Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) software is specifically designed to navigate the complexities of cloud environments, offering capabilities that extend beyond traditional security measures. These solutions employ sophisticated algorithms and artificial intelligence to analyze vast amounts of data, pinpointing anomalies and potential security breaches with ease and accuracy. The platforms are also able to facilitate automatic responses, helping to contain and mitigate threats before they escalate into substantial security incidents.
With organizations transferring services and applications to cloud providers, cloud environments are becoming an ever more attractive target for attackers. The need to identify and respond to cloud based threats has never been more important. CDR software stands as a cornerstone in this defense strategy, facilitating real-time monitoring and rapid response to the potential threats that threaten cloud infrastructures.
There are numerous CDR software solutions on the market today, each with its own features, philosophy, and use cases. These software solutions should provide integration with a myriad of cloud platforms, customizable alert systems, and comprehensive reporting tools, allowing organizations to tailor their security posture to their specific needs and preferences.
In this guide, we’ve listed the top 10 Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) software options available. For each product we’ve assessed its capabilities and stand out features, giving you the information that you need to select the right CDR solution for your organization.
Cortex XDR is an endpoint-based extended detection and response platform that integrates data from various sources to provide comprehensive protection against advanced malware, exploits, and fileless attacks. Developed by Palo Alto Networks, Cortex XDR uses machine learning and behavioral analytics to detect anomalies and identify potential threats. The platform also offers an incident management functionality. This allows users to quickly investigate and respond to detected threats.
Cortex XDR is designed for security teams to help them consolidate endpoints, networks, clouds, and identity-related data to accurately detect attacks and streamline investigations. The platform employs machine learning to profile user behavior and detect anomalies, offering a 360-degree view of user risk. Cortex XDR also features Global Analytics; this utilizes cross-customer insights for detecting advanced threats (like supply chain and zero-day attacks) that might be missed by siloed security tools.
To assist in swift investigation and response, Cortex XDR provides a complete picture of attacks, smart scoring of incidents, and even integration with the Cortex XSOAR for automated response. The XDR agent offers top-tier protection against exploits, malware, and ransomware, while providing disk encryption and host firewall capabilities. The solution simplifies data management and reduces alert fatigue by grouping related alerts into incidents.
Cortex XDR offers an advanced detection and response solution that helps security teams protect their organizations efficiently against stealthy threats. By combining machine learning, analytics, and integrated data insights, Cortex XDR enables users to detect, investigate, and respond to attacks more effectively.
CrowdStrike offers a streamlined, single-agent architecture, built on a scalable cloud-native platform, that provides an easy-to-deploy and manage unified cybersecurity solution. With the help of AI, CrowdStrike’s models are trained with trillions of daily data points, allowing them to predict and mitigate threats more effectively.
The Falcon platform operates on the CrowdStrike Security Cloud and delivers precise threat detection and automated protection. The platform includes the CrowdStrike Threat Graph; this continuously ingests and contextualizes real-time analytics, enriching telemetry and accelerating the threat response. The CrowdStrike Asset Graph also offers a 360-degree view of enterprise assets, granting visibility across devices, users, accounts, applications, and cloud workloads. The Falcon Intel Graph helps contextualize threats and attacks in real-time, giving insights on adversaries, techniques, and targets.
CrowdStrike’s single, lightweight agent consolidates security tools and provides comprehensive protection without impacting endpoint performance. It is easily deployed across on-premises, remote, and cloud workloads, ensuring consistent visibility and protection. The highly modular and extensible CrowdStrike Falcon platform allows organizations to address new security challenges without re-architecting their security framework. CrowdStrike’s service includes endpoint security, XDR, cloud security, identity protection, threat intelligence, risk-based vulnerability management, observability, log management, managed detection, response, and incident response services.
Darktrace Cloud is a cybersecurity solution that is designed to protect organizations from cyber-attacks within cloud environments. The platform uses artificial intelligence to continuously learn what is considered “normal” activity within an organization’s cloud environment, then autonomously respond to emerging threats. By analyzing network data along with control plane events, Darktrace Cloud provides comprehensive visibility into cloud-based threats.
