Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR): A Comprehensive Guide for IT Leaders 

SOAR solutions help organizations to enhance the efficiency of security teams. This is accomplished by increasing integration between security tools, automating key processes, and enabling rapid, automated responses to security threats.

The Three Pillars of SOAR: Orchestration, Automation, and Response

SOAR solutions are designed to provide three main capabilities, including:

• Orchestration: Enabling collaboration between point solutions within a security infrastructure.
• Automation: Replacing manual SOC processes with automation.
• Response: Centralizing incident response capabilities into a single platform, enabling faster responses using automated playbooks.

The Benefits of Implementing SOAR for Enterprise Security

Reducing Alert Fatigue and Optimizing Resource Allocation

SOCs commonly operate security architectures composed of many, standalone security solutions. This means that analysts must deal with large volumes of security alerts and expend time and effort monitoring and managing various solutions.

SOAR helps to address these issues by allowing an organization’s various security tools to be monitored and managed via a single solution. This decreases alert volumes and eliminates costly context-switching between standalone tools.

Streamlining Security Operations and Improving Efficiency

Maintaining corporate cybersecurity requires performing various repetitive tasks, such as vulnerability scanning, ticket management, alert prioritization, and more. Performing these tasks manually consumes valuable resources and increases the probability of errors.

SOAR offers the ability to automate these processes and can also take advantage of automation features in connected security tools. This improves security efficiency and reduces the potential for human error.

Enhancing Incident Response Times and Effectiveness

Incident investigation and response is a multi-stage process from initial detection through triage and investigation to final remediation. The more time that this process takes, the greater the opportunity the attacker has to steal sensitive data or cause other damage to the business.

SOAR streamlines incident response by eliminating silos and automating response efforts. Centralizing security data and functions in a single place expedites the investigation process, and prebuilt playbooks enable SOAR solutions to rapidly and automatically remediate identified security incidents.

SOAR vs. SIEM vs. XDR: A Detailed Comparison

Key Differences in Functionality and Use Cases

While these solutions have some overlap, they have distinct functions and use cases. Their key functions include:

• SIEM: SIEM solutions are focused on centralizing storage and processing of alert data. Security information collected from various sources is aggregated and analyzed by the SIEM, which provides centralized access to the data and produces alerts for the security team.
• SOAR: SOAR performs the same data aggregation as SIEM but adds support for orchestration, automation, and incident response. Additionally, SOAR has a greater security focus than SIEMs, enabling it to collect data from sources that a SIEM may overlook.
• XDR: XDR solutions provide the same capabilities as SOAR but are able to perform more complex incident response and often have better out-of-the-box integration with other solutions.

When to Use SOAR, SIEM, or XDR (or a Combination)

SOAR, SIEM, and XDR have different core use cases, which may impact which of them a security team chooses to use. These include:

• SIEM: SIEM solutions were designed for compliance management, collecting required data and alerting security personnel about potential issues.
• SOAR: SOAR tools specialize in enhancing security efficiency and are designed for teams that want to leverage their automation and orchestration capabilities.
• XDR: XDR solutions provide advanced threat detection and response, providing deeper visibility and control across an organization’s IT environment.

Integration Possibilities and Synergies Between Solutions

Integrating SOAR with SIEM and/or XDR provides an organization with certain benefits. SOAR solutions can ingest data from SIEM, providing the SOAR platform with additional context and enabling it to automated incident remediation. SOAR combined with XDR provides a greater range of orchestration and automation opportunities than either solution alone.

Overcoming SOAR Implementation Challenges

Common Pitfalls in SOAR Deployment

When implementing SOAR, some common pitfalls that security teams experience include:

• Unclear Objectives: SOAR solutions are designed to address specific challenges that security teams face. If the SOC hasn’t defined its intended use cases, it may struggle to select the right solution, integrate it into security infrastructure, and create necessary automations.
• Incomplete Planning: SOAR solutions are most effective when fully integrated into an organization’s security architecture. Before deployment, the security team must identify existing solutions and plan how SOAR can work with them for data collection and security orchestration.
• Security Integration: SOAR solutions generally integrate with other security tools via APIs. Security teams will need to have a clear understanding of what they want to integrate to ensure that all connections are configured properly.

Best Practices for Successful SOAR Integration

Some best practices for avoiding common SOAR pitfalls and optimizing a SOAR deployment include:

• Define Goals and Metrics: SOAR solutions should be purchased, deployed, and used to support business operations. Defining clear goals and metrics is essential to a successful deployment.
• Phased Implementation: Full SOAR deployment and integration can be a complex and resource-intensive challenge. A phased approach enables any issues to be addressed early and decreases time to value.
• Regular Playbook Reviews: Playbooks are key to SOAR’s automation and value proposition. These should be carefully designed and regularly reviewed to ensure that they are correct and provide maximum benefit to the business.

Change Management and Team Training Considerations

A SOAR deployment will introduce significant changes in how an organization operates, as security personnel will largely work through the platform and can offload repetitive tasks to automation. As part of a SOAR deployment, an organization should provide training to affected personnel to ensure that they are aware of new processes and duties and use the tool effectively.

