Our Solution Partner WatchGuard has acquired CyGlass. We don't often start a blog with acquisition news, but this one is significant. It opens the gate to large-scale rollout of Open XDR. This makes the acquisition very good news for SMEs that cannot simply afford a Security Operations Center (SOC).
Today, these companies are completely exposed when it comes to threats to IT Security. For a few years now, hackers and other malicious parties have been focusing on these SME companies. Logical, because there is enough to be achieved with a successful hack, while they are less armed with effective, but more expensive IT Security. Without financial or personnel constraints, these companies probably all had XDR.
This gives these companies a broader view of network security, because it not only checks endpoints for threats. This gives you a greater line of defense around your network, so that trouble is identified more quickly.
In addition, you can closely monitor environmental factors with telemetry in XDR. This also happens outside the – on paper – lines of your network.
Open XDR for open networks
Due to working from home and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), these boundaries are no longer clear. You can then assume that all endpoints and parts of the network are secure, but that is wishful thinking. A private mobile that connects to the company network from home must be just as secured as a PC with wired internet at work.
For many reasons that is not the case now. That list is long, but for network administrators and IT staff it boils down to:
- Lack of overview and coherence
- Limited visibility of threats
- Notification overload
You can solve this with XDR. WatchGuard's ThreatSync has been a pioneer for a few years and development continues. Especially now, with the acquisition of CyGlass. Why? XDR takes all your existing tools and makes them better because of the synergy.
XDR: because hackers don't stand still either.
The open nature of Open XDR
ThreatSync does require careful implementation to understand the scope and behavior of these tools. This is one of the reasons that companies that have little standing will also have little added value. And besides, you will also need to have IT professionals in-house for this.
These two conditions are not necessary for Open XDR. Due to the open nature of the solution, the XDR is scalable. This makes it immediately attractive for smaller companies. The entry level is lower.
Fewer preconditions
But the behavior is that of an XDR solution in a full-fledged Security Operations Center of a large company. Open XDR is therefore more likely to grow with you and impose fewer conditions in advance.
Benefits that WatchGuard have also noticed. The acquisition therefore represents a significant boost for their XDR solution, ThreatSync. ThreatSync users already experience a clear advantage in threat hunting. But these are the larger companies that have the capacity and expertise to make the leap forward. With the Open XDR solution, (larger) SMEs will also discover the benefits of XDR.
Curious about what (Open) XDR means for your organization? Company size, budget or FTE is no longer an obstacle. Get the lead.
