Understanding Trend Micro XDR Platform, Service, and Process

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, cybersecurity has never been more critical. Trend Micro XDR stands at the forefront of advanced threat detection and response, offering a comprehensive solution within the broader Trend Micro cybersecurity ecosystem. However, to grasp its full scope, it’s essential to delve into specifics like trend micro XDR pricing, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of this proactive cybersecurity solution. In this blog, we will provide a comprehensive understanding of how Trend Micro XDR serves as a proactive, collaborative, and holistic cybersecurity solution, protecting IT environments against emerging cyber security threats while fostering transparency and continuous improvement. Continue reading until the end to find out!

What is Trend Micro XDR?

Trend Micro XDR is an integral component of the broader Trend Micro cybersecurity ecosystem, offering advanced capabilities in extended detection and response (XDR). This cybersecurity solution operates within the Trend Micro Vision One platform, a comprehensive suite designed to enhance threat detection, investigation, and response processes while harnessing the power of threat intelligence.

At its core, Trend Micro XDR functions through a well-defined cycle encompassing multiple crucial phases: threat detection, forensic investigation, response to security incidents, detailed reporting, and ongoing service assessment. This suite encompasses various Managed XDR services, each meticulously crafted to cater to specific security domains, including endpoints, cloud workloads, networks, messaging, and alerting.

Trend Micro Vision One Platform

The Trend Micro Vision One platform serves as the overarching framework for Trend Micro XDR, seamlessly integrating with other Trend Micro solutions such as Apex One, Cloud One, and Cloud App Security. This integrated approach enables the collection and correlation of extensive activity data from a multitude of sources, including email, endpoints, servers, cloud workloads, and network traffic. Compared to traditional Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) or singular security solutions, Vision One significantly augments the ability to detect and investigate complex threats by enriching security events with context derived from various layers of the IT environment. This contextual understanding can swiftly transform seemingly innocuous events into indicators of a substantial security breach, facilitating rapid response and mitigation by security analysts.

Furthermore, Vision One boasts an essential SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) connector, facilitating the aggregation of alerts from multiple Trend Micro products and other security tools. This consolidation improves alert reliability and reduces the volume of alerts that require manual handling. SIEM alerts directly link to Vision One’s XDR Investigation Workbench, offering access to additional context and expediting investigation and response processes.

To bolster its threat detection capabilities, Vision One leverages threat intelligence from the Trend Micro Smart Protection Network, featuring regularly updated detection rules that enhance the accuracy of the platform’s analytic models, thereby increasing its ability to identify threats within the environment.

Trend Micro Managed XDR

Within the Trend Micro Vision One platform, the suite of Managed XDR services plays a pivotal role. These services combine advanced threat detection tools with a team of cybersecurity services experts capable of monitoring, analyzing, alerting, and responding to potential threats.

The Managed XDR services span various domains:

Managed XDR for Endpoints

This service meticulously records system behavior and events at both user and kernel levels. Leveraging a lightweight agent and Trend Micro EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) and endpoint protection tools, it provides real-time, contextual event tracking. Moreover, it offers continuous monitoring of servers for threat detection.

Managed XDR for Cloud Workloads

This service amalgamates Trend Micro Deep Security with Trend Micro Managed XDR. Deep Security specializes in safeguarding cloud, container, and virtual environments, offering protection against malware, unauthorized changes, and vulnerabilities. It sends pertinent information, such as file integrity monitoring data and server activity metadata, to Trend Micro XDR for cross-environment visibility.

Managed XDR for Networks

Combining Trend Micro Deep Discovery Inspector with MDR (Managed Detection and Response), this service scrutinizes network traffic, aiming to detect advanced threats or targeted attacks both within and traversing the network. It actively identifies evasive activities like command and control communications and malware, sending alerts to the MDR solution for further analysis.

Managed XDR for Messaging

This service, powered by Trend Micro Cloud App Security and Trend Micro Managed XDR, focuses on detecting threats such as phishing and preventing their escalation. Cloud App Security provides advanced threat protection for cloud file sharing and email services, such as Gmail, Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft Office 365, and Box, and scans for indicators of compromise (IoCs) when integrated with Trend Micro Managed XDR.

