The Vectra AI platform equips Security Operations Centers (SOCs) with an integrated signal to provide extended detection and response (XDR) to hybrid attacks at high speed and scale. In a world where cyber threats are becoming increasingly complex and infrastructures are distributed, innovative approaches to protection are vital.

Vectra AI, a recognized leader in AI-driven cyber threat detection and response, has announced the Vectra AI platform with its patented Attack Signal Intelligence™ technology, which provides integrated signals to make Extended Detection and Response (XDR) a reality. With the Vectra AI platform, enterprises can integrate public cloud, identity system, SaaS, and network signals with existing endpoint detection and response (EDR) signals to empower SOC teams to keep pace with the ever-increasing complexity, speed, and scale of hybrid attacks.

Why modern SOCs need XDR: the “spiral of more”

As enterprises increasingly deploy applications, workloads, and data to hybrid and multi-cloud environments, threat detection and response become more fragmented and complex. Traditional security tools, operating in isolation, often fail to provide the full visibility and event correlation needed to detect sophisticated, multi-stage attacks.

Without an effective solution to counter advanced hybrid adversaries, security teams face a vicious “spiral of more,” consisting of:

More attack vectors: The expanding digital attack surface includes on-premises networks, cloud infrastructures (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS), mobile devices, and IoT.
More evasive attacker techniques: Modern cybercriminals use more sophisticated tactics, such as fileless attacks, hidden communication channels, and legitimate tools to bypass defenses.
More alerts: The growing number of disparate tools generates a huge volume of alerts, most of which are false positives or low-priority events. According to the Vectra AI “State of Threat Detection 2023” report, 67% of SOC analysts report that they cannot cope with the number of daily alerts. This leads to “alert fatigue,” where critical threats can be missed.
More SOC analyst workload and burnout: An excessive volume of alerts and routine operations lead to analyst overload and burnout. The same study found that 63% of SOC analysts report that the size of their attack surface has increased over the past three years, and a significant portion of them are considering leaving their jobs.

The Vectra AI platform enables security teams to operate at the speed of modern hybrid attackers and detect behavior that other tools cannot. By leveraging artificial intelligence capabilities to analyze attacker behavior and automatically triage, correlate, and prioritize security incidents, the Vectra AI platform provides an integrated signal that powers XDR.

“For us, it’s always about outcomes, not acronyms. It’s about the end goal, not some prescribed definition of how to get there. With Vectra AI, we’re achieving our end goals, stopping advanced adversaries, modernizing our security operations, and ultimately increasing our cyber resilience,” said Jay DePaul, Director of Cybersecurity and Technology Risk at Dun & Bradstreet.

According to Jon Oltsik, Distinguished Analyst and Fellow at Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG): “Regardless of how XDR is defined, security professionals are interested in using XDR so that it can help them address multiple threat detection and response challenges. XDR seems like an attractive option because existing tools are difficult to detect and investigate complex threats, require specialized skills, and are inefficient at correlating alerts. In summary, CISOs need XDR tools that can improve security effectiveness, especially with regard to advanced threat detection. Additionally, they want XDR to optimize security operations and improve staff productivity.”

Integrated Signal Across all Hybrid Attack Surfaces

The Vectra AI platform unifies proprietary and third-party attack signals across hybrid cloud domains, including AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Azure AD, networks of all types, and endpoints using the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) tool of choice. This integration provides full visibility into the threat landscape. The integrated signal of the Vectra AI Platform enables security teams to:

Cover over 90% of MITRE ATT&CK techniques with patented and validated MITRE D3FEND countermeasures. This allows teams to effectively detect and respond to known Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) used by attackers.
Combine behavior-based detection, signatures, and AI-driven threat analysis for the most accurate representation of current active attacks. This provides a multi-layered approach to threat detection, reducing false positives and increasing accuracy.
Map attacker progress and lateral movement from data center to cloud, from cloud to data center, and from cloud to cloud. This capability is critical for understanding the full scope of an attack and containing it.
Build and refine threat hunting programs and conduct in-depth forensic investigations. The enriched data and context provided by the platform significantly simplify these complex processes.

