There is no doubt that a high rate of threat detection is a crucial indicator of success for a security system. Detecting 100% of active threats would seem to be the hallmark of an ideal security solution. However, evaluating success solely on threat detection provides an incomplete picture and can ultimately lead to suboptimal outcomes.
Why Perfect Threat Detection is not Enough
Consider this analogy: A weather forecaster who correctly predicts every rainy day achieves a perfect detection rate. However, if they also frequently predict rain on sunny days, their forecasts become less reliable and useful. These false positives would represent lost opportunities for people to enjoy outdoor activities, plan events, or simply leave their umbrellas at home.
Now let’s apply this analogy in the context of cybersecurity:
- Rainy days represent genuine threats that need detection.
- Sunny days incorrectly forecast as rainy represent benign activities mistakenly flagged as threats.
- Lost opportunities due to false rain predictions symbolize the wasted resources, unnecessary disruptions, and potential "alert fatigue" caused by false positives in security systems.
While many security companies promote bold headlines or highlight isolated performance metrics in their marketing, these headlines often tell only part of the story. How can you determine which solutions excel at threat detection while minimizing false positives?
WEI Roundtable: Cyber Warfare and Beyond
The 2024 MITRE Evaluation Framework Report
To find comprehensive information on security solutions, we recommend looking to the MITRE ATT&CK Evaluations. These annual assessments provide an independent and objective analysis of enterprise cybersecurity solutions, offering insights beyond single-metric headlines.
MITRE is a not-for-profit organization that operates multiple federally funded research and development centers. They're perhaps best known in the cybersecurity community for developing the MITRE ATT&CK framework, which has become an industry standard for documenting and categorizing adversary tactics and techniques. This year’s evaluation focused on two distinct threat areas:
- Ransomware attacks targeting Windows and Linux systems that emulate behaviors of well known groups such as LockBit and CLOP.
- Cyber operations by North Korea (DPRK) focusing on macOS, testing solutions against sophisticated multi-stage malware attacks.
These evaluations have been conducted annually since 2018, making the 2024 report the sixth round of testing. The 2024 MITRE ATT&CK Evaluations report once again maintained its focus on accurate threat detection, while also introducing a more rigorous approach to evaluating false positives, incorporating two key metrics:
- Total alerts generated: This metric helps assess the volume of alerts produced by each security solution, addressing the issue of alert fatigue in real-world scenarios.
- False positives: MITRE incorporated "booby traps" or intentionally benign events that should not trigger alerts. Any security solution that flagged these legitimate activities as threats was documented as generating false positives.
The evaluation aimed to test vendors' ability to balance high detection rates with low false positive rates. Alert fatigue is a major challenge today as alert overloads can overwhelm security teams, causing missed incidents and delayed responses.
A Perfect Score for False Positives
False positives represent more than simple detection errors as they can actively disrupt business operations. When security solutions incorrectly block legitimate activities at the prevention stage, these false alarms directly impact productivity and workflow efficiency. Some evaluated vendors generated more false alarms than successful threat detections, indicating significant challenges in distinguishing between legitimate activities and actual threats.
However, one security solution stood out against the others this year. Cortex XDR achieved zero false positives in the prevention stage of the evaluation. That represents a mistake-free performance. While Cortex XDR was not the only solution to achieve zero false positives, it had the highest prevention rate among all evaluated vendors with zero false positives. Simply put, no other solution matched Cortex XDR's exceptional prevention capabilities with the same level of accuracy.
Cortex XDR: Unmatched Accuracy in the 2024 MITRE ATT&CK Evaluations
Cortex was also the first participant ever to achieve 100% detection with technique-level detail and no configuration changes or delays. Achieving 100% technique-level detection means Cortex XDR was able to provide this high level of detail for every step of the simulated attack in the evaluation, without requiring any configuration changes or experiencing delays. This performance is considered exceptional in the industry, as it allows for immediate and comprehensive threat analysis.
Why This Matters for Your Organization
- Less Alert Fatigue: Reducing unnecessary alerts enables IT teams to focus on real threats.
- Faster Incident Response: Detailed detections allow for immediate threat containment.
- Lower Operational Disruption: Accurate prevention stops attacks without blocking legitimate activity.
It should be noted that like all solution participants, Cortex XDR was configured with default, fresh-out-of-box settings. No special steps were taken by the blue team that was charged with protecting against the red team tactics that were defined for this year’s report. Cortex XDR is designed to run mistake-free out of the box.
Conclusion
With zero false positives in the prevention stage and a 100% detection rate with technique-level detail, Cortex XDR has set a new benchmark for enterprise security. This means fewer distractions for your SOC team, faster incident response, and uninterrupted business operations, all without the need for complex configurations.
Is your security strategy keeping up? See how Cortex XDR can enhance your organization’s security posture with unmatched accuracy and efficiency. Schedule a demo today or connect with WEI to explore how we can help optimize your cybersecurity investments.
