The everywhere attack surface: EDR in the network is no longer optional

Greg MaudsleySenior Director, Product Marketing

Ahmed DessoukiPrincipal Technical Alliance Manager

In today’s enterprise, “endpoint” means more than just laptops and servers. Routers, switches, firewalls, application delivery controllers (ADCs)—any connected network component—can now be leveraged as a foothold by sophisticated attackers. Traditional security appliances were built for a different era when threats were less automated, AI was in its infancy, and segmentation or single-layer detection seemed enough. Now, attackers only need to be right once; defenders must be right every time.

Why legacy network security falls short

The evolving cyber threat landscape exposes the limits of legacy approaches to network security. Increasingly, network devices are the targets of attackers. Modern threat actors view them as endpoints, providing opportunities for initial compromise and lateral movement. Consequentially, even defense-in-depth strategies, which employ multiple layers of security controls, may have gaps. In these situations, if an attack evades your firewall, there’s often no next layer of defense capable of detecting or stopping them within the network infrastructure.

Most zero-trust programs stop at the endpoint, focusing on user access and device verification while leaving network infrastructure exposed. Even segmentation and micro-segmentation can’t fully prevent malware or lateral movement once attackers are inside. When security tools are scattered across vendors and environments, visibility breaks down and gaps appear, giving adversaries room to operate undetected.

True network EDR and managed threat hunting

For robust, end-to-end network security, today’s organizations need early warning capabilities, which can detect and send alerts of suspicious activity or backdoors on network appliances before damage spreads. They also need automated, rapid responses to limit the impact of compromises by reducing dwell time, lateral movement, and human error.

Persistent visibility is also critical, as it enables unified and holistic monitoring, not just for endpoints, but for the hybrid multicloud network fabric. Organizations also need to deploy security to provide continuous validation and actionable intelligence not just for users, but for every endpoint, everywhere.

Together, F5 and CrowdStrike are raising the bar by redefining network defense. Through a new strategic alliance, the two companies are uniting endpoint and network defenses by embedding the CrowdStrike Falcon® sensor directly into F5 BIG-IP, part of the F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform (ADSP), delivering real-time visibility, proactive defense, and managed threat hunting across the network perimeter.

F5 BIG-IP customers can now employ:

• Embedded Falcon sensor. Industry-leading EDR now runs natively on BIG-IP, providing continuous monitoring, suspicious activity detection, and real-time alerts for every instance.
• Falcon Insight XDR and Adversary OverWatch. Combine deep visibility and automated detection with expert-led threat hunting to uncover sophisticated attacks faster and reduce dwell time across the enterprise.
• Falcon Console. Provide a consistent experience across all endpoints by extending the same visibility and response workflows for managing threats across traditional endpoints, network endpoints, and cloud workloads.

Proactive organizations choose F5 and CrowdStrike

F5 and CrowdStrike are taking the lead in extending intelligent, real-time threat detection and response across the network infrastructure. With CrowdStrike Falcon sensor support for BIG-IP, organizations can detect advanced human and AI-driven attacks. The joint solution delivers unified, actionable visibility that eliminates guesswork by consolidating monitoring, investigation, and response, enabling faster and more confident action.

The bottom line

Ignoring network devices and appliances as endpoints leaves gaps that attackers are increasingly ready to exploit. With F5 and CrowdStrike, you bring true EDR and managed detection to your network infrastructure, with the same AI-driven, industry-leading approach trusted for servers and traditional endpoints.

Protect every app, API, and device—everywhere. Read our press release and solution overview to learn how F5 and CrowdStrike can help you raise the bar on network resilience, slash response times, and shrink your attack surface.

Also, be sure to get a demo of F5 ADSP with the CrowdStrike Falcon sensor on BIG-IP today and discover the enterprise-grade EDR and proactive managed threat hunting your network deserves.

About the Authors

Greg MaudsleySenior Director, Product Marketing

More blogs by Greg Maudsley

Ahmed DessoukiPrincipal Technical Alliance Manager

More blogs by Ahmed Dessouki