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Cortex XDR vs. Cybereason

Compared to Cortex XDR’s full endpoint visibility and analytics, Cybereason’s incomplete XDR feature set is an imperfect solution for tomorrow’s consolidated SOC. See what leads more organizations to choose Cortex XDR over Cybereason for their malware and antivirus prevention, endpoint detection and incident response.

Cortex XDR is the better choice for the next-generation SOC

Cortex XDR goes far beyond Cybereason’s XDR scope, by delivering:
Cortex XDR is backed by Palo Alto Networks, the largest pure-play cybersecurity company with over $1 billion invested in R&D in 2023. Additionally, it offers scalable growth opportunities, allowing customers to start with XDR core capabilities and expand into comprehensive data integration and other Cortex products as needed. Furthermore, its distinguished performance in the latest MITRE Round 5 evaluation and leadership status in the Gartner EPP MQ highlight its recognition as a top-tier solution in the industry.


Unlike Cybereason’s limited XDR solution, Cortex XDR unifies prevention, detection, investigation and response in one consolidated platform to deliver endpoint and network security coverage.

Palo Alto Networks: A Forward-Looking Cybersecurity Partner

Palo Alto Networks' extensive investment in research and development elevates Cortex XDR to a pinnacle in the realm of extended detection and response platforms, markedly distinguishing it from Cybereason's offerings. This commitment to R&D fuels the integration of cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning into Cortex XDR and helps ensure it surpasses traditional EDR solutions' capabilities.

Cortex XDR transcends the limitations in Cybereason's approach by weaving together insights from network detection and next-generation antivirus solutions. This comprehensive combination offers a panoramic view of security threats, enabling organizations to discern and respond to complex threats across their endpoints with unprecedented intelligence and precision. The substantial R&D efforts by Palo Alto Networks manifest in Cortex XDR not just as a product but as a beacon of innovation in cybersecurity, setting a new basis for intelligence in threat detection and response.

Here’s what made it a trusted platform by over 6,000 customers:

  • Data from any source is automatically stitched together to reveal the root cause and timeline of alerts to help identify and quickly stop threats.
  • Cortex XDR uses Host Insights to combine vulnerability assessment, application and system visibility, machine learning and Search and Destroy to help analyze threats across all endpoints.

Cortex XDR uses robust threat intelligence and provides more than just traditional sandboxing with WildFire malware prevention.

Choose How to Protect Your Organization

Palo Alto Networks' broad range of products and seamless integration make Cortex XDR stand out, especially compared to Cybereason's XDR solution, which misses some key features. Cortex XDR is more than just a tool for quick threat detection and analysis with its user behavior analytics and forensic tools. It's also a gateway to an advanced suite of security operations solutions from Cortex, including XSIAM, XSOAR, and XPANSE.

XSIAM takes security management to the next level with AI-driven analytics, while XSOAR simplifies and speeds up how security incidents are managed and resolved. XPANSE expands this protection by focusing on attack surface exposures and risks, helping to identify and secure potential weak spots.

Cortex XDR's ability to bring broad visibility into one easy-to-use, cloud-based system is just the start. This setup makes managing security simpler and sharpens real-time threat detection, boosting overall security. Moving from Cortex XDR to other Palo Alto Networks solutions like XSIAM, XSOAR, and Xpanse means developing a more comprehensive and advanced cybersecurity approach.

Palo Alto Networks offers a complete solution, with Cortex XDR as the foundation, that allows organizations to smoothly upgrade to more sophisticated security tools as their needs grow. Cortex XDR provides tailored threat detection and investigation intelligence by:

  • Integrating with the WildFire® malware prevention service to detect unknown threats in a cloud analysis environment
  • Leveraging behavioral analytics to profile behavior by tracking more than 1,000 behavior attributes
  • Having behavior analytics, forensics and network visibility natively integrated into Cortex XDR

Cortex XDR’s incident management dashboard intelligently groups related alerts into one incident with unified incident management.

Cortex XDR Leads in Market Reviews

Cortex XDR's market recognition, highlighted by its numerous industry accolades and customer endorsements, clearly differentiates it from Cybereason's XDR solution.

Cortex XDR® recently outperformed Cybereason — and all other XDR vendors — in the 2023 MITRE Engenuity ATT&CK Evaluations (Turla). Cortex XDR was the only vendor with 100% Prevention and 100% Analytic Coverage, showcasing its unmatched ability in defending against sophisticated threats​.

For the first time, Cortex XDR was named a Leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP). Gartner highlighted Cortex XDR’s completeness of vision and ability to execute.

Cortex XDR's market leadership is underpinned by its customization options and practicality. Its robust vulnerability management and identity analytics features are independent and do not need external partnerships or specific connection modules. Additionally, Cortex XDR offers flexible and open third-party integration, catering effectively to the evolving needs of growing organizations by:

  • Ingesting, mapping and using data from any number of third-party sources that are delivered in standard formats like syslog or HTTP
  • Having Cortex XDR use that data to generate XDR alerts within our incidents to quickly scale visibility across an organization

Compare Cortex XDR to Cybereason

ProductsCybereasonCortex XDR
Intelligent XDR

Lacks the full picture

  • No stitching together endpoint, network and cloud data for better context.

Broader visibility

  • Incorporates data from endpoint, network, cloud and virtually any source regardless of vendor.

  • No vulnerability management, no desktop hygiene, and identity analytics are cloud only (no AD integration for ID Protection).

  • Integrates with Palo Alto Networks NGFW and Prisma Cloud to further extend SOC visibility to the network and cloud.
The Need for Critical Capabilities

Absent capabilities increase risk

  • No automatic sandbox file submission and analysis means threats can go undetected for longer periods of time.

Flexible features for full protection

  • Integrated cloud sandboxing delivers complete endpoint threat protection with static analysis, behavioral analysis, on-execution protection and dedicated ransomware protection.

  • Lack of user entity behavior analytics (UEBA) means anomalous user activity goes undetected.

  • Uses ML-powered user behavioral analytics to identify anomalies and raise alerts across any data source.

  • Lacks a forensic module, limiting the ability to collect the data necessary for full investigation.

  • Provides visibility and forensic analysis of any endpoint, regardless of security vendor.
Enterprise Strengthening Third-Party Integrations

Gap-covering reliance on integrations

  • Cybereason Technology Partner integrations only.

Enterprise-empowering integrations

  • Cortex XDR supports a wide range of integrations untethered from partnerships and connection modules.

  • Overreliance on third-party partnerships to compensate for gaps.

  • Cortex XDR leverages data from any number of sources to generate XDR alerts and analytics insights.

Gartner Market Guide for Extended Detection and Response

Need more proofpoints?

Check out more but don’t delay – your endpoint security and SOC productivity depend on it!

Request your Personal Cortex XDR Demo

Let's explore ways to find fewer alerts, build end-to-end automation and enable smarter security operations.

Request your Personal Cortex XDR Demo

Request your Personal Cortex XDR Demo

Let's explore ways to find fewer alerts, build end-to-end automation and enable smarter security operations.
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