The platform detects a variety of potential issues including data exfiltration, critical misconfigurations, and insider threats. Darktrace Cloud also correlates its findings with data across the entire digital estate, including networks, emails, and endpoints. Deployment can be completed within minutes either from the cloud or to on-premise environments. The Cyber AI Analyst feature connects the dots between singular events to reveal broader security incidents, reducing triage time by an average of 92%.
Darktrace Detect, one of the platform’s features, extracts hundreds of metrics from raw data received across all cloud platforms, providing actionable insights on activity within cloud and SaaS platforms. Users can choose which data packets to capture, allowing for customizable and flexible configurations. The solution’s MITRE ATT&CK framework mapping further aids security teams in understanding potential threats. Overall, Darktrace Cloud allows organizations to embrace the benefits of cloud computing without compromising their security posture.
ExtraHop is a Network Detection and Response (NDR) solution that provides businesses with comprehensive visibility and security across their entire enterprise network. This includes complex environments such as cloud, on-premises, remote workforce, and IoT deployments. With ExtraHop Reveal(x) 360, organizations can achieve unified security controls across hybrid, multi-cloud, containerized, and IoT environments with ease.
ExtraHop is a SaaS-based solution that provides 360-degree visibility, situational intelligence, and a low management burden. In AWS environments, ExtraHop combines data from VPC Flow Logs with packet-level detail for multi-layered threat identification. It is effective across a number of use cases including advanced threat detection, inventory and configuration management, dependency mapping, workload and data monitoring, forensic investigation, compliance and audit, container security, vulnerability assessment, and threat hunting.
ExtraHop’s hybrid cloud security functionality allows businesses to access and analyze all cloud-based transactions using the same interface as their on-premises infrastructure. This allows for automatic discovery, classification, and tracking of all cloud assets and resources. Additionally, ExtraHop provides decryption and decoding capabilities to manage risk with ease.
ExtraHop is able to deliver frictionless threat defense that does not compromise security or business performance, thanks to its agentless deployment and out-of-band analysis. It allows cloud-native integrations with AWS VPC Flow Logs, orchestration systems, EDR, and SIEM capabilities to further enhance security functionality for a well-rounded defense strategy.
Heimdal XDR is an integrated security solution that uses a unified platform to deliver comprehensive cybersecurity for organizations. This platform eliminates the need for managing multiple security solutions, allowing for complete visibility across an organization’s IT infrastructure. This ensures faster, more accurate threat detection and response.
Heimdal XDR offers advanced detection capabilities with AI/ML-based technology, leading to faster and more accurate threat detection than traditional security solutions. It’s integration into the Heimdal Unified Security Platform means that it not only reduces complexity, but it also lowers costs by consolidating multiple security technologies into a single platform. This simplifies the management process and improves the utilization of SecOps and IT resources.
Featuring next-generation threat intelligence, Heimdal XDR provides security and IT teams with detailed information on threats and their potential impact, enabling swift and efficient response to cyber risks. This platform is also equipped with an Action Center, enabling seamless, one-click automated and assisted actioning to respond quickly and effectively to potential threats.
Heimdal XDR is a versatile solution that caters to enterprises using Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. It delivers the essential tools and expertise needed for comprehensive cybersecurity, providing organizations with peace of mind knowing that their digital assets are protected.
InsightVM is a comprehensive vulnerability management solution that enables businesses to scan their networks and to discover risks across all endpoints, as well as on-premises infrastructure. This allows them to effectively remediate vulnerabilities. InsightVM prioritizes risks and provides clear, actionable guidance to IT and DevOps teams for efficient issue resolution.
The platform offers a range of features, including a lightweight endpoint agent, live dashboards, an active risk score, and integrated remediation projects. InsightVM also provides attack surface monitoring with Project Sonar, integrated threat feeds, and easy-to-use policy assessments. Its RESTful API ensures smooth integration with other systems and tools, maximizing the value of your technology stack.
InsightVM enables a clear understanding of risk in on-premises environments and remote endpoints, fostering collaboration between traditionally siloed teams. With real-time tracking and metrics, InsightVM drives accountability and recognizes progress, helping businesses adopt a proactive approach to security and vulnerability management. By offering a shared view and common language, InsightVM promotes alignment among various teams and enhances the overall impact of security initiatives.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is a comprehensive application protection platform designed for securing multi-cloud and hybrid environments. It provides full visibility and continuous monitoring, helping businesses strengthen their security posture and develop secure applications. Defender for Cloud offers targeted protection for workloads, including servers, containers, storage, and databases.
