A System of Record for Security: Everything You Need to Know

Dynamic case management, low-code dashboards, and reporting all work together to build a powerful system of record for security.

Security is a multi-headed monster, isn’t it? Thousands of alerts, a plethora of siloed tools, and countless threats – all of these challenges are happening simultaneously. No matter how you try to tackle them, these problems continue to grow. You need infinite eyes across the security operations center (SOC) to manage it all.

It’s futile to manually triage every alert, though – or to guess where it’ll be next. If you want to be an effective security leader, a system of record can help guide you through the security mud pit.

Security is a process, not a product. There is no silver bullet for security. And there is no single tool that will automatically keep your data safe. The tools, techniques, and tactics change every day. But being able to pull actionable intelligence across your data — taking advantage of all the insight available in your security operations center — can help you instantly and dramatically increase your organization’s security posture.

What is a System of Record for Security?

A security system of record is a platform used to manage and track data, providing end-to-end visibility and maintaining compliance when it comes to security incident management. Typically, the most powerful system of record for security is a security automation platform. These solutions speed up investigations with enriched data and facilitate process compliance and rapid response, making it easier to close more security alerts in less time.

Security teams need a system of record for security. Without a system of record, each part of security (and even beyond the SOC) operates in silos, often creating incomplete or incorrect data regarding vulnerabilities and threats.

There are three key features a security automation solution needs in order to be an effective system of record.

Dynamic Case Management

Robust case management is a critical component of any effective low-code automation or security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) platform. Some solutions act as a simple evidence locker, while others provide direct interaction with all data and related actions tied to an incident. The latter allows analysts to respond faster with greater flexibility.

Benefits of dynamic case management include:

• Analyze and enrich incident data in real-time: Help your team manage and report on all aspects of a security incident or alert within a single user interface. Instantly execute a range of correlated actions specific to that case.

• Enforce process standardization and compliance: Workflow-driven case management records ensure that analysts are working with the right data at all times, which leads to more accurate incident responses.

• Remediate security alerts at machine speeds: See the bigger picture, faster. Gain immediate visibility into the details of all relevant security events. Automation is key to staying ahead of threats and resolving them before they affect your business.

• Adapt to any use case – Put the pieces of your incident response process together through a fully interactive and integrated workflow and case management system. It provides a dynamic, targeted threat management system that can adapt easily to any number of critical use cases.

• Define repeatable incident response processes – Manage cases based on defined, repeatable processes to deliver consistent incident response remediation. By using dynamic case management, SecOps teams can easily collaborate with other departments via automated notifications.

Low-Code Dashboards

Security professionals of all levels can understand the effectiveness of their security operations with the help of dashboards powered by low-code security automation engines. Built-in SOC dashboards allow leaders to quickly view where they need to reallocate resources to avoid employee burnout and highlight which employees may need additional training. Security leaders are empowered to easily identify trends over time by looking at historical records, other tools, and observables across the organization. This creates a centralized management hub for security teams to gain an end-to-end view of their security posture.

Benefits of low-code dashboards include:

• Integrate and measure your entire technology stack: API-first architecture and pre-built integrations provide an ideal platform for aggregating security data through the integration and tracking of your SOC’s entire technology stack.

• Maximize staff efficiency and optimize tools: Performance metrics are accessible through built-in SOC dashboards, which makes it easy to see where you need to adjust resources to avoid employee burnout or who needs additional training in certain areas.

• Fully customizable SOC dashboards – Display and interact with your data however you need. Low-code API-first architecture allows you to integrate all of your security systems to feed into a central view, providing a clear and comprehensive picture of how your SecOps program is functioning.

• Improve staff efficiency – Using low-code dashboards can save time and reduce errors, allowing security analysts to stay on top of incidents without getting overwhelmed. By using security automation as a system of record, your staff can speed up their pace of threat response without getting overwhelmed.

Point-in-Time Reporting

Robust case management and powerful dashboards work together so that SOC managers can leverage point-in-time reporting to build custom reports to inform CISOs and other stakeholders. Leaders can track security tools in the technology stack and overall performance to measure the ROI across the SOC. Doing so allows you to compare and assess the best solutions for your unique environment.

During critical events, automation platforms can create real-time reports with detailed insights that pinpoint problematic areas of security operations. This makes it easier to analyze retrospectives and develop a counter-strategy.

Benefits of point-in-time reporting include:

• Track mean time to resolution (MTTR) and establish ROI: Automatically track every step of your security incident response process to measure your team’s effectiveness. Built-in capabilities measure value, such as time saved on MTTR, in detail to provide a quantifiable ROI.

• Benchmark and cross-check security tools: Visualize integrated tools, track key SOC KPIs, and identify potential efficiency gains quickly. Cross-check multiple tools against one another inside to identify potential redundancies or tools that are under-delivering value.

• Robust reporting and analytics: Low-code automation solutions make it easy to monitor and manage major events, progress, threat intelligence, and other security metrics. This provides a clear picture of the performance, capacity, and value of an organization’s security investment.

• Surface gaps and opportunities: In-depth security reporting and flexible SOC dashboards help you get a clear view of all incident resolution processes, efficiency gaps, and optimization opportunities. Each member of your team has a unique profile that allows you to analyze individual and team performance to identify opportunities for staff reallocation or additional training to increase efficiency.

In the end, every SOC needs a powerful system of record to retain data and share it across teams, so that everyone can keep track of important information about your critical infrastructure, threats, and company safety at all times. That way, in the event of a major incident or breach, you have a complete picture of everything that has happened to your organization up to that point – and you can use that information to secure the future of your company.