XDR solutions. Because it has a wide reach across multiple layers, it requires more effort to deploy, configure, and maintain. An inexperienced security team or IT department can deploy XDR incorrectly, which reduces its effectiveness in detecting and responding to threats.
XDR solutions are also more expensive compared to NDR since they integrate other security tools and capabilities into a unified security package. Even if price isn’t a concern, you still need to make sure that the XDR solution you’re getting has all the tools and features you need, and that’s not always a guarantee depending on your provider.
Vendor lock-in is another potential drawback. Because XDR platforms are designed to consolidate tools under one ecosystem, integration with third-party tools can be challenging. You’ll either need to adjust your pre-existing tech stack to accommodate your XDR or negotiate with your provider.
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