Security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) technology helps coordinate, execute and automate tasks between various people and tools all within a single platform. This allows organizations to not only quickly respond to cybersecurity attacks but also observe, understand and prevent future incidents, thus improving their overall security posture. Show
A comprehensive SOAR product, as defined by Gartner, is designed to operate under three primary software capabilities: threat and vulnerability management, security incident response, and security operations automation. Threat and vulnerability management (orchestration) covers technologies that help amend cyberthreats, while security operations automation (automation) relates to the technologies that enable automation and orchestration within operations. SOARs ingest alert data, and these alerts then trigger playbooks that automate/orchestrate response workflows or tasks. Then, using a combination of human and machine learning, organizations are able to analyze this diverse data in order to comprehend and prioritize automated incident response actions to any future threats, thus creating a more efficient and effective approach to handling cybersecurity and improving security operations. Figure 1: Sample SOAR playbook for malware analysis What Is SIEM?SIEM stands for security information and event management. It is an arrangement of services and tools that help a security team or security operations center (SOC) collect and analyze security data as well as create policies and design notifications. A SIEM system uses the following to manage security information and events: data collection, consolidation, and correlation, as well as notifications once a single event or an arrangement of events triggers a SIEM rule. Organizations also set up policies such as rules, reports, alerts and dashboards that align with their specific security concerns. SIEM tools enable IT teams to:
SIEM combines the management of security information and security events. This is accomplished using real-time monitoring and the notification of system administrators. SOAR vs. SIEMMany define SOAR and SIEM as similar products since both detect security issues and collect data regarding the nature of the problem. They also deal with notifications that security personnel can use to address concerns. However, there are significant differences between them. SOAR collects data and alerts security teams using a centralized platform similar to SIEM, but SIEM only sends alerts to security analysts. SOAR security, however, adds in automation and response to the investigation path by using automated playbooks or workflows and artificial intelligence (AI) to learn pattern behaviors, thus enabling it to predict similar threats before they happen. Because SOARs, such as Cortex XSOAR, typically ingest alerts from sources that SIEMs do not cover - for example vulnerability scan findings, cloud security alerts, and IoT device alerts - it's easier to deduplicate alerts and in fact, this is a typical use case for SOAR and SIEM integrations. This reduces the amount of time it takes to manually handle alerts, making it easier for IT security staff to detect and address threats. What Are Security Orchestration and Automation?Security automation is the machine-based execution of security actions with the power to detect, investigate and remediate cyberthreats, without the need for manual human intervention. It does much of the rote work for the SOC team, so they no longer need to weed through and manually address every alert as it comes in. Security automation can:
All of that can happen in seconds, without any involvement from human staff. Security analysts don't have to follow the steps, instructions and decision-making workflow to investigate the event and determine whether it is a legitimate incident. Repetitive, time-consuming actions are taken out of their hands so they can focus on more important, value-adding work. Security orchestration is the machine-based coordination of a series of interdependent security actions, including incident investigation, response and ultimately resolution, all across a single, complex infrastructure. It ensures that all of your security and non-security tools are working together in unison whether automating tasks across products and workflows or manually alerting agents on important incidents that need more attention. Security orchestration can:
Ultimately, security orchestration increases the integration of your defenses, allowing your security team to automate complex processes and maximize the value you receive from your security staff, processes and tools. What Is the Difference Between Automation and Orchestration?While security automation and security orchestration are terms that are often used interchangeably, the two platforms serve very different roles:
Security automation is all about simplifying and making security operations run more efficiently because it deals with an array of single tasks, whereas security orchestration connects all of your different security tools so that they feed into one another, creating a fast and efficient workflow process from beginning to end.They work best when paired together and security groups can maximize their efficiency and productivity when they adopt both. What Is Threat Intelligence Management (TIM)?In conjunction with security orchestration, automation and response, a SOAR Platform may also include the addition of Threat Intelligence Management, or TIM. Threat intelligence management (TIM) enables organizations to better understand the global threat landscape, anticipate attackers' next moves and take prompt action to stop attacks. There is a significant difference between threat intelligence and threat intelligence management. While threat intelligence is data and information about threats, threat intelligence management is the collection, normalization, enrichment and actioning of data about potential attackers and their intentions, motivations and capabilities. This information can help organizations make faster, more informed security decisions, and thus be better prepared for cyberthreats. Why Is SOAR Important?In an ever-growing and increasingly digital world, organizations today face numerous challenges when it comes to cybersecurity. The more complex and malicious threats there are, the more companies need to develop an efficient and effective approach to the future of their security operations. Because of this need, SOAR is revolutionizing the way security operations teams manage, analyze and respond to alerts and threats. Security Operations teams today are tasked with the responsibility of manually handling thousands of alerts on a daily basis, leaving room for errors and major operational inefficiencies, not to mention inefficient, siloed and outdated security tools, as well as a severe lack of qualified cybersecurity talent. Many security operations teams are struggling with connecting the noise from disparate systems, resulting in too many error-prone manual processes and lacking the highly skilled talent to solve all of this. With the growing volume of threats and alerts and the lack of resources to address them all, not only are analysts forced to decide which alerts to take seriously and act on, and which can be ignored, they are often so overworked that they risk missing real threats and end up making an egregious number of errors as they try to respond to threats and bad agents. Because of this, it's critical that organizations have systems, such as a SOAR platform, that enable them to systematically orchestrate and automate their alert and response process. By filtering out mundane tasks that are taking up the most time, energy and resources, security operations teams are more effective and productive when handling and investigating incidents and thereby able to vastly improve the organization's overall security posture. SOAR enables you to:
The Value of Having and Using SOARCompanies and organizations find value in SOAR because it minimizes the impact of security incidents of all types, while maximizing the value of existing security investments, and reduces the risk of legal liability and business downtime overall. SOAR helps companies address and overcome their security challenges by enabling them to:
SOAR Use CasesThe table that follows offers examples of common use cases for SOAR.
Read more Top Security Orchestration Use Cases. What to Look For in a SOAR Platform? Best Practices GuideNow that you’re able to define SOAR and understand it’s different capabilities, how do you know which SOAR product is right for your organization’s needs? What should you be looking for in a SOAR platform? When comparing different SOAR providers, there are a handful of different factors that you’ll want to consider before making a decision. Aside from the core technology, the buyer’s decision-making process is heavily influenced by the factors and services that follow being offered as a whole. Some factors organizations should consider before implementing any SOAR product include an evaluation of their own maturity, the technology integrations and tool stack needed, existing processes, as well as their chosen method of deployment. After an organization does an internal audit of its state of security, it must then consider the factors pertaining to the SOAR product itself. Considerations such as:
Finding the best SOAR solution for any security operations requires alignment of the vendor’s offerings and the SOC organization’s need to improve efficiency and efficacy. The right SOAR solution should not only complement and be compatible with the products, playbooks and processes that are already set in place, it should also optimize collaboration, offer flexibility in both deployment and hosting capabilities, and have a pricing model that aligns to the needs of the organization. Learn how Cortex XSOAR maps to Gartner's SOAR requirements |