Modern cybersecurity and security operations center teams must be constantly vigilant to detect threats, respond to security events, and mitigate risk. They must also work with multiple security solutions to protect the organization from threat actors. Even for experienced security personnel, however, that work is easier said than done.

It is not easy for security operations center teams (SOC teams) to manage multiple tools and technologies seamlessly. It’s even harder to keep up with the huge volume of data generated by these tools and then to coordinate an appropriate response.

Security orchestration provides a solution to these challenges.

What Is Security Orchestration?

In today’s hyper-digitized business landscape, threat actors are everywhere. Many use sophisticated attack weapons, supported with advanced knowledge and expertise.

To safeguard assets and data from these adversaries, organizations employ multiple security tools. This “more the merrier” approach to security helps to strengthen enterprise cyber defenses.

On the flip side, it complicates the management and maintenance of disparate tools. It also makes it harder to combine their security capabilities, integrate data, and coordinate tasks for more effective incident detection and threat response. This is where security orchestration enters the picture.

Security orchestration refers to integrating disparate security tools so they can work together to:

  • Streamline security processes
  • Power security automation
  • Accelerate incident response and remediation

Security orchestration solutions allow security teams to connect various security systems and create repeatable, automatable workflows to strengthen enterprise security. Orchestration replaces time-consuming manual processes with automation to enhance organizations’ ability to respond to cyberattacks and fix security gaps.

Security Orchestration With SOAR

One effective way to achieve the benefits of security orchestration is with Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) technology.

SOAR tools are powerful because of their data ingestion, coordination, and correlating capabilities. They can ingest data from various security tools and then automatically trigger responses based on automated and standardized workflows.

A comprehensive SOAR tool helps to coordinate various security tasks from a single platform. In particular, it provides three crucial capabilities:

  • Threat and vulnerability management
  • Automated incident response
  • Automated security operations

By combining these security functions onto one integrated platform, SOAR allows organizations to capture the many benefits of automation. Security teams can streamline security processes, protect endpoints, and respond faster to cyberattacks like malware or phishing.

Security orchestration solutions integrate previously disconnected security workflows so teams can detect and triage threats, investigate incidents, and reduce response time. Teams can also combine automation and human expertise to analyze threat intelligence, which improves security decision-making and prevents threat recurrence.

All in all, SOAR solutions provide a great way to improve cyber resilience and strengthen enterprise security posture.

SIEM and Security Orchestration With SOAR

Much confusion surrounds the terms “security information and event management” (SIEM), security orchestration, and SOAR. Here is how the terms differ and overlap.

Traditional SIEM vs. SOAR

Traditional SIEM tools only ingest security data from a few sources and send alerts to security analysts. Human personnel then analyze the security alerts to assess whether a cyber threat exists and then mitigate it before damage to the enterprise. These platforms don’t really play a role in security orchestration.

Like SIEM, SOAR platforms also collect data and alert security teams via a centralized platform. SOAR solutions, however, aggregate and ingest data from many more sources. SOAR also de-duplicates alerts and eliminates the problems of false positives and “alert fatigue,” which are common problems with SIEM.

SOAR also brings in playbooks, workflows, and advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies to help SOC teams identify security incidents or threat patterns in real-time, predict similar threats, and ultimately optimize their security processes, tools, and metrics.

Modern SIEM vs. SOAR

Modern SIEM platforms combine traditional log management and alerting capabilities with advanced real-time event monitoring and analyses. They provide advanced visibility into the enterprise network and information system and also identify risks in real-time so that security teams can detect attacks as they happen.

Today, the best tools automate many threat detection and incident response processes, and leverage AI, ML, and user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) technologies. These new tools allow security teams and CISOs (chief information security officers) to:

  • Strengthen the security ecosystem
  • Identify complex and evolving threats
  • Maintain regulatory compliance
  • Streamline security communications and reporting

Some SIEM products also incorporate SOAR capabilities for faster, more active incident management and response. That said, most security experts recommend implementing both platforms to shore up the SOC’s capabilities and boost enterprise cyber defenses.

When integrated with SOAR, SIEM solutions can handle complex threat identification and incident response protocols faster and more efficiently than they could on their own.

For instance, an SIEM tool ingests indicators of compromise (IoC) to create a chain of attack. A SOAR system, however, investigates the IoC, confirms whether the threat is real, and automatically executes a playbook to handle and mitigate the incident.

Finally, both SIEM and SOAR platforms provide automation to detect and manage security incidents. SOAR’s automation capabilities, however, are superior to SIEM’s and encompass everything from detection to response, removing the human element from these processes and providing a more robust security infrastructure.

Make Security and Compliance Automation Work for You With Reciprocity ZenComply

So, why automation at all? Simply because security and compliance automation can bring many benefits to your organization. It eliminates tedious manual processes and reduces the efforts required to set up your security or compliance program. The right automated tool will also provide valuable insights to help prioritize activities that reduce risk.

ZenComply is one such tool. This world-class compliance and audit management solution provides advanced automated workflows, prescriptive guidance, and expert-built content. Take advantage of these capabilities to strengthen your security program and achieve compliance.

To see how ZenComply can bring tangible value to your enterprise, schedule a free demo.