The platform unifies security management across multi-cloud and multiple-pipeline environments through integrating a Development Security Operations (DevSecOps) solution with a Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) solution, and a Cloud Workload Protection Platform (CWPP). It empowers security teams to manage DevOps security effectively whilst helping businesses to adopt secure practices early in the software development process, enhancing the security of cloud applications.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud provides actionable recommendations for improving security posture, as well as addressing critical risks in cloud environments. The platform offers both foundational and advanced CSPM capabilities, including proactive, data-aware insights and built-in workflows to remediate threats at scale.
By incorporating Microsoft Defender for Cloud, businesses can proactively visualize and improve their security posture, safeguarding resources across multi-cloud and hybrid environments. The platform works seamlessly with Microsoft Entra Permissions Management, Azure Network Security, GitHub Advanced Security, and Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management to provide comprehensive cloud security.
Singularity Cloud by SentinelOne is a security solution designed to protect virtual machines, servers, containers, and Kubernetes clusters across multi-cloud and data center environments. It offers real-time threat prevention, detection, investigation, and response capabilities, without impacting performance.
Singularity Cloud delivers high detection efficacy for all major cloud instances, Linux distributions, and Windows servers. It maps threats in context to the MITRE ATT&CK Framework and provides instant remediation with automatic or one-click actions. Singularity Cloud is designed to work seamlessly with SentinelOne’s Linux eBPF agent architecture, ensuring granular visibility without compromising operational performance.
The solution supports XDR integration through the Singularity XDR platform, allowing cloud workload security data analysis alongside other security data sources. The Singularity Marketplace offers numerous integrations for additional flexibility and automation in cloud operations. SentinelOne also offers a unique cloud-conscious detection and response solution for AWS, securing workloads and integrating with AWS security services.
Overall, Singularity Cloud provides a comprehensive, easy-to-manage security solution that secures cloud instances, containers, and Kubernetes clusters, while offering deep visibility and automated response capabilities.
Trend Micro XDR is a comprehensive, businesses solution that offers early and precise threat detection. By merging multiple rules, filters, and analysis techniques (including data stacking and machine learning), the platform improves detection speed and precision, while reducing false positives throughout the cloud infrastructure.
Trend Micro XDR also provides rapid threat investigation and response. With visualization tools, such as interactive graphs and MITRE ATT&CK mapping, security teams can easily scale threat hunting and investigation. The platform prioritizes, automates, and accelerates response actions across various security vectors from a single location. Additionally, advanced threat correlation connects deep activity data across multiple vectors, enabling superior detection and investigation. The platform’s native sensors, alongside third-party data inputs, feed into its analytics and detection models.
Trend Micro XDR offers superior security and risk insights by applying analytics to activity data collected from native solutions. This generates correlated, actionable alerts as well as comprehensive incident views; this allows users to hunt for active threats through multiple search methods. The solution also works across numerous security vectors such as endpoint, email, server, network, cloud, mobile, identity, IoT, and OT sensors. Integration with existing security infrastructures, including SIEM, SOAR, and other technologies is seamless, ensuring smooth operations. Finally, users gain access to industry-leading global threat intelligence from Trend Micro’s Smart Protection Network; this maximizes the power of the XDR and provides end-to-end visibility into attack campaigns.
Vectra CDR for M365 is an advanced AI-driven cloud detection and response solution that is designed to identify and stop threats targeting Microsoft 365 applications and data. Vectra Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) for M365 utilizes AI-driven Attack Signal Intelligence to analyze attacker behavior, enabling the system to detect threats with precision and contextual clarity. By providing visibility across the full chain of suspicious events, Vectra enables organizations to effectively respond to threats, reducing the time spent on tuning, hunting, and investigating.
Key product capabilities include AI-driven detection, triage, and prioritization, advanced investigation, automated workflows, and targeted response. By harnessing Security AI-driven Attack Signal Intelligence, Vectra automates complex analysis of Microsoft 365 data and surfaces threats. This corresponds to over 90% of malicious techniques found in the MITRE ATT&CK framework. The platform simplifies deep investigation and provides rapid insights, while also streamlining workflows for monitoring cloud logs, assessing threat response, and identifying compromised accounts. Security teams gain better context and capabilities for addressing compromised systems in less time and with greater confidence.
