SOAR: How Automation Creates Security

Enterprise security teams face an ever-increasing strain. Increasingly better-organized attackers benefit from the increasing complexity of IT infrastructures. Security Orchestration Automation and Responses (SOARs) are used to automate cybersecurity processes and give security managers a decisive edge.

Anyone who wants to design processes efficiently and get the most out of them can no longer avoid the trending topic of automation. The IT security industry is not exempt from this development. 

The need for more skilled workers and the growing complexity of IT infrastructures pose enormous challenges for security teams. So it is better to hand over some tasks to the machine, which it can carry out in the shortest possible time. This not only relieves employees but also significantly accelerates safety-critical processes. One way to advance the automation of your own IT security is to use a SOAR. This provides a range of tools to automate IT security in many places and thus improve the safety of the entire company.

When Every Minute Counts

Automation is often used when repetitive processes take up capacity and thus not only cause delays but also cause frustration. If you hand over these tasks to the machine, it imitates human behavior. This classic process is called RPA (robotic process automation).

A SOAR also initially uses similar techniques but applies them to typical operations in the cybersecurity area. Incident response methods, in particular, are enriched by using a SOAR. This has enormous potential, as every minute is often crucial when reacting. 

If a security-related event occurs, the security team must act as quickly as possible and take the proper steps to prevent it. Automation can make a significant contribution here. For example, a ticket is automatically created if the system triggers an alarm, and the analyst can start triaging the data immediately. If it is a malicious actor, the security team can launch automated processes where other systems lock the negative account or block an IP address during analysis. The security teams, therefore, do not waste time with repetitive tasks, but are directly able to evaluate the alarms, initiate the right, more complex steps and thus minimize the damage or prevent it entirely. 

The security team can start automated processes where other systems lock the malicious account or block an IP address during the analysis. The security teams, therefore, do not waste time with repetitive tasks, but are directly able to evaluate the alarms, initiate the right, more complex steps and thus minimize the damage or prevent it entirely. The security team can start automated processes where other systems lock the malicious account or block an IP address during the analysis. The security teams, therefore, do not waste time with repetitive tasks, but are directly able to evaluate the alarms, initiate the right, more complex steps and thus minimize the damage or prevent it entirely.

Maintaining An Overview Despite High Complexity

The greatest challenge of modern infrastructures is their increasing complexity. Over the years, many tools have accumulated, and the number of actors in the network is also growing, mainly due to IoT development. For attackers, this complexity is a godsend since, on the one hand, the attack surface is extending, and on the other hand, the complexity offers the chance to blend in with the crowd. In the past, using a SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) solution was often sufficient. 

This quickly examines large amounts of data and raises the alarm if it discovers suspicious behavior. But as the network grows, so does the number of alerts, and only a fraction of these indicate a truly dangerous actor. This creates a significant “alarm fatigue” among security personnel since they are confronted with many daily reports. This makes it increasingly difficult for them to distinguish false alarms from actually threatening incidents. But a SOAR can also help here. 

This should be distinct from the so-called XDR (Extended Detection and Response) solutions, which use artificial intelligence to correlate the behavior of actors across various endpoints, thus finding movement patterns and identifying harmful actors. However, a SOAR focuses on the ordering of the alarms and the response to them. However, both technologies, SOAR and XDR, can be easily combined. In addition, the SOAR can be linked to numerous other security tools,

Proper Preparation Is Crucial

It’s no surprise that automated processes run significantly faster than manual ones. There is great potential for corporate security here, as the example of the automatically supported incident response measures shows.

SOAR should not be viewed as a panacea, especially against the severely raging skills shortage. Because even if automation relieves the security teams in many vital areas, companies should be aware of the personnel costs for such a system. SOAR is based on so-called playbooks. 

These plans are used for various safety-critical incidence types. However, so that the automated processes work correctly and the experts can rely on the playbooks must be continuously updated and precisely tailored to the respective situations. The more complex the processes in your ecosystem, the more difficult this task is. Large companies, in particular, also require continuous monitoring of the SOAR to identify sources of error. A high update frequency so that the security teams can fix mistakes in the playbooks as quickly as possible is also extremely important.

Efficient Security Measures Thanks To Automation

So it is clear that automating one’s security processes involves personnel effort. A SOAR does not run autonomously. Nevertheless, in many cases, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. After all, SOAR drastically reduces the time between the detection of an incident and the reaction by the security team. This relieves the burden on the specialists and ensures excellent safety.

Those still at the beginning of their automation journey should deal with external service providers. They should already have experience in this area. They can support companies, for example, with the integration of a SOAR and use automation where it makes sense for the company because it is also clear that not all security structures can be automated. The teams must have the time for the crucial tasks machines cannot do. Because the less time an attacker has for his attack, the greater the chance that the defenders will be able to fend them off and ensure their organization’s security.

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