Security Orchestration, Security Orchestration Automation, and Response (SOAR)
Is your organization's incident response strategy lacking? It might be time for you to utilize a SOAR platform.
A SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) platform makes it easier to collect critical data on potential threats. It then utilizes this data to orchestrate the incident response strategy.
In this guide, we’ll explore the benefits and drawbacks of SOAR, as well as its most vital use cases.
What Is SOAR?
SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) is a software class intended for the management and coordination of security systems.
SOAR allows security teams to collect and process data related to important information security cases. The processed data is then used to automate incident response.
One of the biggest advantages of SOAR is that it combines various security solutions into one system, enabling security teams to optimize their workflows and focus on more important tasks.
SOAR comprises 3 vital elements which are:
Security Orchestration
Connecting security tools with native or custom integrations with API access.
Security Automation
Data is ingested and analyzed to automate incident response, replacing manual actions.
Security Response
Provides a unified view for monitoring, planning, and managing historical data related to automated actions.
Benefits of SOAR: How Can SOAR Help Your Organization?
There are numerous benefits of using SOAR for enterprise security operations, which include:
1- Reduced Response Time
Enhanced data context and automation contribute to lower mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to respond (MTTR), minimizing the effect of cyber security threats.
2- Contextualized Security Alerts
Providing context on security alerts enables security teams to focus on more critical tasks.
3- Optimized Investigation Process
SOAR platforms combine data from multiple systems and tools into a single pane of view, resulting in updated threat information, clearer context, and more advanced analysis and reporting.
4- Quicker Mitigation
SOAR lets you prioritize risk based on severity and plan your post-incident security improvements more efficiently.
5- Team Collaboration
SOAR platforms provide a unified dashboard for distributed teams to access information, which significantly enhances collaboration.
6- Simple Integration
Security orchestration platforms easily integrate threat intelligence tools, firewalls, and other security components to provide a more comprehensive view of potential threats.
SOAR Challenges
Despite having numerous benefits, SOAR platforms aren’t free of downsides.
While implementing SOAR can definitely improve your cyber security strategy, it still relies on other tools to detect risks effectively. In other words, a SOAR platform can’t replace other security systems; it just complements them.
SOAR can’t replace professional analysts either since human judgment is still necessary. Instead, SOAR can be used as an assistive technology for SOC analysts to do their job more efficiently and accurately.
Other potential disadvantages of SOAR include an absence of performance metrics and complex setup procedures.
SOAR Security Orchestration Use Cases – What Can We Use Security Orchestration For?
Security orchestration can be utilized in the following use cases:
Alert Handling
SOAR enables security teams to pull data from multiple tools efficiently and apply context to the alerts they get. This results in better threat investigation and handling.
Threat Hunting
SOAR makes it possible for security teams to focus on proactive threat hunting and analysis instead of spending too much time on alert responses. The orchestration platform handles the alert responses for security teams so they can focus on threat hunting.
Incident Response
Security orchestration platforms support decision-making throughout the whole incident response process. By orchestrating security tools and operations, security teams can improve their organizations’ security intelligence and automate incident response.
Threat Intelligence
Threat intelligence comprises identifying Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) and gaining deep insights into the Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) of the threats. Both are critical for handling security threats.
SOAR platforms allow security teams to make better decisions and contextualize incidents, enabling them to be more reliant on threat Intelligence.
Vulnerability Management
SOAR solutions keep vulnerabilities easily detectable, making it easier for security teams to deal with them quickly before a threat becomes an incident.
Case Management
SOAR platforms incorporate case management features that help security teams optimize the incident response process. They make information easily accessible throughout the whole process, from detection to remediation.
Important SOAR Capabilities
According to Gartner’s definition, SOAR’s capabilities can be summarized as follows:
- Threat and vulnerability management technologies: Offer reporting, workflow, and collaboration capabilities that make remediating vulnerabilities easier.
- Security incident response technologies: Streamline the way companies plan and coordinate security responses.
- Security operations automation technologies: Provide support for automating policy execution, reporting, and workflows.
SOAR Vs SIEM – The Difference Between SOAR and SIEM
SOAR Vendors
Some of the most popular SOAR vendors include:
- Siemplify
- Demisto SOAR
- Rapid7 Insightconnect
- Splunk SOAR
- FortiSOAR
- Exabeam Fusion SIEM
- ThreatConnect’s SOAR solution
- LogRhythm RespondX
- SIRP
- IBM SOAR
Find Out More
Check out these articles on CyberTalents blog to learn more about cybersecurity incidents and threats: