Sangfor Athena XDR - Extended Detection and Response

Athena XDR stands apart from other XDR solutions in several important ways.

First, while many XDR platforms evolved from their vendors’ EDR products—often requiring customers to use that specific EDR—Athena XDR was built from the ground up as a standalone, vendor-neutral platform. Its open architecture allows seamless integration with a wide range of third-party EDRs, enabling organizations to leverage their existing security investments for both detection and response.

Second, Athena XDR functions as a true all-in-one SecOps platform. In contrast to other XDRs that rely on third-party tools for SIEM, SOAR, reporting, or ticketing, Athena includes these capabilities natively, streamlining workflows and reducing complexity for SOC teams.

Third, Sangfor leads the market in GenAI integration. Unlike other solutions that use GenAI merely as a chatbot for user queries, Athena XDR features dedicated GenAI models—such as Detection GPT, Operations GPT, and Anti-Phishing GPT—designed to handle specific security domains and replicate real human judgment and analysis.

Fourth, Athena XDR goes beyond basic alert aggregation. It performs true correlation analysis using AI-driven normalization and parsing to identify meaningful relationships between disparate data points, reconstructing the full sequence and context of an attack.

Lastly, Athena XDR offers flexible deployment options. While most vendors provide only SaaS-based offerings, Athena is available in both SaaS and on-premises models, accommodating organizations with strict data residency, compliance, or infrastructure requirements.

While both Athena XDR and SIEM capture and store logs from diverse third-party devices and support search and security analytics, they serve different purposes:

Athena XDR focuses on security operations, emphasizing data access from security devices. It supports real-time detection and analysis, enabling efficient correlation through built-in rules and engines to identify threats and malicious actors.

SIEM, on the other hand, gathers data from a broader range of devices, not limited to security tools. Its log collection is primarily geared toward threat hunting, allowing users to trace hacker activities following a security incident rather than conducting real-time security analysis. Additionally, SIEM relies heavily on manual rule creation, which limits detection to known threats and makes it less effective against unknown threats. In practical scenarios, many SIEM customers use it to monitor the operational status of network device.

Athena EPP and STA/NDR are both core components of Athena XDR. While deploying them together is recommended for enhanced security, it is not mandatory. This flexibility is especially valuable if you are using an EDR solution from another vendor and do not wish to replace it.

However, for organizations not using a Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) solution, we strongly recommend deploying Athena STA for the following four reasons:

• Enhanced Detection Capabilities: Athena STA provides NTA capabilities by monitoring traffic and enabling protection for unmanaged endpoint devices (BYOD), intranet lateral movement, and shadow IT.
• Correlated Traffic Analysis: Athena STA improves correlation between EDR and firewall data, enhancing visualization and reducing false negatives and false positives.
• Ease of Deployment: Athena STA is easy to deploy and does not disrupt normal business operations, using a bypass method to mirror traffic from the switch.
• Cost-Effective Solution: Athena STA is affordable and offers excellent value for enhanced security.

Athena XDR offers several distinct advantages over Athena NDR:

1. Comprehensive Log Collection: Athena XDR captures raw logs from Sangfor components, enabling deeper correlation analysis beyond just security alerts.
2. Enhanced Third-Party Log Integration: It effectively ingests logs from third-party devices, utilizing AI-driven parsing for automated log analysis, allowing for comprehensive security and correlation insights.
3. Visualized Security Incidents: Athena XDR graphically represents individual security incidents in their entirety, reconstructing the attack narrative rather than relying solely on aggregated data.
4. Flexible Reporting: The platform supports customizable security report templates, enabling users to create tailored reports with drag-and-drop functionality.
5. Case Management: Athena XDR includes a ticketing system to help large organizations manage security operations more effectively, establishing clear accountability for security tasks.
6. Integration with Security GPT: It seamlessly combines with Operations GPT and Anti-phishing GPT tools, providing organizations with user-friendly and comprehensive security solutions.