Security alert management: Simplified with automation

3 Minute Read

Security alert management is a challenge. Large organizations handle between 10,000 and 150,000 security alerts per day and simply don’t have the resources to handle this overwhelming number of threats. Unfortunately, not investigating these alerts means that many organizations are putting themselves at risk of a serious cyberattack.

Large organizations handle between 10,000 and 150,000 security alerts per day.

The challenge

Alert triage isn’t enough…

Faced with a shocking number of security alerts, many organizations rely on alarm triage to prioritize which alerts merit further investigation. Although this solution helps organizations feel like they are staying on top of security, the reality is that alarm triage inevitably leads to missing real attacks. It’s just not possible to discount large volumes of alerts and stay in front of all valid threats.

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Alarm triage allows cybersecurity staffers to review alerts based on selected criteria and determine the seriousness of the threat

…and there are issues with existing security alert management processes.

Sub-optimal security alert management inevitably leads to over-worked staff and an organization that’s still susceptible to a range of security threats. A number of factors contribute to this problem:

  • Inconsistent responses: Security threats constantly evolve, making it difficult for current incident response workflows to catch them.
  • Failure to integrate all available tools: Between people, processes, and technology, many parts need to come together for successful security alert management. Even tools designed to help manage security alerts, like security and event management (SIEM) platforms, require manual research, which slows down incident response times even more.
  • Staff turnover: Cybersecurity employees work based on the informal knowledge they have developed over their time with a company. When they leave, that knowledge is lost and bringing a new employee up to speed can be quite the investment.
  • Compliance and regulations: Rules and regulations are constantly changing, so staying up to date on required procedures can be a challenge.

The solution: Security automation

By using automation, you can respond to every alert and ensure that your organization is always protected. In most cases, 80-90% of security operations tasks can be automated to some extent.

Centralize

By consolidating data from all of your security alerts, your cybersecurity team has a more comprehensive understanding of what is going on throughout the organization. This data can then be utilized to improve security alert management. Dashboards help you monitor the phishing email box, the intrusion detection system (IDS), and the outputs from your SIEM system. Centralize security operations into easy-to-read dashboards for a clear understanding of the state of cybersecurity within your organization.

Automate

Automating many of the time-consuming tasks your cybersecurity team handles improves security alert management by bettering the team’s ability to respond to alerts. Automating a few or all of the steps involved in an investigation, you’ll save a few minutes or more for each alert, and significantly increase productivity. Your team now has the time to focus on investigating alerts that are actually security risks.

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Example of how manual tasks can be automated to speed up incident response.

Automation saves a few minutes for every alert and improves security alert management by bettering your organization’s ability to respond to incidents.

How Swimlane can help

Swimlane improves incident response management by replacing your manual investigation processes with a centralized and automated workflow framework.

By centralizing event data and automating manual tasks, your cybersecurity team can handle more threats in the same amount of time. The use of centralized dashboards provides your team with a context for the organization’s current security condition. These tools help your cybersecurity team to focus on real threats and plan for future security needs.

Swimlane’s security automation and orchestration platform helps your cybersecurity team:

  • Centralize security operations
  • Automate time-consuming tasks
  • Standardize and scale processes
  • Resolve incidents faster
  • Deliver insightful security metrics

Want to learn more about how security alert management can be improved with automation? Download our 20-page eBook for more information.

Gartner: Create a SOC Target Operating Model to Drive Success

“Security and risk management leaders often struggle to convey the business value of their security operations centers to non security leaders, resulting in reduced investment, poor collaboration and eroding support…” — Access this Gartner SOC Operating Model report – courtesy of Swimlane.

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