4 Key Takeaways from “XDR is the Perfect Solution for SMEs” webinar

Cyberattacks on large organizations dominate news headlines. So,
you may be surprised to learn that small and medium enterprises
(SMEs) are actually more frequent targets of cyberattacks.
Many SMEs understand this risk firsthand.

In a recent survey^[1], 58% of CISOs of SMEs
said that their risk of attack was higher compared to enterprises.
Yet, they don’t have the same resources as enterprises – making it
nearly impossible to protect their organizations from widespread
and increasingly more sophisticated attacks that don’t discriminate
based on company size.

What’s their solution?

Extended detection and response (XDR).

During a recent webinar, Cynet’s Director of Product Strategy,
George Tubin, and guest speaker Senior Analyst at
Forrester,Allie Mellen, discussed the most serious cybersecurity
challenges for SMEs and how they can benefit from XDR
platforms.

Here are the four key takeaways from the conversation^[2].

The Biggest Cybersecurity Challenges for
SMEs

Why do cybercriminals go after SMEs?

Answer: Easy targets!

Most SMEs don’t invest in effective threat detection and
incident response tools. The result: a weak security infrastructure
that increases attack risk. And they can barely afford to put a few
boots on the ground, much less dedicate a full-fledged security
operations center (SOC) for cybersecurity.

Then there’s the shortage of cybersecurity talent. With just a
few individuals charged with protecting the company from a constant
barrage of threats, these small teams cannot realistically
safeguard their organization around-the-clock.

Plus, since security team members wear many hats, they feel
overburdened. This leads to ignoring alerts from security tools –
even legitimate ones – once again, leaving the door open to a
successful attack. Day-to-day operational activities and manual
processes further prevent them from keeping up with new threats and
developing a strong threat detection and response strategy.

Finally, SME security professionals frequently struggle to
learn, integrate, and maintain the various security tools in the
organization, limiting their ability to address threats and keep
attackers out.

The Top Strategic Priorities for SMEs for
2023

According to Forrester, their recent survey found that improving
security operations strategy was the top priority for a majority of
SMEs (30%), not only to protect business-critical data, but also to
guide the implementation of robust controls to satisfy regulatory
requirements around data privacy.

Over 25% of respondents said they want to use security
capabilities built-in to their existing tools instead of using
third-party technologies. This finding shows that SMEs want to
reduce security costs and complexity, as they explore ways to
protect against persistent threats coming from multiple
sources.

To mitigate these threats, SMEs need simpler and well-integrated
cybersecurity tools like XDR.

XDR provides multiple tools that would otherwise be cost
prohibitive to acquire and then also provides these tools
pre-integrated, which is also challenging for SMEs to achieve. Some
XDRs have extensive automation to reduce the manual burden on
smaller IT security teams.

The Differences Between Open XDR and Native
XDR

XDR collects security data from various sources to enable
automated threat detection, analysis, and remediation. It can
provide a comprehensive picture of the attack surface and enables
SME security teams to build, and sometimes automate, better
incident response workflows.

Open or hybrid XDR integrates third-party security tools to
collect telemetry and automatically execute response actions. Since
it requires a lot of integrations, SMEs with small security teams
may not be able to deploy and use it as easily.

Native XDR, on the other hand, combines security tools and
capabilities from a vendor’s portfolio to provide one all-in-one
solution that’s easy to deploy and use. You can check out Cynet 360
AutoXDR^[3]™ as an example of one of
these tools.

Best Practices to Evaluate XDR Solutions Before
Purchase

In the webinar, Allie recommends that all small/medium-sized
companies follow some best practices when evaluating XDR offerings
for their security requirements.

One important factor is to determine how much support a vendor
provides. Vendors focused on providing superior customer support
enable SMEs with small security teams to take full advantage of
their platform’s telemetry, threat investigations, and automated
incident response capabilities.

The SME should also ask about the telemetry data the tool
collects. Lots of security data doesn’t always equate to
good or useful data. Moreover, too much data can
overwhelm SME security teams. That’s why it’s crucial to confirm
that the platform collects useful telemetry that will help
strengthen their cyber defenses without burdening analysts.

Want more insights? Check out “XDR is the perfect solution for
SMEs” on-demand here.^[4]