I recently had the opportunity to discuss state-of-the-art technologies to support security operations with industry analysts. I asked questions and confirmed that the current view of SOAR (security orchestration, automation and response) and SIEM (security information and event management) goes well beyond the security operation center (SOC).

Security professionals involved in the IT and cybersecurity industry for the last 10+ years have most likely come across the terms SIEM and recently SOAR, but there is still much confusion about what the specific use cases and purposes are. So, are these tools the same thing? Do security teams need one, the other, or both within their security operation center (SOC) infrastructure?

Just a few years ago, security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) was the new buzzword associated with security modernization. Today, however, SOAR platforms are increasingly assuming a legacy look and feel. Although SOARs still have their place in a modern SecOps strategy, the key to driving SecOps forward today is no-code security automation.

There’s nothing more frustrating than coming up against an API that won’t cooperate, no matter how hard or long you try! A key component of building integrations, APIs have been a big deal for over a decade. At this point, if a software company doesn’t have one, its technology is as good as obsolete. More than a third of analysts, in a new Tines survey, indicated that API-first is the single most important feature and capability they would look for when evaluating a new SOAR tool.

In the last twenty years, more technology has been produced since the beginning of human history. And while we have talked about industrial automation since 1952, the complexity of today’s cybersecurity analyst activities makes the need to embrace automation paramount.

Cybersecurity presents an ever-escalating challenge for most C-level executives. As the average cost of a data breach continues to grow, the sheer volume of attacks threatens to overwhelm resource-strapped IT organizations. In response, many executives are looking to AI-enabled SOAR solutions (Security Orchestration Automation and Response) to help shorten threat response times, optimize high-value security personnel, and reduce overall business risk.

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) platforms are great tools for helping teams work smarter, faster, and more efficiently against security risks. But, used on their own, SOARs are far from perfect for meeting the full security needs of the modern organization.

The ever-evolving cyber threat landscape gives birth to new, unprecedented cyberattacks that challenge traditional cybersecurity approaches and force security operations centers (SOCs) to evolve and redefine their methods. To ensure that the integrity of their data is well-protected, SOCs have to be one step ahead of malicious actors. Ergo, the necessity of creating the modern SOC comes into play.

SOAR — or security orchestration, automation and response — is a collection of processes, software and tools that allows teams to streamline security operations. SOAR platforms are a hot topic in the realm of cybersecurity these days, and with good reason.