Automating Hybrid Attack Detection with Real-time Attack Signal Analysis

Vectra AI Attack Signal Intelligence uses patented artificial intelligence to automate threat detection, triage, and prioritization across hybrid cloud domains by:

Focusing on attacker behavior: Analysis is performed across multiple dimensions to identify real attacks among many other signals, while patented Privileged Access Analytics (PAA) focuses on accounts most valuable to attackers.
Learning unique customer environments: The system learns from each customer’s unique data to distinguish between malicious and benign events, helping to eliminate up to 80% of alert noise. This significantly improves the efficiency of analysts.
Prioritizing entities (hosts and accounts): The system prioritizes entities across domains based on urgency and importance. According to Vectra AI statistics, this saves individual SOC analysts over three hours per day on alert triage, allowing them to focus on the most critical incidents.

Accelerating Hybrid Attack Investigations with the Respond UX Experience

With Vectra AI, security teams accelerate investigations and response with integrated investigations sophisticated enough for experienced analysts and simple enough for junior analysts. This makes the platform accessible to professionals of varying skill levels. New capabilities include:

Instant investigations: Equip analysts of all skill levels with quick guides to begin investigating priority entities under attack, significantly reducing initial response time.
Advanced Investigation: Allows forensic analysis of Azure AD, Microsoft 365, or AWS Control Plane logs directly within the platform’s user interface (UI). This eliminates the need to switch between different tools and platforms.
AI-powered investigations: Use large language models (LLMs) to provide analysts with a simple way to gather a 360-degree context of attacked entities, including information on TTPs, impact, and response recommendations.

Execute Targeted Response Actions Natively or Through Ecosystem Integrations and APIs

The Vectra AI platform empowers humans to control response by offering flexible response actions, both built-in and orchestrated, using over 40 ecosystem integrations to:

Manually or automatically block an account or isolate an endpoint: This allows for quick containment of the attack.
Launch playbooks and workflows with Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR): Integration with SOAR platforms allows for the automation of routine tasks and accelerates incident response.
Optimize ticketing, communication, and escalation processes for incident response, ensuring seamless team collaboration.

Leverage a Hybrid SOC Model with Vectra Managed Detection and Response (MDR)

SOC teams continue to struggle as the volume and diversity of high-speed hybrid and multi-cloud attacks grow. With the Vectra AI platform, enterprises can leverage analyst augmentation in the form of MDR services, including:

Shared roles and responsibilities for monitoring, detection, investigation, hunting, and response: MDR providers can take on a significant portion of routine work, allowing internal teams to focus on strategic tasks.
Shared analytics of attacker behavior and new attacker skills, tactics, methods, and procedures: Experienced analysts at MDR services constantly update their knowledge and detection methods.
Shared transparency in service level agreements, metrics, and reporting: Customers gain a clear understanding of the effectiveness of MDR services.

“The existing approach to threat detection and response is fundamentally broken as more organizations move to hybrid environments and security teams continue to face increasing cloud complexity, alert fatigue, and analyst burnout,” said Hitesh Sheth, President and CEO of Vectra AI. “Our best-in-class platform, as a pioneer in AI-driven threat detection and response, provides the most accurate integrated signal across the hybrid enterprise to make XDR a reality at speed and scale.”

Vectra AI – a Valuable Asset for Cybersecurity in Ukraine via NWU

Vectra AI is a powerful solution that can help organizations protect themselves from modern attacks, including those leveraging the capabilities of Generative AI (GenAI). With its ability to accurately and quickly detect GenAI-driven attacks, as well as provide visibility and ease of use, the Vectra AI platform is a valuable addition to any cybersecurity program. GenAI-driven attacks, for example, can automate phishing, create more plausible malware, and accelerate the target reconnaissance process, making them extremely dangerous. Vectra AI is capable of detecting behavioral anomalies associated with such attacks, even if signatures are not yet known.

Thanks to NWU, the official distributor of Vectra AI in Ukraine, it is now possible for Ukrainian IT companies to buy NDR (Network Detection and Response) from a global leader, which is an integral part of the SOC triad. This allows Ukrainian enterprises to use advanced technologies to protect their critical assets.

Want to buy NDR for SOC or order a test of the Vectra AI solution in Ukraine? Contact NWU today to learn more about how Vectra AI can strengthen your cybersecurity!