In cybersecurity, there are no "silver bullets." Effective defense comes from sensibly assembled layers that together cover prevention, detection, and response. Artificial intelligence is just one of the tools, with major benefits but also clear limits set by the data.
Layered protection instead of miracle technology
No single technology will solve all problems, so it’s important to build defense from multiple complementary controls. We’ve been using AI and machine learning for years, but their quality depends on available data, model size, and well-designed architecture. The key is broad telemetry across endpoints and the backend, and its meaningful processing.
Human experts remain essential: they design concepts, validate results, and augment AI where it fails. The outcome should be a multi-layer "stack" of dozens of technologies that cooperate and cover different phases of an attack. It doesn’t pay to overrate a single layer; coordination is what matters.
XDR and vulnerabilities: strengths and limits
The XDR concept is powerful, but it’s not a panacea: it depends on what telemetry it collects, how deep it goes, and how it’s integrated with other controls. The volume of data is growing rapidly, so it’s necessary to deploy AI to help with filtering and correlating events. At the same time, the number of vulnerabilities is increasing, but not every one is immediately exploitable.
Prioritization should therefore be based on threat intelligence that shows what is actually being exploited. Such intelligence, however, arises precisely from rich telemetry and detections that XDR and related systems can provide. Everything is interconnected, and good vulnerability management should be as automated as possible, even in small companies.
From endpoint to cloud: what makes up the modern ecosystem
Today’s baseline kit includes global reputation telemetry, firmware control, and advanced memory scanning, since malicious code is often encrypted and only reveals itself at runtime. Network protection for devices outside the perimeter and sandboxing are also needed; they help, though they’re not a universal solution. Such capabilities should form the baseline, not an optional add-on.
Security, however, goes beyond the endpoint itself: this includes disk encryption to protect data, identity management, and at least two-factor authentication. Equally important is the protection of cloud services, which almost everyone uses, and the availability of support services when rapid assistance is needed. The whole must be integrable into SIEM and other tools via robust APIs and scalable from small to large companies – from robust endpoint protection with data and cloud protection all the way to XDR and managed services.
