XDR vs SIEM: What’s the difference?

What is XDR?

Extended detection and response (XDR) is a security solution that collects and analyzes data from multiple sources to detect, prevent, discover, and respond to cyberattacks and unauthorized misuse. Forrester Research defines XDR security as “the evolution of EDR, which optimizes threat detection, investigation, response, and hunting in real-time.”

XDR capabilities

• Efficacy of detections — XDR detects compromised credentials, malicious insiders, and external attacks. Through traffic monitoring and analysis, XDR can identify a threat even after it has bypassed a system perimeter.
• Speed and response of investigation — Once the suspicious activity has been detected, tools can create attack timelines and activity logs. Data from these tools can help teams determine the cause of an attack and predict the attacker’s behavior, which allows the team to respond swiftly.
• Flexible deployments — XDR solutions provide teams with additional benefits over time. Machine learning ensures that solutions become increasingly more effective with use.

What is SIEM?

Security information and event management (SIEM) is a solution that aggregates and analyzes activity from several different resources across your entire IT system for monitoring and response against cyberthreats.

SIEM is the combination of Security Event Management (SEM) with Security Information Management (SIM)—offering data analysis for both event and log information.

The purpose of SIEM products is to create and notify security operations center (SOC) teams about occurrences at the application and network hardware levels to prompt the teams to investigate and remediate the problem if necessary.

SIEM use cases

• Log management — Collect, normalize, and aggregate log data to deliver efficient data access and management.
• Real-time monitoring — Track and monitor activity in real-time within your network environment.
• Incident investigation — Examine activity logs to investigate a potential incident and suspicious activity further.

What are the differences between SIEM and XDR?

XDR and SIEM solutions collect and analyze network data for contextual threat awareness. However, SIEMs do not automatically orchestrate real-time responses to cyber threats across multiple endpoints. 

SIEM is a log collection tool to support compliance, storage, and analysis, while XDR focuses on endpoint data and optimization. XDR covers areas that SIEM does not since XDR has advanced capabilities that can focus on the highest priority events.