Detect Fast, Respond Safely, Prove Everything
EDR / MDR / XDR is your stacked strategy for finding real threats quickly, stopping them safely, and shipping audit-ready evidence.
SolveForce designs, deploys, and operates these capabilities so they work together—with identity, network, cloud, and data controls—under a Zero-Trust model.
Where this lives in the SolveForce system:
🔒 Security (Semantics) → Cybersecurity • 📊 Analytics/Automation → SIEM / SOAR
🔑 Identity & Access → IAM / SSO / MFA • 🔐 ZTNA/SASE → ZTNA • SASE
🖧 East–West → NDR • ☁️ Cloud → Cloud • 🛠️ Ops → Patch Management • NOC Services
🎯 What Each Piece Means (Clear and Practical)
- EDR — Endpoint Detection & Response
Agent on endpoints/servers that collects process, script, file, registry, and network telemetry; raises detections; enables isolate/kill/quarantine and forensic collection.
→ Deep dive: EDR (endpoint-focused page) - MDR — Managed Detection & Response
24×7 service operating on top of EDR/XDR + SIEM/SOAR to triage, investigate, and contain incidents—then report with executive evidence.
→ Details: MDR - XDR — Extended Detection & Response
Correlates endpoint + network + identity + email/web + cloud signals, reduces noise, and coordinates response across domains via SOAR.
→ Details: XDR
Quick rule: Start with EDR for host truth, add MDR for 24×7 response, lift to XDR to cut false positives and contain across identity/network/cloud.
🧱 Architecture (Four Layers Working Together)
1) Collect & Normalize – EDR agents, NDR sensors, IdP/SSO logs, email/web gateways, cloud control-plane, app/API logs → normalized schema.
2) Detect & Correlate – rules, sequences, baselines (UEBA), intel → high-confidence alerts (XDR).
3) Decide – risk policy + approvals: contain now, step-up MFA, quarantine, rotate secrets, or escalate.
4) Act & Prove – SOAR runs playbooks (isolate host, block domain/IP, NAC quarantine, SD-WAN pin, ZTNA revoke), then writes back evidence to SIEM and cases.
→ See: SIEM / SOAR • NAC • SD-WAN • BGP Management
🔍 Telemetry We Use (and Why)
- Endpoints (EDR) — process trees, command lines, script telemetry, kernel/file events, persistence; fastest host truth.
- Network (NDR) — east–west + egress (DNS, TLS SNI/JA3, flows/PCAP metadata); finds lateral movement/beacons/exfil where agents can’t run. → NDR
- Identity — IdP sign-ins (SAML/OIDC), MFA outcomes, privilege changes; detects account takeover early. → IAM / SSO / MFA
- Email/Web — phishing/BEC verdicts, sandbox results, SWG/CASB; stops the front-door. → SASE • WAF / Bot Management
- Cloud/Kubernetes — CloudTrail/Activity logs, API abuse, storage/object moves, k8s audit; closes cloud blind spots. → Cloud
- Data Security — DLP events, watermark/read-only actions; proves containment of sensitive data. → DLP
🚨 High-Value Detections (ATT&CK-Aligned)
- Ransomware Behavior — rapid file encryption + shadow-copy tamper + suspicious parent tree → isolate host, kill process, hash block, restore path.
- C2 + Credential Misuse — periodic beacons + Kerberos anomalies/SSO token abuse → isolate, revoke sessions, rotate secrets (PAM). → PAM
- Lateral Movement — SMB enum/RDP valid + new service/SchTasks + admin group add → NAC quarantine, kill process, notify IAM. → NAC
- Data Exfil — big egress to new ASN/cloud bucket + DLP hits + odd time/geo → block egress, lock account, open IR case. → Incident Response
- BEC (Business Email Compromise) — inbox rule + lookalike domain + impossible travel → token revoke, tenant purge, finance alert.
🧰 Orchestrated Response (Safe by Design)
- Endpoints — isolate host; kill/quarantine file/process; take triage bundle. → EDR
- Network — FW/WAF rule push, NAC quarantine, SD-WAN path pin/blackhole, Anycast withdraw. → NAC • SD-WAN • WAF / Bot Management
- Identity — session revoke, step-up MFA, account lock, PAM rotate. → IAM / SSO / MFA • PAM
- Cloud/SaaS — disable keys, freeze buckets, snapshot disks, CASB session control. → Cloud • SASE
- Data — quarantine object, watermark, route to tokenization. → DLP
Safety rails: human approvals for destructive steps, simulation/dry-run, blast-radius caps, automatic rollback/circuit-breaker, change IDs via ITSM.
