What is Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR)?
As cyber threats continue to grow in volume and sophistication, security teams face the challenge of handling thousands of alerts each and every day. To be able to prioritise these alerts and respond effectively, it’s vital for every business to develop an efficient approach to their security operations. This is where Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) may benefit your business. SOAR is transforming how security operations teams manage, analyse and respond to security incidents, enhancing the speed, efficiency and effectiveness of the entire process.
What is Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR)
Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) is a comprehensive approach to cyber security that integrates the coordination of security processes, automation of routine tasks, and timely response to incidents. SOAR platforms streamline and connect disparate security tools, combining alerts from SIEM systems and other security technologies and enabling seamless information sharing and workflow automation. By orchestrating these tools, SOAR enhances incident response capabilities, accelerates decision-making, and reduces manual intervention.
How Does SOAR Work?
SOAR functions by seamlessly integrating disparate cyber security tools, automating routine tasks, and orchestrating a cohesive response to security incidents. As the name suggests, there are three key elements to SOAR:
- Orchestration - ensuring the coordination of actions across various security tools and teams, creating a streamlined workflow and unified defence strategy.
- Automation - scripting repetitive security tasks, allowing for quicker detection and response to threats.
- Response - the execution of predefined actions for known threats and the ability to facilitate human decision-making in complex scenarios.
Ultimately, SOAR works to enhance the speed, efficiency, and effectiveness of the entire security operations process and thereby ensure that threats are dealt with in a timely and coordinated manner.
What Are the Differences Between SOAR and SIEM?
Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) and Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) are complementary but distinct cyber security technologies. While they both detect security issues, collect data and deal with notifications, there are significant differences between them:
- SIEM focuses on log and event data collection, analysis, and correlation to identify potential security incidents. It centralises data from various sources to provide a comprehensive view of an organisation's security posture.
- SOAR extends beyond analysis to orchestrate and automate responses to security incidents, integrating and coordinating disparate security tools, streamlining workflows and automating routine tasks. It enhances incident response by executing predefined actions and facilitating human decision-making.
In short, SIEM is primarily a monitoring and alerting system, while SOAR is a more comprehensive solution for incident response.
What Are the Benefits of Having SOAR?
Implementing Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) provides several key benefits for businesses:
- Efficiency and Time Savings - SOAR automates routine and time-consuming security tasks, enabling faster incident detection, analysis, and response.
- Improved Incident Response - by orchestrating the actions of various security tools, SOAR ensures a coordinated and effective response to security incidents.
- Enhanced Collaboration and Communication - SOAR integrates disparate security technologies and facilitates seamless communication between different teams.
- Consistency and Standardisation - automated playbooks ensure consistent and standardised responses to security incidents.
- Scalability - by automating manual tasks, SOAR can handle a larger volume of alerts and incidents and allows businesses to effectively scale their cyber security efforts.
- Advanced Threat Intelligence - SOAR platforms can integrate threat intelligence feeds from a wider array of tools and systems, delivering more context and providing real-time information about emerging threats.
- Metrics and Reporting - SOAR platforms offer reporting and analytics capabilities, providing insights into security incidents, response times, and overall cyber security performance.
In summary, SOAR contributes to a more efficient, effective, and collaborative cyber security framework, addressing the challenges posed by the evolving threat landscape.
Could SOAR Help Your Business?
SOAR is an incredibly valuable tool that minimises the impact of security incidents while maximising the value of your existing security investments. With SOAR, you can enhance your cyber security efforts by automating tasks, streamlining incident response, and fostering collaboration among security teams and tools. This results in improved efficiency, faster threat detection, and a more robust defence against cyber threats.
see our
Related resources
Mimecast recently released its State of Email Security Report for 2021. The fifth edition of its annual report used interviews with over twelve hundred of information technology and cybersecurity professionals across the globe to gather vital cybersecurity insights. The report offers an insight into the latest email threats along with advice on how to build cyber resilience and mitigate the risks of email-borne attacks.
Cyber attacks and data breaches have been commonplace in the news headlines for some time now. Although a warning from the media is certainly helpful, there is so much more that can be done when it comes to threat intelligence sharing. Threat intelligence sharing is an important part of the global cybersecurity community effort to tackle cybercrime and should form a part of every organisation’s cybersecurity strategy. Sharing cyber threat intelligence enables organisations to make informed decisions about their cybersecurity, building more effective and robust cyber defences.
One of my favourite annual reports to read is the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report. It’s packed full of insights about the threat landscape and security leaders, in my opinion, should read this report to get a pulse on what’s happening in cyber-scape.
After all, as cyber leaders, we are here to stop breaches – so the insights gained from real cyber incidents and breaches is gold in learning how to tighten up our defences.
All businesses, large and small, are under increasing pressure to demonstrate that they are managing the risk of cyberattacks. This means having the right processes and controls in place to identify risks and vulnerabilities, protect information, as well as detect, respond, and recover in the event of cybersecurity incidents. As such, many businesses are turning to certification authorities and security frameworks to demonstrate privacy and security best practice and achieve compliance with regulatory bodies. System and Organisation Controls (SOC 2) is one such compliance framework that can help organisations to create a structured approach to cybersecurity.
Frost & Sullivan has recently released its 2021 Frost Radar: Email Security report, where its findings provide a benchmarking framework to help businesses protect their email from cyber threats.
As we operate in an increasingly digital world, every business collect, store, and share more and more data. And, amongst that data is personal information. With the OAIC marking this year’s Privacy Awareness Week (PAW) from Monday 3 May to Sunday 9 May 2021, it’s time for us all to review how we protect our customers’ personal information.
We're Here To Help