We are in an era of data explosion. At the same time, threats are multiplying. As a result, the day-to-day efforts of securing data could overwhelm your Security Operations Center (SOC) team.
A smart tool could help ensure that your security efforts are both effective and sustainable. One such tool is SOAR.
SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) automates the cybersecurity life cycle. Instead of the slow, manual interventions found in conventional approaches, SOAR allows you to respond to security notifications automatically.
In a conventional approach, several analysts handle different alerts. Because each analyst might respond differently to an alert, this introduces the possibility of errors and inconsistencies. Automating this process can ensure that alerts are handled consistently.
While some might use SIEM and SOAR interchangeably, they are different terms. SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) collects data generated by intrusion detection systems. It identifies, categorizes, and analyzes the events and incidents collected to identify possible anomalous activities, issuing appropriate alerts.
SOAR takes things further by combining comprehensive data gathering, management, and analytics. SOAR makes it possible to develop sophisticated security measures. Here is how it works:
Among others, a SOAR‘s solution main advantage is its ability to automate and orchestrate the mundane and time-consuming manual tasks. This allows you to make better use of your specialized skills.
SOAR‘s orchestration refers to the idea of getting different IT security solutions working together. The security tools available to a SOC team are individually useful but do not possess interoperability capabilities. This often forces analysts to manually piece together the data received from each implemented solution and diverts their skills away from important tasks. A SOAR solution, on the other hand, can collect and piece together all this information, saving time and making it possible for your SOC team to devote more resources to tasks that need its attention.
SOAR solutions can be set up to respond to various solutions automatically. This not only reduces the time taken for your security operations center to respond to threats but also removes the need for manual intervention.
SOAR automation delivers the added advantage of consistency. Since the automated responses are governed by rules, all similar events will be handled the same way, eliminating the possibility of human errors that could occur from the judgment calls analysts are sometimes needed to make. Consistency also aids in compliance, since you can automate the actions required to meet regulatory standards. This helps you avoid costly oversights and mistakes.
In an environment that deals with a high volume of activity, analysts spend a considerable amount of time addressing low-level security threats. Allowing a SOAR solution to handle these alerts means your analysts can focus their attention, time, and efforts on situations that require their intervention. Routine tasks will also no longer be their responsibility, saving additional time.
Implementation of a SOAR solution reduces manually performed tasks, thus increases your SOC team’s productivity and efficiency. This increase in productivity and efficiency can be used to lower security-related operational costs.
Today, the cloud, the internet of things, and mobile have greatly widened the attack surface. Threat detection tools protect different parts of the network. However, the deployment of various security point solutions has created visibility gaps. In addition, data silos introduce vulnerabilities.
Closing those gaps and integrating data requires significant resources, not to mention time. Simultaneously, the alerts generated by the detection tools put in place further overwhelm security teams. If it stays this way, then the analyzing of threat alerts from the disparate sources will remain a manual, slow, and ineffective process.
According to Gartner, instead of only monitoring and detecting threats, a SOAR platform measures risk and informs your security decision-making efforts. The aim is to enable teams to develop programs that are on par with today’s evolving nature of threats and dynamic IT environments.
1. Threat and vulnerability management: Provides formalized reporting and collaboration abilities and supports the remediation of vulnerabilities.
2. Security incident response: Supports how you plan, track, coordinate, and manage responses to security incidences.
3. Security operations automation: This makes the automation and orchestration of security processes possible.
SOAR informs decisions by correlating the results of siloed processes, adding context to operational state data to assess the possibilities of risk, and using the output of tools to apply risk modeling scenarios. Doing this enables a SOC team to prioritize security operations, automate incident responses, and integrate risk posture to support reporting.
In addition to the shortage of security skills, tight budgets and a complex threat landscape drive a need for automated SOAR solutions. SOAR is a requirement for efficient and sustainable IT security. Implementing SOAR capabilities within your business is the start of fast decision making and response.
At Kiuwan, we are an appsec platform that tackles security through an SCA and SAST approach encouraging a DevSecOps mindset.
