PwC and Palo Alto Networks have expanded their cybersecurity partnership to offer managed detection and response (MDR) services to joint customers. The relationship also heavily promotes XDR -- short for extended detection and response.
The expanded partnership leverages PwC Managed Cyber Defense capabilities and and Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks. The resulting services span managed threat hunting, protection, detection and response service for customers, the two companies say.
PwC is a Top 250 MSSP that has strong brand recognition among global 2000 organizations. But the IT consulting firm says the Managed Cyber Defense service "caters to organizations of any size."
Multiple MSSPs have embraced Cortex XDR from Palo Alto Networks since 2019, according to MSSP Alert reporting. Cortex XDR is an extended detection and response platform that allows customers to "reduce noise and focus on real threats," Palo Alto asserts.
PwC and Palo Alto Networks: Cybersecurity Leaders Share Perspectives
In a prepared statement, Colin Slater, cyber security partner at PwC UK, said:
"Our unique market insight and trusted relationships with our clients makes us best placed to advise on their cyber challenges. Using this in-depth knowledge, we have meticulously created a service offering to address our clients' pain points. We are excited to work with Palo Alto Networks as the market demands new ways to do detection and response. COVID-19 has spurred a move to remote work at a scale that has left many businesses more vulnerable than ever to cyberattacks because they are less able to respond and recover remotely. PwC's cybersecurity team has responded to several major incursions from nation-state threat groups and mitigated cyber breaches caused by vulnerabilities introduced through transitions to remote work at scale. Preventing these attacks is a core element of the PwC and Palo Alto Networks approach."
Added Shailesh Rao, senior VP for Cortex at Palo Alto Networks:
"We are thrilled to expand our partnership with PwC through the delivery of best-in-class managed detection and response (MDR) services powered by Cortex XDR to our joint customers. More and more enterprise customers have validated PwC's service over the last year in detecting and responding to cyberattacks. The combination of advisory services, analytics, and modern, AI-driven detection and response capabilities and metrics, with visibility across an enterprise's entire infrastructure, is made possible by our unmatched joint Cortex XDR and MDR service offering."
What Exactly Is XDR?
Dozens of cybersecurity companies are jumping on the XDR bandwagon.
Extended detection and response, according to Gartner, "describes a unified security incident detection and response platform that automatically collects and correlates data from multiple proprietary security components."
From Palo Alto Networks' perspective, XDR provides a more complete view of data because it can gather information from networks and other areas that run outside of traditional EDR (endpoint detection and response) services.
Still, multiple companies are also trying to offer a reality check on XDR. Examples include this XDR blog from Cisco Systems.
