Breaking Down the Real Meaning of an XDR Solution
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Discover how anomaly detection strengthens IoT security, prevents cyber threats, and protects
Organizations often lack a complete, up-to-date inventory of their IT assets – servers, endpoints, cloud instances, IoT devices, and more – creating security blind spots. Attackers exploit these unknown devices and outdated systems. Without knowing “what you have, you can’t protect it.” Poor asset visibility dramatically increases risk: you’re slower to spot breaches, can’t prioritize defenses, and may fail compliance checks. On average, companies take hundreds of days to detect breaches simply because they didn’t know every asset that could be attacked.
The consequences are real. One missed device can hide malware or leak data for months. Analysts end up chasing false alarms on low-value machines while real threats roam on critical servers. Weak inventory means vulnerability scans miss targets and incident response is blind – you don’t know which systems were hit. Organizations rely on outdated spreadsheets or siloed CMDBs that overlook cloud workloads and unmanaged devices. In short, threat detection is crippled without a solid asset foundation.
The cure is to build a real-time, risk-informed asset inventory as the bedrock of security. Continuously discovering and classifying every device gives defenders the complete picture they need. With full asset visibility, you can focus detection on high-value targets and map suspicious activity to specific systems. In the sections below, we’ll show why this inventory is essential, how to build it, and how it supercharges threat detection – with concrete guidance and examples.
Let’s explore how to make asset discovery and management the foundation of robust threat detection.
A detailed asset inventory is the starting point of effective threat detection and risk management. Security and compliance frameworks assume you know what’s in your environment. Without it, you can’t assess risk or enforce controls. In other words, “you cannot protect what you cannot see.” A complete, real-time inventory lets your team pinpoint where vulnerabilities lie and align threat intelligence to the actual systems at risk. It’s not just a checkbox – it’s the foundation for every security decision. Security programs depend on accurate inventories, and without this visibility organizations cannot effectively manage risk or respond to incidents.
Organizations that do maintain up-to-date inventories find it much easier to detect anomalies. With a known baseline of assets and their configurations, any unexpected device or unusual communication immediately stands out. Many companies are investing in exposure management, recognizing that “you must have complete visibility into each asset, its potential security gaps, and how it is being used” to proactively detect and mitigate threats.
Let’s see how it’s done.
Creating a dynamic, risk-aware inventory requires the right tools and processes. It’s not enough to catalog once – you need an automated system that ingests data from all sources and ties assets to risk levels. First, establish automated discovery for everything on your network and in your cloud. Next, correlate that asset data with telemetry and threat feeds. Finally, integrate asset data into your risk and incident response workflows.
Let’s see how it’s done.
Deploy agents, sensors or passive scanners that automatically detect assets. Use network scanning tools, SNMP queries, and integrations with cloud management APIs. Automate the inclusion of new devices (even those never seen before) into your inventory database. Set schedules or event-driven triggers for scanning – for instance, trigger a rescan when a new subnet becomes active.
Combine data from network and endpoint sources. Use deep packet inspection and flow analysis to spot active devices, and collect endpoint logs or EDR data for confirmation. Cross-reference DHCP/DNS logs, VPN logs, and directory services to link IP addresses with hostnames and users. This cross-checking reduces false assets (e.g. ghost devices) and enriches each entry.
Look for any device or service outside normal channels. Enable scanning of guest networks, BYOD pools, and unusual ports. Check for unauthorized software and cloud resources. Use anomaly detection (e.g. unknown MAC addresses, rogue DHCP requests) to flag unsanctioned assets. Include IoT/OT protocols (Modbus, BACnet, etc.) in your discovery to catch non-IT gear.
Tie your inventory into your risk management process. For each asset, record its value, any compliance requirements, and threat intelligence (known vulnerabilities, past incidents). Update this context continuously – for example, if a new vulnerability affects a device’s OS, bump its risk rating. Use automation to calculate an asset’s risk score.
Discover how Fidelis helps security teams focus on real threats.
A robust inventory doesn’t just sit on the shelf – it powers detection. By mapping alerts to known assets, you turn raw signals into actionable intelligence. You can swiftly identify affected systems in an incident, correlate multi-stage attacks, and reduce false positives by filtering out noise. Ultimately, asset context lets you detect threats more accurately and respond faster.
Let’s see how it’s done.
Ensure that every alert or log entry includes an asset identifier. Use your inventory as a lookup to add names, owners, and locations to raw data. During analysis, always tie anomalies back to asset details. When building detection rules or ML models, incorporate asset attributes (e.g. critical vs. non-critical).
Build behavioral baselines per asset or asset group. Use machine learning or statistical models to profile “normal” for each device (traffic patterns, login times, process launches). Then watch for deviations on a per-asset basis. If a server suddenly sends large data transfers in the middle of the night (outside its normal behavior), flag it.
When an incident occurs, use the inventory to scope and contain it. Quickly identify which assets are impacted and who is responsible for them. Automate playbooks that use asset tags (e.g. “if critical payroll server is attacked, isolate this network segment”). Always update your incident response plan with asset group information.
Weight alerts by asset criticality. Tune your SIEM/XDR so that events on high-value assets (domain controllers, crown-jewel databases) generate higher-severity alerts. Suppress or batch alerts from low-risk assets to avoid fatigue. Review alerts in order of asset priority.
Building and maintaining a real-time, risk-informed asset inventory is the key to stronger threat detection and response. With full visibility into all devices – from cloud VMs and containers to legacy IoT – security teams gain crucial context. They can map threats to the right systems, prioritize alerts based on criticality, and act quickly when a breach occurs.
Fidelis Elevate® supports this foundation at every step. It delivers automated asset discovery and continuous inventory updates, adds risk profiling to each asset, and integrates network and endpoint data for unified detection. In short, Elevate ensures “you know what you have” and alerts you only to what truly matters.
Don’t let blind spots undermine your security. Talk to an expert or request a demo to see how Fidelis Elevate can give you the continuous asset visibility and threat intelligence you need. Build your asset inventory today to power the threat detection of tomorrow.
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