SOAR playbooks are a set of rules and steps that allow SOAR platforms to automatically take action when an incident occurs. Using SOAR playbooks, security teams can handle alerts, create automated responses for different incident types, and quickly resolve issues more effectively and consistently. With SOAR playbooks, security teams can build efficient workflows that require minimal to zero human intervention. These playbooks also facilitate automated incident investigation, enrichment of threat intelligence, and actioning of incidents such as blocking of malicious indicators of compromises (IOCs). Further, playbooks help in the automation of threat data dissemination to security tools such as SIEMs, firewalls, incident response platforms, threat intelligence platforms (TIPs), and others.
Why are SOAR Playbooks Needed
SOAR playbooks enable security teams to speed up and streamline time-consuming processes. Equipped with capabilities to integrate security tools and establish seamless customizable workflows, these playbooks allow security teams to automate repetitive and mundane tasks. Automation helps human analysts to concentrate on more critical tasks that are dependent on human intelligence and decision making. With considerable productivity gains and time savings across overall security operations, security teams can move from being overwhelmed to functioning at maximum efficiency in no time.
One Size doesn’t fit all
Multiple blocks of automated playbooks constitute an efficient orchestration of security responses. The automation of security processes varies from one organization to another. Response strategies differ due to the differences in security culture, technologies, and processes of different organizations. For example, the automation of response to a phishing attack will vary based on the nature of the threat actor, the technology being used, the action to be taken on the threat actor, and their IOCs.
Here is a small illustration:
In the above scenario, Organization 1 chooses to block the malicious URLs, while Organization 2 decides to put the malicious URL into the DNS sinkhole. Fundamentally, the objective of both organizations remain the same, but the execution varies due to strategic, technological differences between both organizations.
Both organizations have achieved the same set of ulterior objectives by using different sets of playbooks for automation. Playbooks can align and improve upon response strategies by collaborating with similar structures across multiple organizations. Playbooks play an essential role in community building among organizations of the same industry, geography, and other uniting factors.
CSOL comes with built-in customization capabilities that allow security teams to create unlimited automated playbooks with its intuitive drag and drop visual editor. These playbooks are customized based on the security structure, technology stack, and strategic mindset of your organization, hence making it super relevant to your organization. Also, CSOL integrates with more than 200 security tools to automate response actions across the entire technology stack.
Takeaway
SOAR playbooks are not plug-and-play, one-size-fits-all type of thing. They need to be adapted and configured to the organization’s tools, technologies, and processes. Broad-based SOAR solutions help solve this exact problem by being more flexible and providing the necessary capabilities to fit the unique needs of any organization and security team.
Additionally, we recommend reading what Gartner has to say about the importance of Broad-based SOAR solutions to organizations. Read Gartner’s 2020 Market Guide for Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response Solutions: View and download it here, courtesy of Cyware.
