Businesses rely heavily on technology to run efficient and effective operations. But with that comes more exposure to attacks and threats from hackers, constantly seeking new ways to exploit these technologies for malicious purposes. To stay ahead of the game, businesses need to have a team of experts analyzing logs and data around the clock.
This is where the Security Operations Center (SOC) comes in. The SOC serves as a hub for containing cybersecurity threats. It is tasked with monitoring, detecting, analyzing, responding to, and restoring any cyber threat or breach.
However, the SOC is severely limited. According to research, the SOC receives more than 4,400 alerts daily, and almost three hours are spent trying to analyze them. A 2023 study further reveals that 67% of these alerts are unable to be contained by cybersecurity experts.
The sheer volume of threats and alerts received makes it impossible for even the best and SOC experts to tackle. Manually investigating threats and incidents is slow, inefficient and impact the overall response time. For organizations to keep up with the constant glow of data derived from legal business activities and avert emerging cyber security threats, SOC automation is necessary.
The Role of AI in Security Automation
SOC uses AI to eliminate time-consuming manual tasks, linking security tools directly for fast-paced responses that keep business digital assets safe. With SOC automation, companies can create advanced security systems that are watertight while constantly monitoring their networks for any hint of threat.
With SOC automation, organizations are protected from threats and attacks that cost a lot of money.
But does SOC automation really help? Are there any real-life examples where SOC automation can be deployed? The answer to this is found in the next section.
Scenarios Where SOC Automation Works
Security automation enables organizations to detect and eliminate security threats. While its use differs from one industry to another, the goal is the same: to keep the company’s digital assets safe, thus creating more business efficiency. Here are some of the use cases for SOC automation:
A recent report reveals that companies spend as much as $3.3 billion yearly to access cyber threats manually. Aside from the considerable cost, manual alert triage is repetitive, and tedious and often results in staff burnout, misidentified threats, and inefficient use of skilled analysts.
But with SOC automation, less is spent, and more is done; with an AI enabled SOC automation platform, companies can scale up incident analysis and threat assessments by casting a wide net, a net that keeps expanding as demand expands.
-
Response to Threats and Incidents
Without automation, security experts will have to investigate threats manually, determine if they are relevant, develop a mitigation plan, and then carry out a recovery process. Automation, on the other hand, relies on AI that makes use of rule-based logic to respond to threats.
With the proper tools, companies can quickly and efficiently determine if alerts are relevant, notify the right persons, and take the right actions (such as quarantining and shutting down the system) using automated incident response. The automated incident response works around the clock, thereby providing immediate response to cyber threats even on weekends, holidays, and off-hours.
-
Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI)
CTI involves collating, analyzing, and processing data to detect new and existing threats that may compromise an individual or a business. It contains indicators of threats (IOCs) such as vulnerabilities, traits of threat actors, and techniques and tools.
CTI forms the backbone of every security solution, but it can only perform its task with data from various sources. With the SOC automation platform, security experts can collate, arrange, and analyze data from multiple sources and then use the data gathered to alert and respond to threats and vulnerabilities.
SOC automation is also used in incident detection, whereby threats are detected, differentiated, and prioritized. Notifications and preventive measures are then distributed accordingly.
This can take many forms, such as detecting viruses and malware before opening any file, adding important remediation information, and automating ticket creation. SOC automation is, therefore, needed for preventing cyberattacks as it increases response and repair time and encourages proactivity.
SOC automation can also be used to learn about emerging threats by recognizing certain patterns and providing feedback. Already, some cyber security companies are deploying trained machine learning algorithms that can detect threats and attacks by other machine learning algorithms, including bots and smart malware designed to launch personalized attacks on certain persons.
Conclusion
The need for security automation must be considered by every success-focused business. This is because SOC automation effectively prevents and protects organizations and businesses against emerging and existing cyberattacks.
But that is only a small part of what it does. SOC automation, powered by AI tools and techniques, can be the difference between a slow, hit-and-miss reaction to cyber threats and a quick, effective mitigation approach.
Interesting Related Article: “Safeguarding Data Security: The Imperative of Proper Electronics Recycling“
