9 Advantages of Security Orchestration and Automation: Enhancing Incident Response with SOAR

Enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of your Security Operations Center (SOC) can be achieved through the integration of security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR). This integration involves the correlation of alerts from various security devices, automation of tasks, and the provision of incident handling playbooks.

The primary objective of SOAR is to optimize SOC processes and elevate incident response capabilities, particularly when confronted with a multitude of security alerts. The efficacy of incident response hinges on the synergy of individuals, processes, and technologies. Yet, the crux of SOAR lies in its reliance on several integral components that furnish meticulous incident response plans. These components consist of:

1. Security Orchestration: This process imbues alerts emanating from divergent security and network tools with actionable context, along with established procedures for manual and/or automated alert handling.
2. Security Automation: By automating repetitive tasks and addressing alerts that are amenable to automated resolution, security automation diminishes the necessity for human intervention.
3. Incident Response: Characterized by a series of processes and technologies, incident response entails the strategic blueprinting and execution of requisite actions to mitigate an incident.

Through the adoption of security orchestration and automation, the burden of low-priority and repetitive tasks can be alleviated, thereby affording SOC analysts the capacity to focus on tasks of greater value that augment incident response. The fusion of security automation and incident response playbooks enables SOAR to construct workflows that demand minimal, or even no, human intervention.

Exploring the Advantages of Implementing SOAR in Your Security Operations

Curious about how Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) can amplify the efficacy and efficiency of incident response? Let’s delve into the primary advantages it offers.

1. Faster Response Time SOAR’s prowess lies in its capacity to amalgamate numerous interconnected alerts from diverse systems into a solitary incident. What’s more, the inclusion of security automation ensures that the system can react to alerts sans human involvement, whenever feasible. By infusing contextual understanding into textual data and infusing automation into the decision-making continuum, the alert handling process is expedited significantly.
2. Enhanced Utilization of Threat Intelligence While threat intelligence carries substantial value, it often goes unnoticed, akin to a falling tree in an empty forest. The inundation of information is a perpetual challenge for SOC analysts. The infusion of threat intelligence merely compounds this influx, demanding additional sifting efforts. Premier SOAR platforms possess the capability to assimilate threat intelligence and seamlessly correlate it with real-time events. This functionality not only alleviates the burden on SOC analysts but also furnishes instantly actionable insights for incident response teams.
3. Diminished Manual Operations & Uniform Processes Security automation plays a pivotal role in liberating SOC analysts from the drudgery of repetitive tasks. It seamlessly integrates these tasks into a comprehensive incident-handling framework. A robust SOAR platform goes beyond mere automation; it encapsulates these tasks within playbooks that delineate the holistic sequence of incident response actions. This standardization ensures consistency and efficiency across the board.
4. Optimized Operational Workflow The comprehensive SOAR framework seamlessly streamlines security operations across all fronts. The orchestration component consolidates data influx from diverse sources, enhancing coherence and efficiency. In parallel, security automation adeptly manages low-priority alerts and incidents through automated playbooks. Additionally, incident response eradicates the impromptu guesswork from event management, curtailing cyberattack dwell time and mitigating overall business impact.
5. Mitigated Cyberattack Consequences Critical metrics such as Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) and Mean Time to Respond (MTTR) significantly influence the repercussions of a cyberattack on an organization. A protracted MTTD and MTTR amplify the potential damage and magnify the adverse impact on the entity. SOAR serves to minimize both MTTD and MTTR. Security orchestration diminishes MTTD by endowing analysts with context-rich incident details, enabling them to allocate less time to information gathering and more time to alert investigation. On the other hand, security automation truncates MTTR by instantaneously and autonomously addressing alerts and incidents in real time.
6. Seamless Technology & Tool Integration One of the hallmark benefits of security orchestration lies in its aptitude to seamlessly amalgamate alerts from a broad spectrum of products and technologies. A robust SOAR platform should possess the capability to seamlessly integrate with diverse security technology products, including but not limited to:
   • Cloud Security
   • Data Enrichment
   • Email Security
   • Endpoint Security
   • Forensics & Malware Analysis
   • Identity and Access Management
   • IT and Infrastructure
   • Network Security
   • SIEM & Log Management
   • Threat Intelligence
   • Vulnerability & Risk Management
   • The integration of these products into the SOAR ecosystem should be effortlessly achievable. A self-service marketplace expedites access to specific integrations, facilitating integration through a simple click of a button and component incorporation into playbooks.
7. Cost-Efficiency Advantages The integration of a SOAR platform into the operational framework of a typical enterprise yields substantial cost savings:
   • 90% reduction in reporting costs
   • 80% decrease in playbook creation expenses
   • 70% reduction in alert handling expenditures
   • 60% savings on analyst training outlays
   • 30% decrease in shift management costs
8. Automated Reporting & Metrics Capabilities Automated reporting serves as a dual benefit: it not only simplifies operations but also eradicates the need for manually-generated metrics. SOC personnel can conveniently access reports either on-demand, preferably with a single click, or through automated scheduling. This empowers businesses to obtain dependable and timely metrics for each reporting cycle. To further streamline this process, most SOAR tools offer reporting templates and the capacity to generate tailor-made reports.
9. Standardized Communication during Incident Response Incident handling and response frequently demand communication beyond the boundaries of the SOC, particularly for major incidents. This often involves engaging stakeholders both within and outside the SOC, making the establishment of a consistent and repeatable information flow challenging.

To mitigate this challenge, many enterprises establish a mission control hub to manage top-priority incidents. A robust SOAR platform incorporates a “virtual war room” feature to ensure that critical communication remains standardized. This prevents any team member, spanning PR, HR, legal, and the C-suite, from overlooking vital information during incident response.

The Transformative Potential of SOAR in Incident Response Whether labeled as alert fatigue or information overload, the deluge of daily threats confronting your business drains your SOC resources and impedes incident response speed. SOAR platforms step in by relieving SOC analysts of monotonous and low-priority tasks, allowing them to concentrate on enhancing the overall efficacy of your SOC in responding to incidents.