With the CrowdStrike incident in the rearview mirror, the industry has learned some valuable lessons. The top one is that it’s probably a good idea to have separate vendors for your server infrastructure and your endpoint detection and response systems to avoid a complete IT meltdown on a global scale.
Companies in every industry are thinking about the implications behind relying on a single-source platform to protect their systems from catastrophic events. Smart security leaders are evaluating their EDR strategy and looking at a diversified approach to reduce risk and minimize the blast radius of another event. Unfortunately, whether it is a bug or ransomware, the results are the same. The CrowdStrike incident has resulted in $5.6 billion and counting in financial losses, as well as reputational damage that is impossible to put a price tag on. EDRs are great tools that cover a multitude of pathways, but their biggest limitation is that they can only protect against known vulnerabilities. That means that there could be 30% or more of attacks that EDRs cannot detect.
Additionally, their telemetry is self-limiting—see this recent blog for an in-depth analysis—resulting in inherent weaknesses for these kinds of consolidated tools that were meant to be broad cover and simplify the security tech stack.
Ensuring Business Continuity through Diversification
The primary goal of any cybersecurity strategy is to ensure business continuity. The CrowdStrike incident has made it abundantly clear that relying on a single vendor for all security needs can jeopardize this goal. When a single point of failure exists, a breach can lead to widespread disruptions, impacting not just the targeted systems but potentially the entire business operation.
To safeguard business continuity, organizations must diversify their security tools and strategies. This means not only using different vendors for EDR and XDR but also incorporating a variety of security solutions that complement each other. For instance, integrating Virsec’s application-aware workload protection can provide an additional layer of defense that traditional EDR solutions might miss. By monitoring and protecting at the workload level, Virsec can detect and prevent sophisticated attacks that exploit application vulnerabilities, which are often invisible to standard EDR tools.
The Importance of Diversification of Security Tools
Diversifying your security tools is not just about using multiple vendors but about creating a multi-layered defense strategy. Each tool has its strengths and weaknesses, and by combining them, organizations can cover more ground and reduce the risk of undetected threats.
Traditional EDR solutions are effective against known threats but can fall short against new, unknown, or sophisticated attacks. By integrating tools like Virsec’s application-aware security, which provides real-time protection against memory-based attacks, organizations can enhance their security posture. Virsec’s technology can detect anomalies at the application level, providing critical protection that complements the broader coverage of EDR solutions.
Moreover, diversification helps in distributing the risk. If one vendor’s solution is compromised, others can still function and protect the organization’s critical assets. This approach also complicates the attack surface for adversaries, making it more challenging for them to penetrate multiple layers of defense.
Conclusion
The lessons from the CrowdStrike incident are clear: a diversified approach to EDR/XDR is essential for maintaining business continuity and reducing risk. By not relying on a single vendor, organizations can ensure that their security strategy is resilient, comprehensive, and capable of withstanding sophisticated cyber threats. Integrating multiple security solutions, such as those offered by Virsec, can provide the depth and breadth needed to protect against a wide range of attacks, ensuring that business operations remain uninterrupted in the face of potential breaches.
For more insights on how to diversify your security tools and enhance your organization’s cybersecurity strategy, visit Virsec’s blog.
