Can SOAR Help Reduce Detection and Response Times?

Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) integration has become the norm for cybersecurity. By implementing the latest tools and technologies through a SOAR platform, organizations improve their ability to eliminate cyber threats before they become full blown emergencies. Helping reduce detection and response times is one of the things Soar platforms do very well.

A well-designed SOAR platform directly reduces Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) and Mean Time to Respond (MTTR) by improving the speed and effectiveness of standard security operations. If you are not sure how, keep reading.

1. Better Data Collection and Enrichment

Automation is at the heart of any SOAR system. Through automation, platforms can quickly gather, correlate, and enrich data as soon as an alert comes in. Better yet, the data can come from multiple sources – including other security tools. The result is reducing MTTD.

MTTD is further reduced through consolidating historical data and current threat intelligence. Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) tools, like those provided by DarkOwl, provide faster, more actionable insights that empower security teams to make better decisions.

2. Better Alert Triage

SOAR automation improves alert triage in two ways: filtering out false positives and prioritizing incidents based on severity and potential impact. The outcome is a more streamlined triage process that guarantees critical threats are addressed first. Proper threat escalation minimizes delays in both detection and response. MTTD reductions naturally follow.

3. Automated Responses

MTTR is reduced through automated responses made possible by predefined playbooks. These playbooks lay out the steps taken during a security incident. Because playbooks are standardized, steps are completed consistently and in the right order, thereby minimizing delays.

Automated responses empower security teams to better contain and remediate incidents. They can work more quickly than they would with manual processes, speeding up responses and achieving better results for it.

4. Improved Visibility and Collaboration

Another way SOAR reduces MTTR is by improving visibility and collaboration. How is this accomplished? Through SOAR integration with disparate security tools. Bringing them all together in one place encourages the creation of a unified dashboard where all stakeholders can come together to collaborate and coordinate.

Improved visibility and collaboration offer an added benefit: eliminating the inefficiencies tied to switching between multiple systems during a response. In addition, the centralized environment encourages faster and more streamlined communications. Stakeholders communicate within the platform rather than using external tools.

5. Consistency in Workflows

Both MTTD and MTTR are negatively impacted when workflows are inconsistent. Inconsistencies lead to misunderstandings, poor communication, and uninformed choices. But through SOAR and playbook automation, workflows are easily standardized. Playbooks can be implemented with adherence to best practices and organizational policies, reducing errors and eliminating inconsistencies that would otherwise create problems.

Even better is the fact that playbooks can be highly customized with the use of additional runbooks. Playbooks establish what needs to be achieved when responding to an incident. Runbooks establish the step-by-step processes that get security teams from point A to point Z. Because both are predetermined, every activation results in a consistent response.

6. Better Tracking and Analytics

Finally, SOAR integration improves MTTD and MTTR through better tracking and analytics. Incident metrics and outcomes are tracked and analyzed. They are compared to historical response data. Over time, what is learned from each incident improves workflow for future incidents. Detection and response times go down as a result.

SOAR is literally transforming how security teams handle threat detection and response. Thanks to built-in automation and security orchestration, SOAR is reducing the amount of time it takes for security teams to detect and respond to incidents.