SOAR in Cybersecurity stands for Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response which integrates automated responses to the systems that make things easier for IT teams. A SOAR system can also be customized according to the needs of the company, which helps businesses to achieve their goals. It also offers different benefits, such as saving time, reducing the number of employees, and helping businesses save money and make better investments.
SOAR has different software capabilities that positively contribute to different operational matters of IT teams. Some of its main functions are threat management, responding to security breaches, and automation of security operations. It identifies the vulnerabilities and threats, and then proper response tactics are implemented. After that, the automated system runs automatically and efficiently, so this system works as an effective tool for the IT teams.
How does SOAR System Work?
The primary components of SOAR are orchestration, automation, and response, which work together to help the teams of companies enhance their security posture.
Orchestration
It allows IT and cybersecurity teams to work together to identify the flaws in networks and systems. SOAR tools have internal and external data about threats, so they combine this data and help teams use this information to find out the root cause of the issues.
Automation
The automation feature helps to eliminate the manual steps that save time and effort for the teams. By automating security operations, teams do not have to worry about different tasks, such as managing query logs and user access. Automation also acts as a tool for orchestration, as it automates tasks that usually require multiple tools.
Response
Automation and orchestration are the basis of the response component of the SOAR system. It helps companies how they will plan, manage, and respond to security threats. Once the risk of human errors is eliminated with the SOAR feature, responses become more precise and save the time that can be taken to handle security issues.
Benefits of Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response
Here are some of the main benefits of SOAR Solutions that all the organizations can capitalize on.
Cost Efficiency
The increasing number of cybersecurity threats requires strong security measures that companies need to take. Unfortunately, implementing these solutions is not cheap, which leads to budget issues for organizations. To address each and every security threat, a new protocol has to be developed that requires proper staff to handle the relevant process, so it increases the overall cost of companies. With SOAR, you do not have to worry about these issues, as it streamlines and automates security operations, saving time and money.
Improves Time Management and Efficiency
By saving time, SOAR helps to improve the productivity of businesses. Employees have to spend hours performing different tasks while using SOAR, which helps automate different operational matters. You only need a few team members to efficiently use the this system and make the most out of it.
Providing Flexibility
This solution can be used according to the company’s needs, as its design has the flexibility to change as per the requirements of any security system. It offers the flexibility to be adapted to your current system. It saves time and effort for the IT teams, as they do not have to redesign the system.
Effective Incident Management
Companies can also respond to threats more effectively with this solutions, as they offer faster response times and precise interventions. There is less chance of mistakes, and team members have to spend less time resolving issues. By minimizing the chances of error, companies can better manage incidents.
Better Collaboration
It helps to address different types of threats through the central system, so the teams do not have to handle these issues individually, which leads to improved collaboration. It helps to create unified protocols and allows IT teams to work with innovative solutions.
Comparison Between SOAR and SIEM
SIEM (security information and event management) is a cybersecurity tool that helps security teams gather and assess data and create the right policies. By using this tool, companies get visibility related to the company’s operational matters in real time. It also manages event notifications automatically via dashboards.
SOAR and SIEM are used to identify security issues and gather data to find out the nature of the issue. Both these tools also manage notifications that teams can utilize. However, there are major differences between SOAR and SIEM that you need to know.
SOAR gathers data and notifies security teams to use a centralized platform similar to SIEM. On the other hand, SIEM only sends notifications to security analysts. SOAR helps to automate the responses by using AI to detect patterns that help teams identify threats and control the situation before it gets worse.
SOAR Helps Teams to Investigate the Matter
SIEM tool does not frequently send alerts to the IT staff when malicious activities are detected. On the other hand, SOAR sends more notifications to the IT teams and automates the investigation, while SIEM sends alerts to teams, and they have to act manually.
SOAR offers Better Data Aggregation
The SIEM and SOAR both aggregate data, but SOAR has a better set of data resources. SIEM gathers data from logs and events that exist in the components of IT infrastructure. In contrast, SOAR can gather that data from the endpoint security and external sources. It makes SOAR a better and more comprehensive solution, as it collects data from more sources, so teams can unify the security response across the network.
Importance of SOAR
In the continuously evolving era, companies are facing cyberattacks, so to address these challenges, they need to implement effective cybersecurity solutions like SOAR. Here are some key aspects of SOAR that will help you understand its significance in the modern era.
Better Incident Response Time
The capacity of SOAR to automate mundane procedures and optimize security processes is one of its most important advantages. Automation cuts down on how long it takes to find, evaluate, and address security issues. It reduces the need for manual intervention, allowing for quicker incident resolution, less potential harm, and uninterrupted business operations.
Improved Threat Detection
Firewalls, threat intelligence feeds, and SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) are just a few of the security capabilities that SOAR platforms combine into one cohesive system. Better correlation of data from many sources is made possible by this integration, which reduces false positives and improves threat detection accuracy. Security teams may concentrate on real dangers instead of wasting time on false alarms if they have access to more dependable data.
Proper Utilization of Security Resources
Security teams frequently experience fatigue and inefficiency as a result of the labor- and time-intensive nature of manual threat identification and response. By automating monotonous activities, SOAR allows analysts to concentrate on more important, high-level problems. This increases the team’s productivity and optimizes the security infrastructure’s return on investment (ROI).
Effective Response Procedures
SOAR systems have proper response processes that guarantee security issues are addressed consistently, no matter who is in charge of them. Businesses may preserve best practices and compliance with laws by standardizing workflows. This reduces the possibility of human mistakes and guarantees audit preparedness.
Challenges of SOAR
SOAR platforms also have some challenges that companies need to know about. This system requires the input different security systems to detect threats successfully. It is a complementary tool that is not the replacement of other security tools, which means it cannot replace security analysts. So, it allows human analysts to enhance their workflow with effective threat detection and incident response.
Some of the other challenges that this solution has are implementation complexities, management issues, limited metrics, and not being able to remediate wider security tactics.