As the complexity of incident response continues to grow, security professionals face challenges that impede efficiency and contribute to burnout. This issue is particularly prevalent in the incident response field, where responders constantly juggle to quickly track elusive threats while adhering to tight times or SLA. Sometimes, from the pressure of working on one high-priority incident after another, everyone has probably wondered how to move past this issue. One approach that has garnered significant interest is the concept of the “Left Shift” in Security Operations Centres (SOCs); this involves the proactive integration of automation and orchestration technologies into the incident response process to accelerate incident response, allowing Security Operations Centre (SOC) teams to identify, analyse, and address security incidents effectively.
In the past, security operations centre (SOC) teams have primarily focused on reactive incident response. This means they investigate and mitigate security incidents after they have already occurred. The Left Shift approach focuses on proactive incident response by automating repetitive tasks and using real-time threat intelligence. It also allows the SOC teams to optimise their time and resources, resulting in faster and more efficient incident response.
Benefits of Automation in Incident Handling
Automation in incident handling provides organisations with a wide range of advantages when it comes to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of their cyber security efforts. One significant advantage is the capability to promptly address threats in real time, which helps to minimise the impacts of security incidents and reduces the chances of data breaches. Additionally, automation can enhance the efficiency of the incident response process, enabling security teams to focus their time on more strategic tasks instead of engaging in manual and repetitive activities.
An organisation could utilise machine learning algorithms to consistently monitor network traffic and identify any abnormal patterns that could signify a breach. When a threat is detected, automated response actions can be initiated, such as quarantining affected systems or blocking malicious IP addresses. Implementing a proactive approach enables security teams to promptly contain and mitigate potential threats, preventing them from causing significant damage to the organisation.
Challenges and Considerations
While automation offers many benefits in incident response, organisations must also acknowledge the challenges and considerations associated with it. Some of the significant issues to consider are:
- Possibility of false positives: Automation has the potential to decrease false positives, but it cannot eliminate them. Automated systems might mistakenly identify a harmless event as a security incident, but this situation can waste time and resources as security teams diligently investigate false alarms. To maintain accuracy, it is essential to continuously tune and improve automated systems to ensure that only genuine security incidents are flagged for investigation. Build audit and record-keeping into your automation rules and workflows. This will help identify where automation has been initiated and completed, which is particularly important when looking at false positives. This allows us to quickly identify the impact of automation and rollback. This also helps to build trust between security and operational teams by providing full transparency of actions. We should also look to categorise and evaluate all of our automation to measure the security benefit versus the business impact. This will help you identify what checks and balances need to be put in place and understand how and when you need to engage with relevant teams depending on the action taken.
- Potential risk of excessive dependence on automation: This could lead to decreased human supervision and critical thinking during the incident response process. Organisations must find a balance between automation and human intervention to ensure an effective and efficient incident response.
- Skill gaps: It is essential to consider the necessity of continuous training and updates to ensure that automated systems are adequately prepared to address emerging threats and vulnerabilities.
- Balancing automation with human intervention: The delicate dance of balancing automation with human intervention necessitates careful consideration of the strengths and limitations of each approach. While automation can help speed up response times and reduce the risk of human error, it may not always be able to adapt to new and evolving threats as quickly as a human responder. On the other hand, human intervention brings critical thinking skills and the ability to assess and respond to unique or complex situations that may not be easily automated. The most effective blend of automation and human intervention will vary depending on each organisation’s unique requirements and capabilities, and the kinds of security incidents they are expected to encounter. For effective management and mitigation of security incidents, it is crucial to maintain a strong team of skilled professionals who are well-trained in incident response procedures. Finding the right balance between automation and human intervention is essential for maintaining a strong incident response capability in today’s ever-changing threat landscape.
In conclusion
The Left Shift in SOC is a paradigm shift in incident handling that leverages automation to enhance attack prevention, accelerate incident response, improve efficiency and scalability, reduce human error and enable proactive threat hunting. By embracing automation and integrating it into SOC workflows, organisations can enhance their overall effectiveness and efficiency of incident response efforts. This allows security teams to focus on higher-level tasks that require human intelligence and decision-making while automation handles routine and repetitive tasks. While challenges exist in adopting automation, the benefits of the Left Shift in SOC are clear: faster incident response, improved threat detection, and strengthened cyber security posture. As organisations navigate an increasingly complex threat landscape, the Left Shift in SOC offers a proactive and adaptive approach to incident handling in today’s rapidly evolving threat landscape, where traditional security measures are no longer sufficient to defend against sophisticated attacks.
To learn more about how Sapphire can support your organisation’s cyber resilience, contact us.