📐 SLO Guardrails (Experience & Fidelity You Can Prove)
| Metric | Target (Sev-1) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mean Time To Detect (MTTD) | ≤ 5 min | XDR correlation + tuned rules |
| Mean Time To Contain (MTTC) | ≤ 15–30 min | SOAR playbooks + approvals |
| EDR Agent Coverage | ≥ 98–99% | Exceptions documented & risked |
| Alert Precision (priority rules) | ≥ 92–95% | After weekly tuning |
| False-Positive Rate | ≤ 5–8% | Track per use case |
| Evidence Completeness (Sev-1/2) | 100% | Timeline + artifacts + actions |
Dashboards live in SIEM/SOAR and the NOC; monthly reports track MTTD/MTTR, precision/recall, auto-contain %, and noise reduction.
→ SIEM / SOAR • NOC Services
🧪 Tuning & Noise Reduction (Weekly Loop)
1) Review false positives/negatives; adjust sequences, intel, thresholds; retire noisy rules.
2) Promote successful hunts to rules; remove rules that never fire.
3) Validate ingestion lag and parser health (schema drift = bad detections).
4) AIOps to dedupe flaps and correlate multi-signal incidents. → NOC Services
☁️ Cloud & Hybrid Patterns (Real-World Starting Points)
- EDR → XDR Start — keep your EDR; add identity + NDR + email + cloud to raise fidelity quickly. → NDR
- Colo Hub + On-Ramps — put detection close to Direct Connect/ExpressRoute/Interconnect; deterministic paths for crown-jewel apps. → Direct Connect • Colocation
- Remote/OT/IoT — where agents can’t run, rely on NDR, NAC, and ZTNA to detect/contain. → NAC • ZTNA
🔒 Zero-Trust Interlock (Identity → Device → Network → Data)
- Identity — SSO/MFA, adaptive risk, step-up for admin actions. → IAM / SSO / MFA
- Device — UEM posture gates access; non-compliant devices quarantined. → MDM / UEM
- Network — micro-isolation with NAC/SD-WAN/SASE; Anycast withdraw for sick POPs. → SASE
- Data — DLP rules, tokenization, and watermarks enforced inline. → DLP
🧾 Reporting, Evidence & Compliance
- Cases — alert → triage → actions → closure with artifacts (PCAPs/hashes/logs), owners, approvals, RCAs.
- Executive IR — scope, dwell time, impacted assets, controls added; share with audit.
- Mappings — PCI DSS, HIPAA, ISO 27001, NIST 800-53/171, CMMC; exportable evidence packs.
All events flow to SIEM; actions executed via SOAR with immutability options for retention. → SIEM / SOAR
🧰 Implementation Blueprint (No-Surprise Rollout)
- Source inventory — EDR, NDR, IdP, email/web, cloud, FW/WAF, DLP, ticketing.
- Schemas & parsers — normalized fields (host/user/src/dst/action/severity/labels).
- Priority use cases — ransomware, ATO/BEC, exfil, lateral movement; set precision/recall targets.
- Playbooks & approvals — isolate/kill/block/revoke/rotate/snapshot; blast-radius caps; rollback.
- SLOs & dashboards — MTTD/MTTR, precision/recall, coverage %, ingestion lag.
- Drills — quarantine VLAN, token revoke, WAF virtual patch, sinkhole; record RCAs. → Tabletop Exercises
- Operate & tune — weekly loop; publish wins and next steps.
💵 Commercials (What Drives Cost)
- Seat/endpoint count (workstations, servers, VDI).
- Telemetry scope (EDR-only vs. XDR cross-domain).
- Retention (hot/warm/cold days) and log egress.
- SOAR playbook volume and approval gates.
- 24×7 MDR vs. business hours, and reporting cadence.
We model TCO vs. in-house best-effort—showing improvements in MTTD/MTTR, noise reduction, and audit readiness.
✅ Pre-Engagement Checklist
- 📄 Fleet inventory, critical apps, crown-jewel systems, cloud regions.
- 🔗 Integrations: IdP/SSO, EDR/NDR, email/web, cloud, NAC/SD-WAN/SASE, SIEM/SOAR, ticketing.
- 🧭 Use-case priorities and SLOs (MTTD, MTTC, precision/recall, evidence).
- 👤 Approvals matrix for isolate/lock/rotate actions.
- 🧪 Drill calendar (ransomware, ATO, exfil, blackhole).
- 🧾 Evidence format & cadence for exec/audit.
🔄 Where EDR / MDR / XDR Fits (Recursive View)
1) Grammar — signals traverse Connectivity and the Networks & Data Centers fabric.
2) Syntax — delivery patterns in Cloud inform sensor placement and action scope.
3) Semantics — Cybersecurity preserves truth; detections prove it.
4) Pragmatics — SolveForce AI enriches, deduplicates, and launches safe automation.
5) Foundation — shared terms under Primacy of Language.
6) Map — indexed across the SolveForce Codex & Knowledge Hub.
📞 Launch EDR / MDR / XDR with Confidence
Reduce noise, detect faster, contain safely, and prove outcomes with evidence.
Related pages:
Cybersecurity • EDR • MDR • XDR • NDR • SIEM / SOAR • IAM / SSO / MFA • ZTNA • SASE • DLP • Direct Connect • Incident Response • Knowledge Hub