At first glance, endpoint detection and response (EDR) and security information and event management (SIEM) solutions may seem more alike than they are different. But though both are designed to help detect and manage security threats, each tool works in a different way and establishes different capabilities for the organization.

In this post, we’ll explore these two solutions, their functionalities, their strengths and limitations, and how they can work together to enable a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy.

What is SIEM?

Security information and event management solutions are centralized platforms that ingest and aggregate security data from multiple, disjointed tools across an organization’s entire digital estate, including on-premises and cloud environments. SIEMs use advanced analytics and machine learning techniques to detect suspicious activities, anomalies, and potential security breaches in real time or near real time, all while providing analysts with the right context and enabling prioritization.

A SIEM is made up of two distinct components:

1. Security information management (SIM): Capabilities that focus on collecting and managing logs and other security data.
2. Security event management (SEM): Real-time analysis and reporting of data gathered by the SIM.

Why is SIEM important?

Given the explosion of data in recent years, SIEMs are an important part of a cybersecurity strategy. Together, these tools and services pull data from every corner of an environment and aggregate it in a single centralized platform. From there, teams can more easily analyze data from all network applications and hardware at any time, helping organizations recognize potential security threats before they have a chance to disrupt business operations. A SIEM also enables the organization to quickly generate alerts, create reports, and support incident response efforts.

Pros and cons of SIEMs

Pros of SIEMs

• Efficiency gains: A SIEM leverages advanced technologies — such as AI and machine learning (ML) — to automate core activities within the security operations center (SOC). This can dramatically reduce the time IT teams spend on routine and relatively low-level tasks, such as reporting. Having a SIEM enables the organization to economically scale critical, higher-value tasks, such as data analysis and system monitoring.
• Cost savings: Though operating a SIEM requires a financial investment, establishing this capability allows the company to optimize limited resources — including people. Generally speaking, the cost of having a human perform the tasks completed by a SIEM would far outweigh the cost of the tool. In addition, having a SIEM tends to enable faster, more accurate threat detection, which also helps reduce the costs associated with responding to and recovering from a security event.
• Threat detection and mitigation: The amount of data produced across the entire network is impossible for humans to gather and store, much less analyze and respond to. SIEMs automate these processes and provide people with information in an accessible, digestible way. This allows organizations to prioritize and respond to threats more easily and quickly, which improves both detection and mitigation efforts.
• Improved compliance: SIEMs often include built-in reporting functionalities. When properly configured, leveraging these tools to automate regulatory reporting reduces the risk of violations and any associated fines or penalties. In the case of an audit, having a SIEM also helps the company produce any required data quickly and with minimal effort.

Cons of SIEMs

• Generic alerts: SIEMs provide general threat alerts for a variety of data sources and vendors, which requires security teams to tune those detections for their specific environment. Furthermore, because these tools do not typically control the contents or structure of the data logs, they may not provide hyper-accurate detections for key data sources, including endpoint, cloud, and identity data.
• Delayed alerts: SIEMs do not produce alerts based on real-time monitoring services — instead, they produce alerts based on log data that is then analyzed. As such, alerts produced by the system may be outdated by the time they are investigated by the security team, especially if there is a backlog of events that need to be reviewed due to lack of prioritization.
• Incomplete security coverage: Put simply, a SIEM is just one component within a broader cybersecurity strategy. It cannot take the place of other security solutions, especially those focused on prevention or response.

The benefits of next-gen SIEM

An evolving and advancing threat landscape — coupled with an explosion of data — has prompted a wave of technology innovation leading to the emergence of next-gen SIEMs.

A next-gen SIEM is a cutting-edge, cloud-native solution that significantly enhances detection, prevention, and remediation capabilities while solving many of the challenges associated with legacy SIEM solutions.

Next-gen SIEM solutions leverage artificial intelligence and cloud capabilities to offer superior scalability, lower latency, and higher search performance — all within a unified SOC platform and at a lower cost than traditional SIEM solutions.

Other advanced features of next-gen SIEM include:

• Incident grouping and prioritization
• Comprehensive threat detection, investigation, and response (TDIR) capabilities
• Native support for key data sources, including endpoint data, through close integration with EDR tools
• Integration with identity protection tools

In addition to the features listed above, one of the key strengths and differentiators of a next-gen SIEM is its ability to process diverse streaming telemetry. This provides security teams with comprehensive, real-time visibility of risks and vulnerabilities across the IT environment. Combined with integrated threat intelligence, this capability helps SOC teams proactively identify and mitigate security threats of all kinds.