Vectra CDR for M365 offers a comprehensive attack surface coverage across public cloud, SaaS, identity, and network environments. Its AI-driven capabilities provide organizations with extensive visibility and protection against threats targeting the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
Everything You Need To Know About Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) Software (FAQs)
What Are Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) Software Solutions?
Cloud Detection and Response solutions allow organizations to monitor and manage the threats that may affect their cloud accounts. The solutions provide real-time analysis and can deliver automated remediation, ensuring that threats are shut down effectively.
CDR solutions may seem similar to Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) or Extended Detection and Response (XDR) solutions. While there is overlap in their aims and uses, they work in very different ways due to the differences between how on-premises technology and cloud environments are designed. It is worth noting, however, that some systems labeled as XDR platforms do include CDR capabilities.
CDR solutions are able to provide deep visibility and analysis of cloud environments (including complex and multi-cloud setups), services, APIs and VMs. Once threats are identified, the platforms will take proactive measures to prevent the attack from spreading and actively eliminate this issue. This process can be entirely automated, reducing the burden on SOC teams to respond in a timely manner.
How Do Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) Software Solutions Work?
The CDR response pathway has four stages: Identify, Simulate, Detect, and Respond. Although there is an order to these steps, the cycle occurs continuously and simultaneously. This provides comprehensive coverage, ensuring that all threats are identified, analysed, and dealt with appropriately.
Identify- The first task of a CDR solution is to identify the vulnerabilities and attack paths that may be used. This ensures your solution can understand the risks that your cloud network is susceptible to. Without this comprehensive analysis, your solution will not have an effective foundation to build your security platform from.
Simulate – Once it knows where the threats are going to come from, your CDR solution will simulate attacks using playbooks, known TTPs, and AI to understand how each threat will affect your network. This allows it to understand the areas that will be affected, the speed of an attack, and the business repercussions. This information can be used to develop response plans and eliminate any vulnerabilities that have been identified.
The next stages of the lifecycle refer to actual threats, rather than the pre-attack preparation phase.
Detect – A CDR solution will constantly scan for threats. This will encompass the vulnerabilities identified in the previous phases, as well as new, emerging threats. The platform will used event detection rules, correlated graph risk, and custom threat feeds to give an accurate assessment.
Respond – Once threats have been identified, your CDR solution will deploy automated (or one-click) remediation, where possible. This will use preset plans and playbooks to respond, as well as custom, AI-based responses. For any severe threats that cannot be automatically resolved by the solution, SOC teams and admin users can be notified, allowing them to take proactive steps.
What Features Should You Look For In Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) Software?
The ideal CDR solution is one that will work away in the background, only alerting you to its presence when absolutely necessary.
When choosing a CDR solution, it can be difficult to decide which features and capabilities are imperative, and which are extras, particularly suited to specific use-cases. In this section, we’ll explain the key feature that all good CDR solutions should have.
- Continual, Real-Time Monitoring And Detection – The longer that your CDR platform is not actively scanning and looking for threats, the more time an attack has to go unnoticed. Your solution should be checking for attacks all the time, allowing automated remediation to begin immediately and ensuring that relevant users are notified of network events swiftly.
- End-To-End Visibility – It is important that your solution has access to your entire cloud network, allowing it to provide security across a range of areas and threat types. You may have the most comprehensive cloud firewall security, but if your data can be accessed when in transit, you are still susceptible to attack.
- Automatic Remediation – The more work that a CDR solution can do, the less you have to do. Your platform should be able to carry out automated remediation in a timely manner, ensuring that threats are properly and comprehensively addressed.
- Simulated Attacks – To ensure you understand the full impact and repercussions of an attack, your solution should carry out attack simulations. This will provide you with valuable, organization specific, information that can improve your attack response. This feature ensures that your CDR solution is optimized for your environment, rather than generically.
- IT Stack Integration – Not only should your solution be granted insights to all your cloud areas, but the platform should also integrate with additional technologies. This will allow your attack response to be more targeted and efficient. You will be able to utilize all remediation capabilities, beyond those that are natively a part of your CDR solution.
