As more security teams go down the path of automation and integration, another essential aspect emerges—the financial consequences based on how some of the tools are licensed.
One of the most significant advancements in cybersecurity tools and technology over the past few years, has been the addition of security automation and orchestration capabilities to solution categories other than SOAR platforms. Endpoint detection and response (EDR) systems expanded to include automation and orchestration features, while SIEM companies bought standalone SOAR platforms to speed up threat detection and response.
The benefits of orchestration are expanding and changing. Although the phrases orchestration and automation are sometimes used interchangeably, they are very different from one another. By automating processes, security activities may be carried out more effectively. Contrarily, orchestration is getting several Security Operations Center (SOC) technologies to coordinate so that the security team can identify, address, and respond to threats across the infrastructure.
Integration provides the plumbing
With that definition, the first thing that comes to mind when organizations think about orchestration is integration, so disparate systems can talk to each other despite using different languages and formats. To provide layers of protection, most businesses have complex security infrastructures that are both on-premises and in the cloud. These infrastructures often include firewalls, IPS/IDS, routers, web and email security, and endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions. They have SIEMs and other tools that store internal threat and event data, as well as a variety of external threat intelligence feeds and sources, including ticketing systems, log management repositories, and case management systems. An orchestration platform with an open, extensible architecture enables strong interaction and interoperability with current tools and new security measures to address evolving threats.
Data-driven enables better decisions
The cost ramifications of how some of the technologies organizations connect to are licensed become increasingly apparent as security teams move toward automation and integration. Depending on the quantity of storage used, the more data security teams transfer to some systems, the higher the charges may be. Additionally, some services teams utilize can operate on a “pay by the drink” basis. If organizations go beyond that amount, there are additional fees. Without respect for the data being processed, automation and orchestration driven by a process-driven approach will perform actions in response to low priority or irrelevant events. Few security teams consider the financial costs of keeping unneeded data on hand or frequently querying their systems without a valid reason.
Also Read: Five DevSecOps Myths Businesses Need to Address and Overcome
The best way to make better decisions so that organizations can avoid these unintended financial consequences is to trigger automation and orchestration only on relevant things.
Here is how organizations can avoid unintended financial consequences:
Organizations can ensure they are using license capacity for events that matter by using a data-driven strategy, where companies first contextualize to provide value for every activity they are automating. Security teams may access the richness of all accessible data to gain a complete picture of what’s happening with the help of a platform that aggregates, normalizes, and connects internal and external data. This entails putting data into context by adding extra information, including internal observations of network and file activities. With the knowledge that teams aren’t making pointless requests or using unnecessary storage when looking for related artifacts in other tools across the enterprise, the team can now pivot to external data sources to learn more about campaigns, adversaries, tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP).
Organizations can plan a thorough and well-coordinated response once the scale of malicious activity is known, as well as the identification and confirmation of all impacted systems. To speed up response, security professionals can take the appropriate measures across various platforms and automatically transfer the pertinent data to the proper tools throughout the defensive grid. Threats can be stopped sooner, policies can be updated, and vulnerabilities can be fixed. Bi-directional integration is used in a data-driven method to transfer response-related data back to a central repository for analysis and improvement.
System integration has many benefits, but businesses should not ignore the direct financial impact of automating and coordinating activities across several platforms. With the added benefit of lessening the impact on the budget, a data-driven approach to orchestration enables organizations to make the right judgments and take the appropriate steps quickly.
For more such updates follow us on Google News ITsecuritywire News