Trend Micro Security Agent Monitoring and Alerting

One of the key strengths of Trend Micro Managed XDR lies in its 24/7 event monitoring capabilities. All network and endpoint events are continuously transmitted in real-time to the Trend Micro Security Operations Center (SOC) in the form of logs or alerts. These events are meticulously prioritized and validated, ensuring that critical security incidents receive immediate attention. When a critical security event is detected, it undergoes remote investigation using the logged data and is escalated to the customer for an appropriate response.

All in all, Trend Micro XDR, within the broader Vision One platform, is a sophisticated cybersecurity solution that integrates advanced threat detection, investigation, and response capabilities. Its Managed XDR services cater to various security domains, ensuring comprehensive protection. This ecosystem is underpinned by continuous monitoring, robust threat intelligence, and a commitment to proactive threat mitigation and response.

How Does Trend Micro Managed XDR Work?

Trend Micro Managed XDR operates through a meticulously structured process, ensuring comprehensive threat management and response:

Detection

• Utilizes automated, analytics-driven alarm monitoring to swiftly pinpoint events warranting deeper investigation.
• Conducts proactive scans of your environment to identify signs of newly discovered intrusions (IoCs) or attacks (IoAs), drawing from IoCs and IoAs observed in other customer environments and third-party disclosures, including information from US-CERT.
• Seamlessly integrates with other Trend Micro solutions, harnessing their detection capabilities to enhance threat identification.

Investigation

• Upon detecting an attack, Trend Micro’s expert analysts embark on creating a thorough root cause analysis. This includes examining attack vectors, dwell time, spread, and impact to comprehensively understand the nature of the threat.
• Leverages Trend Micro’s Intelligent Protection Network, which collaborates with security researchers from 15 global threat research centers. This extensive network aids in consolidating data and gaining valuable insights into the methods and actors behind the threat.
• Allows direct collaboration between customers and Trend Micro security analysts throughout the investigation and response process, ensuring a holistic and informed approach to threat management.

Response

• Proactively prevents future attacks by automatically responding to identified threats and IoCs in a manner that effectively contains threats and addresses security vulnerabilities.
• Provides a well-defined, step-by-step response plan for remediation, coupled with custom cleanup tools designed to aid in the recovery from attacks.
• Implements continuous scanning of IT systems to identify recurring threats, thereby minimizing the risk of persistent or evolving attacks.

Reports

• Offers comprehensive information on as many threat alerts as possible, generating incident cases that include detailed insights about affected hosts, IoCs, and recommended mitigation actions.
• Provides a monthly report summarizing the previous month’s case activity. These reports are accessible through the Customer Success Portal and are also sent via email to specified recipients, ensuring transparency and accountability.

Service Reviews

• Conducts periodic service reviews, typically on a quarterly basis, to evaluate the performance of the Trend Micro XDR service. These reviews encompass a thorough assessment of service performance, major events and incidents, fault analysis, change requests, cybersecurity metrics & KPIs to track, and implementation effectiveness.
• Offers valuable recommendations for improvement based on the insights gathered during these reviews, ensuring that the Trend Micro Managed XDR service continually evolves to meet evolving security challenges and customer needs.

Trend Micro Managed XDR operates as a proactive, collaborative, and holistic cybersecurity solution that seamlessly integrates detection, investigation, response, and reporting. It leverages expert analysis, global threat intelligence, and automation to safeguard IT environments against emerging threats while providing transparency and opportunities for ongoing improvement.

The Bottom Line

Trend Micro XDR is a pivotal component within the comprehensive Trend Micro cybersecurity ecosystem, offering advanced capabilities in extended detection and response. Operating seamlessly within the Trend Micro Vision One platform, it provides an integrated and contextual approach to threat detection, investigation, and response, enhancing security across multiple domains. The suite of Managed XDR services caters to endpoints, cloud workloads, networks, messaging, and alerting, ensuring comprehensive protection. With 24/7 event monitoring, robust threat intelligence, and a commitment to proactive threat mitigation, Trend Micro XDR stands as a sophisticated cybersecurity solution. Its structured process, from detection to response and reporting, fosters transparency and ongoing improvement, making it a valuable asset in safeguarding IT environments against emerging threats.