Security teams tend to devote a considerable amount of time to investigating warnings that may or may not be "actual" attacks. A false positive occurs when a natural or non-threatening behavior is mistakenly interpreted as malicious. Thousands of warnings may need to be investigated as a result of this.
If your security analysts are actively reviewing false warnings, they can spend a lot of time evaluating false alerts before they can start evaluating legitimate threats. Furthermore, since there is no ‘extra' information available about the incoming warnings, a considerable amount of time is spent categorizing them.
Security analysts spend their days in one of the two situations mentioned above. Both of these factors contribute to a delay in response time.
The longer it takes to react to a security-related incident, the more harm it is likely to do. The ability to rapidly assess the degree of risk associated with the indicators of compromise is critical to minimizing such damage—and dwell time (IOCs). One of the fastest ways to evaluate and respond to that risk is by leveraging a security orchestration automation, and response (SOAR) solution with threat intelligence tools that are integrated into your workflows.
Organizations are experiencing more cyberattacks than ever before in today's evolving threat environment, and as the volume and complexity of these attacks grow, the availability of trained cybersecurity specialists appears to be dwindling in a reversing trend. As a result, SOAR technology has matured, and companies are increasingly searching for ways to increase the efficiency and efficacy of their security operations, as well as the overall performance of their security programs.
Response Time Matters a Lot — Why?
Time isn't always on your side, particularly when it comes to threats that move quickly. When observers, on the other hand, are observed consistently delaying answers, the following possibilities arise:
Let’s understand this with an example. The following image depicts a typical day of a security analyst:
We now have a good picture of the steps involved in analyzing a single alert, as well as the time it takes to complete each one. Security analysts are also unable to reach the finish line, i.e. responding to warnings, at the end of the day. This is, after all, what they set out to do.
The absence of security automation and orchestration leads to prolonged response time.
For example, where a traditional SIEM could take 30 minutes to investigate an alert, SOAR can reduce that time to just a few seconds. Here's how-
Notice the streamlined approach by a SOAR product to investigate an alert.
How Does SOAR Help?
According to the recent RSA Threat Detection Effectiveness Survey
Here’s How SOAR Software Deals With Incidents
Detection
Alerts can be sent to SOAR software from a number of platforms and methods, and they can be converted to incidents automatically. Incidents are generated, and data from the originating alert can be used to pre-populate fields. Within a SOAR platform, you can identify incident templates and rules for mapping incidents and extracting relevant data.
Analysis
One or more Playbooks may be allocated to an incident once it is generated in SOAR. Each Playbook might include manual or automated actions to get the enrichment process started. Automated actions can gather results without requiring human intervention right after the incident is created, cutting down on response time, which is critical in many investigations. Other manual activities can include more detail, by providing further instructions/activities and be delegated to different SOAR analysts.
Containment/Eradication
Automated behavior may also be set up to make changes to the environment in order to contain or mitigate an attack. These activities may be done automatically or after an authorization process in which SOAR asks individual analysts for confirmation before authorizing the operation.
Post-Incident Report
SOAR has the ability to produce reports and a summary of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Some sections of the final report are automatically generated by SOAR tools, while others can be easily modified as required to ensure that reports can be tailored to the audience (e.g. individual analyst, SOC manager, or C-suite).
SOAR solutions will help an incident management team at any stage of the incident by automating processes and system behavior such as automatically generating incidents, sending specific alerts to analysts involved in the incident or other key stakeholders, and setting appropriate workflows based on the incident that occurred.
These alerts may be sent natively via an in-built messaging service or via an organization's established ticketing system to ensure that dispersed teams across the company receive the most up-to-date and applicable incident details, as well as to aid in accurate evidence preservation.
The incident management team can also be alerted and/or updated with the latest best practices from the Knowledge Base repository, and it can generate personalized reports for each incident as well as customized visualizations of team member responsibilities, all from the Dashboard.
Implement a SOAR Solution Today
Introducing SOAR capabilities to your organization is the first step towards fast decision-making and response. Security orchestration and automation enhance incident response management dramatically, not only by reducing mean time to resolution (MTTR), but also by allowing security teams to focus on more important tasks.
With native automation and orchestration capabilities, Anlyz's SOAR, SPORACT will concentrate team efforts on the most delicate phases of the incident response process, enabling seamless organization and incident response process collaboration. This ensures efficient and effective synergy across each step of the incident response lifecycle, as well as the quickest mechanisms for responding to accidents, minimizing the overall dwell time and potential harm. Contact us to know more about our top-of-the-line, proactive cybersecurity solutions.