What is EDR?

Endpoint detection and response, also referred to as endpoint detection and threat response (EDTR), is an endpoint security solution that continuously monitors end-user devices to detect and respond to cyber threats.

EDR security solutions record the activities and events taking place on endpoints and all workloads, providing security teams with the visibility they need to uncover incidents that would otherwise remain invisible.

Why is EDR important?

In the modern threat landscape, sophisticated and committed adversaries will eventually find a way to circumvent defenses, no matter how advanced the security strategy and toolset may be. This means that even the most robust preventative measures are no longer enough to protect an organization and its assets.

EDR offers advanced TDIR capabilities, safeguarding the organization from adversaries that may have slipped through defenses. High-quality EDR also includes incident data search and investigation alert triage, suspicious activity validation, threat hunting, and malicious activity detection and containment, automating or expediting some of the core functions of detection and incident response efforts.

Pros and cons of EDR

Pros of EDR

• Efficiency gains and cost reductions: Like SIEM, EDR offers organizations valuable efficiency gains and cost reduction through automation. In the case of EDR, the benefits may be even more pronounced — EDR tools offer automated response capabilities, supporting another core activity within the SOC.
• Improved threat detection and proactive defense: An advanced EDR solution can analyze billions of events in real time across endpoints and apply behavioral analytics to pinpoint indicators of attack (IOAs), the precursor to a security event. EDR solutions can also be integrated with cyber threat intelligence services to deliver contextualized information about the adversary and their tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) to threat hunters and other security team members. By leveraging these capabilities, organizations can proactively prevent breaches and/or effectively contain damages once an event is in progress.
• Real-time and historical visibility: Think of EDR like an endpoint DVR, recording relevant activity that indicates an attack is being planned or is underway. With the help of an EDR tool, teams can review historical information to better understand the adversary’s pathways and goals. They can also monitor activity in real time, silently observing their methods. This information can be incredibly helpful for responding to urgent events and protecting the organization by effectively pinpointing gaps or weaknesses within the security toolset that need to be addressed.

Cons of EDR

• Endpoint-focused coverage and visibility of the IT environment: EDR solutions are focused on monitoring and protecting the endpoint — they do not provide complete visibility into the entire IT environment. Organizations must rely on other tools to secure other elements of the environment, such as networks, application data, and identities.
• System impact: Like legacy antivirus (AV) solutions, some legacy EDR products can significantly slow down the performance of the endpoint, impacting day-to-day operations and individual productivity. This does not apply to solutions that are deployed via the cloud using a single lightweight agent.
• Complex deployment and updates: Some EDR products may require manual support to install or update, and others may not protect the device until it is restarted. This could potentially create a gap in the organization’s security defenses, as any unprotected device could provide a gateway to the network. This does not apply to solutions that can be deployed and updated remotely via the cloud.

Differentiators between SIEM and EDR

Before we discuss the differentiators between EDR and SIEM, let’s review the similarities:

Both EDR and SIEM:

• Are security solutions that focus on incident detection and response
• Collect and analyze data
• Produce alerts when a potential threat is detected
• Support additional cybersecurity capabilities — such as threat hunting — through data collection and analysis
• Improve visibility into the security posture and health of an organization

Despite their similarities in definition and function, EDR and SIEM differ in several significant ways. In the chart below, we outline some of the key differences between these solutions.

How can SIEM and EDR work together?

Now that we have explored SIEM and EDR in detail, it is clear that organizations should not choose between these two solutions — instead, they should incorporate and connect these two tools within their broader security strategy to strengthen their security posture.

Because SIEM and EDR tools differ in terms of their area of focus and capabilities, they can be used in tandem to eliminate the gaps and blind spots that exist within each individual tool.

Here, we present an overview of how these two tools can come together to provide next-level security for organizations:

Though SIEM and EDR are two critical components within every robust cybersecurity strategy, they are far from the only tools and services that organizations should leverage to protect themselves in a rapidly evolving threat landscape.

If you have questions about how to create a comprehensive security strategy and toolset, CrowdStrike can help. Please contact our security experts to learn more about how the CrowdStrike Falcon® platform brings together the power of advanced EDR and next-gen SIEM to deliver superior security outcomes at a fraction of the cost of siloed SOC tools. Together, our AI-native platform and market-leading solutions can help your organization stay a step ahead of adversaries — whether they’re targeting endpoints, networks, or anywhere in between.

Visit our product page for CrowdStrike Falcon® Next-Gen SIEM and CrowdStrike Falcon® Insight XDR to learn more and request a demo today!