The Role of AI and Machine Learning in SOAR Platforms

Enhancing Threat Detection and Analysis with AI

AI is well-suited to the role of threat detection and analysis. AI can identify trends and anomalies in large volumes of data, and, in security alerts, these often indicate cyberattacks or other incidents. Integrating AI into SOAR can enable it to more efficiently identify threats, investigate, and triage them, reducing load on analysts.

Automating Complex Decision-Making Processes

Security analysts are tasked with various complex decision-making processes, such as identifying potential incidents, prioritizing them based on severity, and planning remediation actions. As AI’s use in SOAR grows, it will be able to more effectively perform these tasks, including developing its own playbooks for addressing identified intrusions.

Predictive Analytics and Proactive Security Measures

SOAR’s access to large volumes of security data provides the opportunity to proactively identify vulnerabilities and impeding threats rather than reactively addressing existing breaches. AI offers the ability to analyze this data, identify potential vulnerabilities, and implement strategies for closing security gaps before an attacker can exploit them.

Measuring SOAR ROI and Effectiveness

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for SOAR Success

SOAR solutions are designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the SOC as a whole. Some examples of metrics that organizations can use to assess the effectiveness of a SOAR solution in its various roles include:

• Mean time to detection (MTTD) and mean time to response (MTTR).
• Reduction in alert volumes and false positives.
• Improved productivity and efficiency of human analysts.

Quantifying Time and Cost Savings

A primary goal of SOAR is to save time and operational costs. Some of the ways to quantify these savings include:

• Average time spent per ticket.
• Average time spent per incident remediation.
• Reduction in time spent on manual security processes (vulnerability scanning, etc.)

Assessing Improvements in Security Posture and Risk Reduction

SOAR solutions are also intended to improve an organization’s overall security posture. Some ways that an organization could measure this include:

• MTTD and MTTR for security incidents.
• Average time to remediation of identified vulnerabilities.
• Improved compliance with regulatory requirements.

SOAR’s Role in the Broader Cybersecurity Ecosystem

Integration with Existing Security Tools and Processes

SOAR solutions are designed to be integrated with the rest of an organization’s security architecture. This is critical to the orchestration aspect of SOAR, which involves communicating with these other solutions to collect security data and send instructions for incident remediation and other automated tasks.

Enhancing Collaboration Between Security Teams

SOAR solutions can enhance collaboration between security teams by providing a common platform for them to operate in. All parts of the security team benefit from improved visibility, and the existence of standardized and automated procedures for incident remediation ensures that they are addressed properly and that all participants are aware of their role and responsibilities.

Supporting a Comprehensive Security Strategy

SOAR solutions reduce the load on security personnel by eliminating silos and automating common security operations. This provides additional resources for proactive security measures, such as threat hunting and implementing zero trust and defense-in-depth security strategies.

The Future of SOAR: Trends and Innovations

Advancements in Automation and Orchestration Capabilities

The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) has significant potential impacts on SOAR’s automation and orchestration capabilities. With more intelligence built into SOAR solutions, they can perform more detailed remediation actions and have the potential to write their own playbooks rather than relying on prewritten ones.

Increased Focus on Cloud-Native SOAR Solutions

As organizations increasingly adopt cloud infrastructure, cloud-native SOAR solutions are the logical solution to protect the organization. Additionally, these solutions can take advantage of cloud benefits, such as greater scalability, flexibility, and integration with built-in cloud security systems.

The Convergence of SOAR with Other Security Technologies

SOAR, SIEM, and XDR all have similar functionality, and the lines between the various solutions are increasingly blurred. Over time, the capabilities of these various solutions are likely to all converge into XDR.

Balancing the Benefits and Limitations of SOAR

Potential Drawbacks and Challenges to Consider

SOAR indeed has its benefits but can also introduce challenges and drawbacks. Some of these include:

• Complex Management: SOAR solutions are designed to connect with and orchestrate an organization’s entire security architecture. This means that these solutions can be complex to configure and maintain.
• Excessive Automation: SOAR automation can dramatically decrease workload on security personnel. However, relying too heavily on automation may result in incorrect actions if a human isn’t making key decisions.
• Incorrect Incident Responses: SOAR solutions can automatically identify security incidents and remediate them via playbooks. However, this runs the risk that a false positive detection could result in an incorrect incident response.

Addressing Privacy and Compliance Concerns

SOAR solutions collect large volumes of security data, which may include personal information. Security teams must ensure that this data collection and use is compliant with applicable regulations, such as GDPR.

Additionally, SOAR solutions can automatically perform various actions. The company must also ensure that these automated actions are compliant with regulatory requirements.

Ensuring Human Oversight and Decision-Making

SOAR solutions enable many security processes to be automated, which can be good for efficiency but can also lead to incorrect decisions and actions. When deploying and using SOAR, it is important for the organization to define an acceptable level of automation and when a human should be involved in making crucial decisions. 

Is SOAR Right for Your Organization?

SOAR can be a powerful tool for enhancing an organization’s security efficiency and effectiveness, but it might not be the right choice for all companies. To determine whether it’s the right choice for you, consider potential use cases for the SOAR solution, then determine whether SOAR best fits those applications or if another tool might be a better choice.