OVERVIEW
While the information security sector is rapidly progressing, it still proves to be a constant challenge for companies and governments all over the world. Organizations from all sectors invest heavily on information security to make sure its data and information is safe from both the inside as well as the outside threats. As cybercrimes are evolving with the passage of time, the techniques and methods used to safeguard from these cyber threats are also being improved and implemented by the organizations.Making improvements in cyber security is a never-ending process; no organization can effectively prepare for all types of cyber threats.
As time passes, cybercriminals evolve and invent new methods and tools to attack.To prepare for future security threats, it would be required to take feasible steps based on best practices and to secure the most important element i.e. data. In this article, we will discuss some of the most major reasons in understanding why Security Automation and Orchestration services are extremely important in re-enforcing organizational security. We will not only talk about why security automation is important, but we will also learn how it will be impacting the future.
INTRODUCTION
Security Automation and Security Orchestration are two different terms that are used in conjunction and are considered to imply the same; but in reality, these both terms are different in nature and serve different purposes. Security Automation is the most crucial element in security today, because there a number of tasks that are of low priority, are repetitive in nature and requires a lot of time and human resources to complete. For such tasks, security automation provides the solution by automating the basic security checks and balances, including standard security responses towards suspicious behaviors or malicious activities. While on the other hand Security Orchestration services are used by security operations teams to define the flow of response and increase resource management by aiding in the execution, prioritization, and consistency of the tasks. In short it is used to enhance the consistency and accuracy of the responses. In short, Automation enhances the speed of the response while Orchestration focuses on the consistency of the response. Although both these services serve different purposes, these are used together to enhance the benefits.
Now that we have learned the difference between bothSecurity Automation and Security Orchestration, lets discuss their impact and benefits and the typical use-cases. Below are the top 5 benefits that automation and orchestration can provide in responding to the security threats:
Improve risk detection and reporting
Security automation and orchestration can provide active monitoring features that will regularly send alerts and notifications in case of any suspicious activity or unauthorized access attempt. With enhanced identification of cyber threats and timely reporting, it can reduce a chance of cyber breach or data loss.
Prompt action against security alerts
Proper prioritization can allow the security operations teams to take proper decision.The priority levels can be assigned through the use automation and security orchestration solution. It will ultimately allow you to automate the action to be taken against the alert that needs the most attention and is labeled as high priority.
Enhanced performance with automated metrics and reporting
There are highly trusted and efficient solutions available that create daily, weekly, monthly, and/or yearly activity reports related to any suspicious activities or malicious attempts. This automatic report generation feature can save you a lot of time to go manually through all the tables and records. Moreover, many solutions also provide custom recommendations regarding the types of issues that are detected, along with the suggested steps to resolve them.
Reducing damage from cyber-attacks
With excellent resource management features provided by the orchestration solutions, it is extremely easy for security operations teams to effectively respond to and investigate any security breach. As an added benefit,the solutions will automatically take pre-programmed procedures and security steps to help in minimizing the attack.
Excelling cost saving
By implementing a proper SOAR solution,organizations can cut down on unnecessary costs at every step efficiently reduces staff operational costs. It helps the organizations on maximizing the return on their existing investments.
CONCLUSION
Information security is a constant challenge for organizations around the world; no matter how small or large and what industry or niche they belong to, there is always a risk of an attack or a security breach. With the proper use of knowledge, skills and technology organizations can protect themselves and their valuable data from any threat. One of the best ways to protect your infrastructure and data is to keep looking for threats and automate the response to any incidents using state-of-the-art security orchestration and automation solutions. Security Automation and Orchestration has become mandatory due to the increased volume of alerts, endless assembly-line of security products used, and the shortage of security resources.
REFERENCES
Cynthia Harvey (2018). 8 Ways Security Automation and Orchestration Is Transforming Security Operations. [online] Esecurityplanet.com. Available at: https://www.esecurityplanet.com/network-security/security-automation-and-orchestration-soar.html [Accessed 2 Dec. 2019].
Delabarre, L. (2019). Why Modern Security Teams can no Longer Overlook Benefits of Orchestration. [online] Infosecurity Magazine. Available at: https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/opinions/overlook-benefits-orchestration-1/ [Accessed 2 Dec. 2019].
Dflabs.com. (2018). Security Automation vs Security Orchestration – What’s the Difference? [online] Available at: https://www.dflabs.com/blog/security-automation-vs-security-orchestration-whats-the-difference/ [Accessed 2 Dec. 2019].
Rapid7 (2017). What is Security Automation? [online] Rapid7 Blog. Available at: https://blog.rapid7.com/2017/05/18/security-automation/ [Accessed 2 Dec. 2019].
Swimlane (2018). Five benefits to implementing security automation using SOAR. [online] Swimlane. Available at: https://swimlane.com/blog/soar-security-automation/ [Accessed 2 Dec. 2019].