Q & A
EDITOR ’ S
To effectively address today ’ s advanced threats , organisations require visibility and control across their entire distributed networks . And while many security solutions are limited in terms of their capabilities , extended detection and response can help fill the gap . Organisations must bring together all their security tools in a single location for enhanced visibility . For example , they can consolidate network security , endpoint security , email security and cloud security monitoring in a single platform to ensure the whole is greater than the sum of its parts . This enables channel
SHANE GRENNAN , REGIONAL DIRECTOR CHANNEL SALES , GSI & ALLIANCES , BDM SALES SPECIALISTS , MIDDLE EAST , FORTINET
partners to deliver a differentiated customer offering that improves security posture while reducing security operations overhead .
Even before the implementation , when evaluating an endpoint solution , resellers should consider different key factors in choosing the right vendor .
First , many vendors ’ solutions do not cover the entire attack surface . Instead , they focus on securing one or a few different attack vectors individually , such as cloud , email or endpoints and call it XDR or extended detection and response . When this is the case , XDR cannot demonstrate its true value , which lies in its ability to combine components across multiple attack vectors . Secondly , even though they may offer a full range of security products and solutions , vendors that have acquired these components ( especially ones with large install bases ) individually over time may lack the resources and commitment for tight integration needed for higher-value analytics and automation . Third , most all vendors seem to focus on extended detection and extended response , skipping over the middle stage of investigation and validation . As a result , human security professionals still have significant effort ahead of themespecially as threat and alert volumes continue to grow .
Given that endpoint security management is the number one priority for many organisations in MEA , designing and executing an effective incident detection and response strategy requires talented security professionals . But this is difficult due to a dire security skills shortage . According to the 2019 Cybersecurity Workforce Study conducted by ( ISC ), over 4 million new cybersecurity workers are currently needed to meet global demand . And forecasters predict that this gap will only continue to widen and just as the cyberthreat landscape grows more complex .
As a result , if organisations fail to fill key positions quickly , the resulting coverage gaps will weaken endpoint security and increase workplace stress for existing staff . With that in mind , organisations should look for an XDR solution that has been augmented with Artificial Intelligence ( AI ) trained to automatically investigate alerts . That AI system should be able to establish the context of a potential incident , perform a thorough investigation , identify its nature and scope and ideally provide enough detail to speed response . A well-trained AI system can perform this function in a matter of seconds , and scale much easier and affordably than finding and relying on scarce human investigators .
At the beginning of the year , we launched FortiXDR , the only solution of its kind to leverage AI for the investigation effort critical to incident response . Expanding on the cloud-native endpoint platform of FortiEDR , it enhances an organisation ’ s security fabric and the threat protection powered by FortiGuard Labs security services .
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