Navigating the modern security stack

Cyber threats are becoming more advanced and persistent with a number of new tools at their disposal to carry out attacks against enterprises. Luckily, cybersecurity providers are rapidly innovating as well to keep these emerging threats at bay, and security teams are rethinking their general approach to protecting their critical assets with new solutions readily available.

Among the most discussed approaches today are Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), Network Detection and Response (NDR), and Extended Detection and Response (XDR). While each has a critical role in the modern security architecture, organizations are finding that real resilience lies not in how these layers work in isolation, but as a coordinated system.

EDR: strong at the source

EDR has become the standard for identifying malicious behavior on individual devices. With deep forensics, real-time network monitoring and rapid containment capabilities, EDR aids defenders to act decisively at the point of compromise. It’s particularly effective for identifying threats that manifest through endpoint activity, unauthorized access, malicious scripts or privilege escalation attempts.

However, EDR’s agent-based nature means it can only protect what it sees on deployed devices. Devices without agents, such as unmanaged assets, IoT devices or third-party endpoints, can present blind spots that could leave an organization vulnerable to threats if targeted by an attacker. While EDR excels at the endpoint level, it can lack the full spectrum visibility needed to provide context across the broader attack surface.

NDR: modern visibility

If a device lacks an endpoint agent, all activity can still be tracked at the network level which has made NDR a vital security layer for many organizations. Unlike agent-based tools, NDR focuses on all traffic moving across the network, offering a grounded perspective that threats cannot evade.

NDR doesn’t compete with EDR, but rather complements it by providing visibility into lateral movement and anomalous communications that can’t be seen by endpoint agents. The lateral movement component is key here, as early detection of an attacker moving across an organization's network will signal the need for a response, avoiding a costly breach impacting multiple parts of an enterprise’s infrastructure. This is vital as the attack surface expands across cloud environments, remote workforces and unmanaged assets.

What makes NDR compelling is its ability to uncover subtle patterns, unexpected data transfers, encrypted command-and-control channels or deviations from baseline behavior that may not show up in traditional logs or endpoint telemetry. NDR brings a kind of impartiality to detection to see what’s actually happening, rather than what systems report.

Pairing NDR with other network tools like Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) and packet forensics offers much deeper visibility into network traffic and richer context behind each transaction. This comprehensive view becomes critical in rapidly detecting a potential threat, and having all pertinent information available during an investigation to not only discover how a threat moved across the network, but where it originated down to the individual device or communication.

XDR: the integration play

XDR combines best-of-breed security tools such as EDR, NDR, SIEM, email security, access and identity management, and more into a single platform to offer full-spectrum security coverage across an organization. At its core, the concept of XDR is strong but it requires each individual component to work well together, risking poor optimization and inefficient workflows if the tools are not complementary.

The reality of XDR implementations varies widely – In some cases, XDR solutions are primarily built around a single vendor’s ecosystem, limiting their reach into heterogeneous environments, whereas others are adopted as managed service by an external third party. The key to a successful XDR strategy is strong network visibility which cannot be evaded or circumvented by other tools in the security ecosystem.

Additionally, the NDR, EDR, and SIEM components must be easily integrated as these tools work well together to show the full breadth of a potential threat or attack from the moment of detection to mitigation.

Beyond Detection: The Emergence of Adaptive Security Orchestration

While the EDR/NDR/XDR paradigm has dominated security discussions, forward-thinking organizations are now exploring what lies beyond traditional detection and response. The next evolution isn't just about seeing threats faster, but rather, building security systems that learn, adapt and pre-emptively reshape themselves.

Traditional security tools establish baselines and alert on deviations. But what if these baselines could evolve continuously, incorporating not just historical patterns, but predictive models of how legitimate business processes will change?

Advanced NDR implementations, for example, are beginning to use federated learning approaches, where network behavior models improve across customer environments while preserving privacy. This creates a collective intelligence that anticipates threats before they manifest in any single organization.

The real innovation lies not in perfecting individual security layers, but in creating what we might call "security mesh architecture" – where EDR agents, network sensors, and cloud security tools form a self-healing, adaptive grid. When an EDR agent goes offline, nearby network sensors automatically increase their monitoring granularity for that endpoint's typical traffic patterns.

When NDR detects anomalous lateral movement, it can instantly provision temporary micro-segmentation rules while EDR agents on affected endpoints shift to heightened surveillance modes, converging two tools for a mutual benefit.

Rather than waiting for threats to appear, next-generation security stacks are beginning to simulate attack scenarios continuously in digital twin environments. By running thousands of attack simulations against virtual replicas of their infrastructure, organizations can identify vulnerabilities and response gaps before real adversaries do. This shifts the security paradigm from reactive detection to proactive threat hunting.

The question isn't whether EDR, NDR, or XDR tools provide unparalleled visibility into today's threats – it's whether it can anticipate and adapt to threats that don't yet exist.

We list the best IT asset management software.

This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro