Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) Explained

What is identity threat detection and response (ITDR)?

Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) is a cybersecurity framework designed to detect, investigate, and mitigate identity-based attacks in real-time. ITDR continuously monitors user activity, analyzes access patterns, and responds to identity threats, such as compromised credentials, privilege escalation, and lateral movement. Unlike traditional security solutions, ITDR provides identity-specific visibility and real-time enforcement to stop adversaries from exploiting compromised credentials and moving laterally.

In this article, we’ll shed some light on ITDR, the security challenges it addresses, and how it compares against endpoint detection and response (EDR), a device-based security solution.

Why ITDR is critical: the growing threat of identity-based attacks

Modern identity-based attacks pose a significant threat to organizations, often resulting in financial, legal, and reputational losses. Addressing them can be uniquely challenging.

Modern attacks are faster and more sophisticated

Malicious actors are increasing their repertoire of attacks to keep pace with advancing technology. The speed and sophistication of identity-based attacks have outpaced traditional security tools. Adversaries now use MFA bypass techniques, stolen session cookies, and credential stuffing to infiltrate organizations in a matter of minutes.

CrowdStrike 2025 Global Threat Report notes:

• There has been a 50% increase in Access Broker Activity
• 442% increase in voice phishing (vishing) in 2024
• The average breakout time for cyber criminals is 48 minutes - with the fastest time recorded being 51 seconds
• 52% of vulnerabilities observed were related to Initial Access

The environment and identity landscape have become more complex

Additionally, cloud technologies combined with remote work have significantly increased the complexity of attack surface management:

• The complexity of multi-cloud architecture and multiple identity stores makes it challenging to detect and defend against cyber attacks, reducing end-to-end visibility.
• 90% of Fortune 1000 organizations still use Active Directory (AD) — legacy technology that’s vulnerable to attacks — to manage their identity infrastructure. Attackers can move laterally from on-premises to cloud infrastructure, making AD a viable target. Complex environments make it harder to perform regular user audits and identify potential gaps in identity stores.

As a result, organizations with poor visibility over their cloud environment are highly vulnerable.

ITDR solutions detect and respond to attacks by continuously monitoring user activity, detecting unusual behavior, and alerting security teams. ITDR solutions provide centralized visibility and control over all assigned user identities and privileges. They can also be integrated with existing identity and access management (IAM) tools to streamline and ease the complexity of user management in an ever-evolving environment.

ITDR vs. EDR

ITDR and Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) complement each other but focus on different aspects of security. EDR monitors endpoints (laptops, workstations, servers) to detect malware, exploits, and system-level attacks. In contrast, ITDR monitors identity-related activity to detect credential abuse, privilege escalation, and unauthorized access attempts.

ITDR monitors and analyzes user activity and access management logs, flagging any malicious activity. It collects data from multiple IAM sources, including on-premises and the cloud. EDR, on the other hand, monitors and analyzes endpoint devices, such as workstations and laptops. The procedure, therefore, collects system logs and network traffic to detect malicious activity in an organization’s equipment.

Combining ITDR with EDR creates a unified security approach. If an EDR system detects suspicious activity on an endpoint, ITDR helps determine whether the threat originated from compromised credentials, lateral movement, or privilege misuse—helping security teams fully understand the attack chain. In a scenario where an attacker has gained access to your network through an endpoint device, an EDR solution would detect suspicious activity on that device. Therefore, it's critical to understand how the attacker gained access and whether it resulted from leaked credentials.

Meanwhile, ITDR solutions provide deep insights into any potential identity-related threats. ITDR can quickly determine any matches between the credentials used in the malicious activity and those of authorized users. This level of visibility helps uncover the attack’s root cause and provides an opportunity to bolster your security measures to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.

Combining the capabilities of ITDR and EDR gives an organization a considerable boost in detecting and responding to sophisticated breaches and attempts at lateral movement.

Must-haves for an ITDR solution

ITDR is now a critical component of modern security architectures, driven by the rapid rise of identity-based intrusions, privilege abuse, and cloud security threats. As a result, organizations wanting to protect themselves by detecting such attacks require a solution that will meet their needs.

With this in mind, let’s explore three essentials for any ITDR solution.

1. Continuous visibility

Real-time identity visibility is essential for stopping identity threats before adversaries establish persistence. ITDR solutions must correlate authentication activity, user behavior, and privilege escalation attempts across hybrid cloud and on-premises environments. As a result, an ITDR solution must continuously aggregate data from multiple sources and perform threat analysis.

To indicate potential security threats, this action requires leveraging a combination of the following:

• Identity analytics
• Machine learning
• Behavioral analysis techniques
• Anomaly detection

When pinpointing potential threats, quick analysis through dashboards also plays a vital role.

2. Proactive control

Identity-based threats evolve rapidly, requiring ITDR solutions to deliver automated, real-time enforcement. When ITDR detects suspicious activity, it should immediately revoke access, terminate risky sessions, block lateral movement, or require step-up authentication based on risk severity.

3. Risk-based control

Not all alerts generated by a security solution are useful. Alert fatigue has profound implications that might lead to delays or threats lost in a backlog of similar alerts.

Your ITDR solution should be able to recognize false positives and prioritize according to the risk associated with the particular attacks. It must also be intelligent enough to recognize the type of attacks regularly hitting the infrastructure and then classify a threat level accordingly.

The CrowdStrike approach

The CrowdStrike Falcon® Platform platform is the industry’s only unified solution that detects and prevents identity threats in real time. By combining ITDR with EDR, Falcon eliminates security gaps that allow adversaries to exploit credentials, move laterally, and evade detection. Unlike standalone IAM or EDR solutions, Falcon ITDR applies adversary intelligence to detect credential abuse techniques—including golden ticket attacks, pass-the-hash, and MFA bypass attempts. This allows organizations to automate identity-based threat containment before attackers escalate their privileges or establish persistence. By unifying endpoint and identity telemetry, the platform provides real-time correlation of threats with the combination of threat intelligence and adversary tradecraft.

With complete visibility into attack paths, CrowdStrike covers all aspects of the adversary toolkit — including malware delivery, fileless attacks, stolen credentials, and compromised identity.

CrowdStrike has created a cloud-native solution with a single sensor that is deployable anywhere in the customer environment, vastly simplifying telemetry collection (from endpoint or identity). Falcon Identity Protection extends security beyond traditional IAM by integrating Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) to detect misconfigured cloud permissions, unauthorized API access, and excessive privileges—ensuring end-to-end identity protection.