What is Cybersecurity Automation?

With every passing day, conventional cybersecurity management solutions become a bit more outdated and unable to handle the growth of ever-more sophisticated security threats. Moreover, many corporate security teams can’t expand thanks to financial and talent constraints. Given those facts of cybersecurity life, how can security teams enhance their ability to thwart data breaches and handle increasingly complex attack surfaces?

Enter cybersecurity automation, a modern approach that can help you keep pace with the risks your organization has.

Cybersecurity Automation, Explained

Cybersecurity automation is a concept used to describe advanced systems powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).

Cybersecurity automation allows organizations to manage and disarm cyber threats before mission-critical operations are disrupted. Done wisely, such automation tackles even the sophisticated technologies that cybercriminals use to infiltrate networks and systems.

Cybersecurity automation can take different forms, but it means automating human-driven and repetitive tasks that your (properly configured) IT assets can handle without human interaction. It streamlines manual and time-consuming tasks into automated workflows, making network security processes more efficient and less prone to human error.

With that enhanced efficiency, organizations can make faster decisions, which then improves your entire security posture.

Can Cybersecurity Be Automated?

Yes; lots of cybersecurity routines can be automated. For example, automation is already used to monitor and scan networks for security loopholes and potential vulnerabilities. This can be done by using software tools such as network scanners and vulnerability management platforms, designed to detect and report security issues automatically.

Once a vulnerability is identified, the tool generates a report that security teams can use to assess the severity of the issue and determine the optimal solution to mitigate it.

Another use case for cybersecurity automation is automated compliance monitoring, where automated software can monitor systems and networks for compliance with industry regulations and standards. Automated compliance monitoring makes it easy for organizations to identify and fix potential compliance problems and decrease the risk of fines and penalties.

Cybersecurity automation also improves the response process to security incidents. Automated incident response systems work based on preset and custom rules if an incident occurs. It can help organizations respond to incidents more quickly and reduce the overall impact of a security incident.

Other benefits of automated incident response are optimized threat intelligence, streamlined operations, and automated reporting and metrics capabilities.

Why Is Cybersecurity Automation Important?

Effective protection against cyberattacks requires implementing automated systems that can analyze data in real-time and provide a comprehensive view of all activity happening within an organization’s network. The advantages of using automated cybersecurity systems include:

• Increased efficiency. Cybersecurity automation allows for rapid detection and response to potential threats, reducing the time it takes to mitigate them.
• Improved accuracy. Automated systems can process massive amounts of data and uncover patterns that may be difficult for humans to discover, leading to fewer false positives or negatives.
• 24/7 monitoring. Automated systems can continuously monitor networks and systems for potential threats, providing round-the-clock protection.
• Scalability. Automation can be used to scale security operations to satisfy the requirements of organizations of all sizes, allowing for more effective security management.

Another way to think about cybersecurity automation is to consider the converse: how can your corporation keep pace with modern cybersecurity threats without automation? The plain truth is that you can’t; manual processes will take too long, overlook too many important details, and leave the CISO unable to give accurate reports to the board, regulators, or other stakeholders. Automation isn’t just a good idea for cybersecurity – it’s a necessity.

What Are Security Automation Tools?

There are several types of security automation platforms. Below are examples of security automation tools commonly used by organizations.

Security information and event management (SIEM) tools

Organizations invest in SIEM solutions to streamline visibility across their organization’s environments, investigate log data for incident response to cyberattacks and data breaches, and follow local and federal compliance mandates.

SIEM solutions aggregate log and event data produced from applications, devices, networks, infrastructure, and systems. Then they analyze that data to provide a comprehensive view of an organization’s information technology (IT).

Security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) tools

Security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) refers to a set of software solutions that allow organizations to streamline security operations in three major areas: threat management, security incident response, and security operations automation.

Large organizations use SOAR tools because such organizations tend to have many security systems and recurring security actions that need to be taken. SOAR tools typically run automatically and offer the ability to automate incident response processes through the use of standardized playbooks.

Vulnerability management tools

Vulnerability management tools can automatically scan IT resources for vulnerabilities, helping organizations identify vulnerabilities, classify them, prioritize the risks, and suggest remediation activities.

Vulnerability management solutions handle security differently than firewalls, antivirus, and anti-malware software, as they are built to identify cyberattacks on the network as they occur.

Endpoint protection tools

An endpoint security solution is software that tracks, monitors, and manages an organization’s endpoints, including network connections, PCs, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, cloud-based applications, and services. The solution protects those assets from ransomware, malware attacks, and other cybersecurity threats.

The main categories of endpoint protection tools are anti-malware solutions, mobile device management software (MDM), endpoint detection and response (EDR) software, and data loss prevention (DLP) software.

Keep Your Information Secure With the ROAR Platform

RiskOptics ROAR is a risk management solution that streamlines your organization’s risk management. With an integrated and real-time view of risk and compliance, you’ll have the strategic insights to communicate with other stakeholders effectively and to make informed decisions to secure your organization, its systems, and data.

Schedule a demo to learn how ROAR can help you improve your organizational risk posture.