Stepping Into the Light: Why CISOs Are Replacing Black-Box Security With Open-Source XDR

Security teams are not short on data. In fact, if anything, they are slightly overwhelmed by it. From endpoint telemetry and network traffic to cloud logs and identity signals, the sheer volume of inputs that the average security team has to manage on a daily basis has never been higher. But does more data bring more clarity? According to one report, the average security operations center (SOC) team receives 500 investigation-worthy endpoint security alerts per week, with some 67% of ignoring lower-priority alerts due to the unmanageable volume they receive. 

At a time when network footprints are rapidly expanding, this alert fatigue and lack of clarity is unsustainable. There are tools out there that can dramatically improve network visibility, but that visibility is only useful if analysts have time to sift through alerts, decipher the black-box calculations behind them, and piece together a coherent narrative for why they should be investigated. It’s not a visibility problem in the traditional sense — it’s a context problem. 

That context matters, not just for identifying the “what” and “why” of security alerts, but for broader organizational buy-in and accountability. As board scrutiny and regulatory obligations increase, CISOs need to be able to extract clear, transparent information about network incidents that make them easy to act on, and easy to report. Yet many of the tools that promise this clarity operate more like sealed containers than open systems. Detection logic is buried under proprietary layers. Reporting formats are rigid and hard to tailor. And customization — if possible at all — often comes at the price of vendor lock-in. Instead of shining a light on risk, these platforms obscure it. 

Why CISOs Need Transparency, Control and Unification

There’s a common misconception in the cybersecurity market that CISOs are primarily looking for ever-stronger detection capabilities or better ROI. In reality, many already have dozens of detection tools. What they’re lacking is alignment: tools that talk to each other, detection logic they can interrogate, and reporting formats that can be tailored to multiple audiences, from frontline analysts to board-level stakeholders. According to Gartner, the driving force behind the growing adoption of extended detection and response (XDR) solutions isn’t necessarily performance or cost. It’s the need for process unification and reduced vendor complexity.

XDR offers a compelling model. By aggregating data across multiple sources — endpoint, cloud, identity, and beyond — it promises a unified view of an organization's threat exposure, making it easier to draw correlations, triage alerts, and coordinate responses. But for that model to work, visibility alone isn’t enough. CISOs need clarity, auditability, and control. And they need it on their own terms, not bound by a vendor’s roadmap or behind layers of proprietary abstraction. 

Proprietary Off-The-Shelf Solutions Are Falling Short

For years, security teams have relied on proprietary tools that promise turnkey protection. That was fine, but as threats become more frequent and sophisticated, the trade-offs are becoming harder to ignore. These platforms often operate with opaque detection logic, making it nearly impossible for analysts to understand why an alert was triggered or how risk is being evaluated. That lack of explainability erodes confidence, slows response times, and makes incident reporting unnecessarily difficult. Worse still, when detection rules are fixed or non-transparent, organizations can’t adapt them to reflect sector-specific risks or internal policies. The result is a surface-level view of threats that may look comprehensive, but lacks the depth to be genuinely actionable.

Reporting is another challenge. Many platforms offer pre-built reports that check compliance boxes but fail to capture the real-world complexity of an evolving threat environment. For CISOs who need to brief the board, justify budgets, or comply with new regulatory mandates, this rigidity is a problem. And because these tools are tightly coupled to a single vendor’s roadmap, any customization, integration, or new capability comes on the vendor’s timeline — not the organization’s. In an industry that demands agility, this can seriously hamper a CISOs efforts to address the real-time threats their company faces. 

The Rise of Open Source Security

Open-source XDR offers a different approach that puts control back into the hands of CISOs and their teams. Instead of forcing organizations to accept rigid rules or closed-off workflows, open-source platforms provide full access to detection logic, customization capabilities, and transparent audit trails. This means security teams can tune alerts to match their specific environment, understand precisely why a detection was made, and demonstrate compliance with far greater confidence. It’s not just about visibility — it’s about visibility that fits an organization, not the other way around.

Open-source security (OSS) isn’t just gaining traction in the private sector — it’s being actively encouraged at the highest levels of government. In the U.S., the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is actively urging federal agencies to prioritize open-source software, citing its transparency, flexibility, and resilience against supply chain risks. Likewise, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Resilience Agency (CISA), has published OSS roadmaps that include partnering with OSS communities and establishing an “open-by-default” software development policy. 

This shift reflects a broader recognition that trust in cybersecurity cannot be built on secrecy. As regulators demand more detailed reporting, and as public-sector institutions take steps to reduce dependency on single vendors, the appeal of open-source solutions continues to grow. For CISOs operating in heavily regulated industries — finance, healthcare, government — the ability to audit, customize, and explain their security posture has become vital. Open-source XDR aligns perfectly with these priorities, giving organizations the ability to meet both operational and compliance goals without compromise.

Community, Agility and the Future of Security

One of the most underestimated advantages of OSS is the community that powers it. Unlike closed platforms bound by vendor roadmaps, open-source ecosystems evolve through shared insight and collective problem-solving. Security teams benefit not only from transparency and flexibility, but also from a living body of knowledge that grows with each new contributor. If a new threat emerges or a specific industry use case needs addressing, chances are someone in the community is already building or sharing a solution. That kind of responsiveness is hard to match — and it’s a powerful antidote to the narrow rigidity of traditional security models.

Ultimately, this is about redefining what visibility and control looks like in cybersecurity. Open-source doesn’t just offer better tooling — it offers a better way of working. For CISOs, it means security strategies shaped by internal needs rather than external limitations. It means faster iteration, clearer reporting, and deeper engagement across technical and executive stakeholders. And most importantly, it means moving away from reactive, “black box” defense toward something more proactive, explainable, and aligned with the realities of today’s complex networks. In a field where visibility is everything, OSS lets organizations develop security solutions and strategies that work on their terms, not somebody else’s.