Corelight and Microsoft: A smarter way to fight alert fatigue

For SOC teams, the battle against cyber threats can feel like trying to solve a 3D jigsaw puzzle in a bouncy house with missing pieces and a timer blasting every few seconds. Despite the increase in security spending, most teams still struggle with inefficient investigations, alert fatigue, and the non-stop guessing game of prioritizing threats. That’s why we’re excited about our latest integration with Microsoft Security that we hope will help address these persistently common challenges.

Today, Corelight is announcing the ability to streamline alert triage and accelerate incident response by enriching our network logs with relevant endpoint and vulnerability data in real-time from Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Defender Vulnerability Management.

A unified front for smarter investigations

One of the biggest pain points for security teams is the need to pivot across different tools to collect, correlate, and analyze network and endpoint telemetry. With this integration, we’re cutting through that inefficiency by pre-correlating rich Corelight logs with unique device IDs from across the environment that we’re collecting from Microsoft Defender for Endpoint.

What does that mean for your SOC? It means you can triage alerts more effectively with the relevant network and endpoint data without pivoting across different toolsets, seriously reducing the time it takes to process alerts and close tickets throughout the day.

What’s more, providing extensive visibility of all network activity across hybrid, multicloud, and even ICS networks also helps identify unmanaged and rogue endpoints that have escaped the purview of Defender for Endpoint. This is critical since 80% to 90% of all successful ransomware compromises originate through unmanaged devices¹. A recent CISA cybersecurity advisory also pointed out that organizations often rely too heavily on host-based EDR solutions and don’t implement sufficient network layer protections.²

Reversing alert fatigue

SOC analysts know the struggle of sifting through an endless stream of alerts, trying to determine which ones actually matter. It’s like finding the missing piece of a puzzle that ties two sections together only to realize that that piece actually belongs to a different puzzle.

To address this issue, we’re also enriching Corelight alerts with CVE data from Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management that will give analysts the context they need to prioritize threats based on the exploitable systems flagged by MDVM. By pre-correlating network activity with currently exposed systems at the point of observation directly in the sensor, this integration can bring a sense of order to the cacophony of alerts and allow your team to focus on the most critical ones that demand immediate attention.

Why is this important? According to Mandiant’s Global Perspective on Threat Intelligence report, 84% of respondents are concerned about missing real threats due to the volume of alerts and data.³ In short, SOC teams are struggling with too much data and not enough insight. That’s why we’re excited about these new Microsoft Defender integrations that will allow analysts to breathe easier, work smarter, and make faster decisions without second-guessing whether they’re missing something important.

Corelight support for the top EDR vendors

This announcement completes Corelight’s trifecta of supporting the top three EDR vendors in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms: Microsoft, CrowdStrike, and SentinelOne⁴. This achievement underscores Corelight’s openness and commitment to delivering unparalleled value to SOC teams by seamlessly integrating our Open NDR Platform with industry-leading endpoint protection and vulnerability management solutions. We’re very excited about this unique accomplishment, and if you’re using one of these EDR platforms, we hope you’ll look into how this can help modernize your SOC.

The bottom line

With this meaningful integration, Corelight and Microsoft are providing the insight needed to simplify investigations, cut down on alert fatigue, and help keep your enterprise safe—all while reducing the dreaded swivel-chair SOC syndrome. What’s more, extending our Defender integration with Microsoft Sentinel and Security Copilot can simplify time-consuming SOC workflows further with powerful AI.

There’s no stopping the flood of alerts, but now, you’ll have a smarter, more efficient way to handle them.

¹Microsoft Digital Defense Report, 2023
²Enhancing Cyber Resilience: Insights from CISA Red Team Assessment of a US Critical Infrastructure Sector Organization, 2024
³Mandiant Global Perspective on Threat Intelligence, 2023
⁴Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms, 2024