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Definitive Guide to Ransomware

Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR)

Staying ahead of cyber threats demands vigilance, orchestration, automation, and rapid response. Enter SOAR: Security Orchestration, Automation and Response. SOAR is a transformative approach to managing and streamlining security operations. 

What is SOAR?

Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) refers to a collection of software tools and technologies that help organisations collect security data, analyse it, and respond to incidents in a streamlined and automated way. Its primary goal is to empower Security Operations Centers (SOCs) to work smarter and faster by integrating various systems, automating repetitive tasks, and ensuring that incident responses are both swift and consistent. At its core, SOAR helps unify the fragmented layers of an organisation's cybersecurity infrastructure. It bridges the gap between detection, investigation, and response, reducing the burden on human analysts and improving overall security posture. 

Key components of SOAR

  • Security orchestration
    Security orchestration connects various security tools and platforms, enabling them to work together in harmony. It ensures that alerts and data flow smoothly between systems, reducing silos and improving visibility. Think of it as the conductor of your security orchestra – coordinating a variety of instruments to create a unified response to cyber threats.
  • Security automation
    Automation takes over the repetitive, time-consuming tasks that can bog down analysts, such as log analysis, vulnerability scanning, or email filtering. By automating these tasks, SOAR frees up human analysts to focus on strategic decision-making and complex threats that require a human touch.
  • Security response
    In case of impactful incidents, certain responses need to be performed to limit the impact of incidents. SOAR facilitates in this regard by ensuring that different technologies are available from a single platform. Different situations require different responses, and these might range from isolating systems and blocking network access to disabling compromised accounts.

Why is SOAR important?

Modern SOCs are drowning in alerts. With dozens of tools generating security notifications, identifying real threats becomes a challenge. Moreover, most organisations have grown their cybersecurity infrastructure organically, leading to a patchwork of non-integrated systems. Add to this the global shortage of skilled security professionals, and it's clear why SOAR has become essential. SOAR alleviates these pain points by consolidating workflows, reducing manual interventions, and enabling teams to handle more incidents with fewer resources. 

Benefits of SOAR

Implementing SOAR offers both strategic and operational advantages: 
  • Enhanced efficiency
    By automating routine tasks and unifying disparate tools, SOAR helps security teams operate with greater focus and fewer distractions. This means more time for high-value analysis and less time lost on repetitive work.
  • Unified visibility
    SOAR solutions are able to integrate different programs from different suppliers. Because of this, security operations are centralised, integrating alerts, event access, and tools into a single pane of glass. This enables faster decision--making and a clearer understanding of the threat landscape.
  • Cost savings
    Reducing tool sprawl and minimising manual intervention helps lower operational costs, while improving response quality and consistency.
  • Accelerated response
    SOAR dramatically reduces the time it takes to detect, investigate, and contain threats. Automated workflows ensure incidents are addressed within seconds, not hours.
  • Improved team collaboration & onboarding
    Clear workflows and shared dashboards improve communication across the security team. Onboarding new analysts becomes easier as the workflows are embedded in the platform, and cross-functional response becomes more fluid.
  • Smarter threat investigation
    With built-in threat intelligence and data enrichment, SOAR enhances investigations by either performing the investigation, or offering deeper context to analysts.
These benefits combine to strengthen your organisation’s security posture and resilience against both internal and external threats. 

SOAR vs. SOAPA

If you've encountered SOAR, chances are you've also come across SOAPA: Security Operations and Analytics Platform Architecture. While they sound similar, they serve distinct purposes. SOAPA provides the foundational architecture that connects all the security tools, data sources, and analytics platforms. It’s the infrastructure layer. SOAR, on the other hand, operates at the process level, orchestrating and automating actions based on insights derived from SOAPA.

In other words, SOAPA is the stage, and SOAR is the play.  

SOAR vs. SIEM

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems are the eyes and ears of the SOC, collecting and analysing logs from across the enterprise. But SIEMs often stop at detection. This is where SOAR comes in. SOAR platforms take alerts and data from SIEMs and use automated playbooks to act on them. For example, when a malware infection is detected by a SIEM, SOAR might isolate the affected endpoint, terminate malicious processes, and launch a follow-up investigation – all in seconds. The result? Reduced dwell time and more effective incident containment.

By integrating a SIEM and a SOAR, organisations can go beyond passive monitoring and enable active defence mechanisms that scale. 

Explore our MDR service

Looking for comprehensive cybersecurity solutions tailored to your organisation's needs? Explore our Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services. Our SOC provides scalability, cost-effectiveness, and access to specialised expertise. Our MDR services help organisations detect, analyse, and respond to cyber threats in real time, leveraging advanced threat intelligence and proactive monitoring to identify and mitigate risks like ransomware and cyber espionage. We also assist in navigating cybersecurity regulations such as NIS2, providing visibility into security telemetry and log retention. With an “assume breach” mindset, we help organisations strengthen their security posture and reduce the impact of potential threats.