SOAR: what it is and how it can be useful for companies

An increasing number of companies leverage SOAR to improve the effectiveness of their cybersecurity operations. In this article, we explain how harnessing the value of SOAR could be crucial to improving the security of your organization.

What is SOAR?

Coined by the research firm Gartner, Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) is a term used to describe the convergence of three distinct technology markets:

1. Security orchestration and automation.
2. Security Incident Response Platforms.
3. Threat Intelligence Platforms.

SOAR technologies allow organizations to collect and aggregate large amounts of data and security alerts from a wide range of sources. As a result, human and mechanical analysis has improved, as have standardization and automation of threat detection and recovery.

It is estimated that by the end of 2020, 15% of organizations with a security team will leverage SOAR technologies. In 2018 they were 1%.

How is SOAR helping companies overcome security challenges?

Rapid technological evolution is bringing complicated challenges to the IT industry. The threats are constantly evolving, the qualified staff is in constant shortage and the IT properties to be managed are constantly increasing. As a result, the SOAR concept is helping companies of all sizes improve their ability to detect and respond to attacks quickly. Let’s see how, in practice, SOAR can improve corporate security.

1. Provide better quality intelligence

Tackling the latest and most sophisticated cyber security threats requires a thorough understanding of attackers’ tactics, techniques and procedures (TTP), as well as the ability to identify indicators of compromise (CIO).

SOAR aggregates and validates data from a wide range of sources. Specifically, these are threat intelligence platforms, security technologies, intrusion detection systems, and SIEM and UEBA technologies. Thus, through the collected and validated data, SOAR helps SOCs to become more intelligence oriented.

The effect of this is that security personnel are able to contextualise incidents, make more informed decisions and accelerate incident detection as well as threat response.

2. Improve the efficiency and effectiveness of operations

The need to manage so many disparate security technologies can put a strain on security personnel. Systems need constant monitoring to ensure efficient performance. Furthermore, the thousands of daily alarms they generate can also lead to dangerous fatigue. The constant transition from one system to another only makes the situation worse, costing teams time and effort, as well as increasing the risk of errors.

SOAR solutions help SOCs automate and semi-automate some of the daily tasks of security operations.

By presenting intelligence and controls through a single panel and using artificial intelligence and machine learning, SOAR tools significantly reduce the need for SOC teams to perform ‘context switching’.

In addition, they can help ensure that processes are managed more efficiently. This improves the productivity and the ability of organizations to deal with a greater number of incidents without the need to hire additional staff. A key goal of the SOAR approach is to help security personnel work smarter and not harder.

3. Improve incident response

To minimize the risk of breaches and limit the extensive damage they can cause, a quick response is vital. SOAR helps the organization reduce mean time to detection (MTTD) and mean time to response (MTTR). Security alarms can be qualified and remedied in minutes, rather than days, weeks or months.

SOAR, therefore, allows security teams to automate incident response procedures. Automated responses can include blocking an IP address on a firewall, suspending user accounts, or quarantining infected endpoints on a network.

4. Simplify reporting

In many cyber security operations centers, frontline workers spend a lot of time managing cases, writing and reporting, and documenting incident response procedures. Instead, by aggregating information from a wide range of sources and presenting it via visual and customized dashboards, SOAR can help organizations reduce collateral work while improving internal communication.

In addition, by automating the tasks of procedures, SOAR helps encode knowledge about threats.

Ultimately, doing tasks faster means more time for threat resolution and mitigation. The longer these are not addressed, the greater the chances of damage and malfunctions.

In conclusion

While both security information, event management (SIEM) and SOAR accumulate relevant data from multiple sources, SOAR services integrate with a wider range of internal and external applications.

At present, many companies are using SOAR services to potential internal SIEM software. In the future, it is expected that as SIEM suppliers begin to add SOAR functionality to their services, the market for these two product lines will merge.

SOD applies SIEM Next Generation and UEBA technology for the management of cyber threats and SOAR processes. This guarantees prevention and timeliness of an excellent level. If you want to know more, visit our SOCaaS service page and contact us for more information.

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Useful links:

SIEM software: what it is and how it works

SIEM in computer science: history

SOCaaS

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