Identifying and Implementing Security Automation Cases: A Guide
Security automation is becoming increasingly important for SOCs to streamline their processes, reduce human error, and respond more quickly to threats. In this article, we will discuss a typical four-phase approach for identifying security automation use cases, based on industry knowledge consistent with Gartner analysts’ approaches.
Phase 1: Identification of Use Cases
The first step in the process is to analyze SOC workflows, incident types, and existing pain points to identify processes that are repetitive, time-consuming, or prone to human error—making them candidates for automation.
Phase 2: Prioritization and Feasibility Assessment
Once the use cases have been identified, they need to be evaluated based on their impact, complexity, and technical feasibility. This will help security leaders decide which tasks are worth automating, and in what order.
Phase 3: Design and Development of Automation Playbooks
In this phase, detailed automation workflows or playbooks are designed, integrating detection tools, orchestration platforms, and response actions tailored to the prioritized use cases. It's essential to document any dependencies in the playbooks, such as third-party APIs, log formatting, OS or application version.
Phase 4: Implementation, Testing, and Continuous Improvement
The final phase involves deploying automation solutions in the SOC environment, validating their effectiveness, and iteratively refining use cases and workflows based on real-world performance and new threats. It's also important to remember that playbooks will have a shelf life and require maintenance, and it's important to determine whose responsibility it is to keep them fresh.
By following this four-phase approach, security leaders can identify high-priority areas for automation and implement solutions that save time, provide better predictability with respect to response, speed time to response/containment, and act as a force multiplier for the staff.
Security leaders should also produce a gains analysis report, where all captured data is combined for decision-making about which automations to implement, which to put on hold, and which should not be touched. The gains analysis method involves six steps: determining a top automation candidate by ordering the list by total time taken and frequency, and performing the analysis for only the top candidate due to its time-consuming nature.
In addition, operational processes must be updated to reflect playbook usage, documenting how and when to use which playbook. The top 5-10 automation candidates identified from the prework phase should be evaluated for automation, and the actual work to be done on each tool at the lowest level should be recorded, along with estimating the average time required for each task.
Kevin Schmidt, Director Analyst at Gartner, supports the GTP Secure Infrastructure team in security operations and researches AI usage in security operations. However, the exact four-phase approach specifically attributed to Kevin Schmidt at Gartner is not included in the provided search results and would require Gartner’s proprietary research or publications to confirm verbatim.
In conclusion, following a structured approach like this can help security leaders streamline their processes, reduce human error, and respond more quickly to threats in their SOC. By identifying the right use cases, prioritizing them, designing effective playbooks, and continuously testing and improving them, security teams can become more efficient and effective in their operations.
- In the identification of use cases phase, it's crucial to analyze security operations center (SOC) workflows, incident types, and existing pain points to find processes that are repetitive, time-consuming, or prone to human error, as these are the ideal candidates for cybersecurity automation.
- For prioritization and feasibility assessment, security leaders should evaluate the identified use cases based on their impact, complexity, and technical feasibility to determine which tasks are worth automating, and in what order, considering both privacy risks and the integration with data-and-cloud-computing technology.
- Design and development of automation playbooks typically involve creating detailed automation workflows or playbooks that integrate cybersecurity detection tools, orchestration platforms, and response actions tailored to the prioritized use cases, ensuring that any dependencies, such as third-party APIs, log formatting, OS or application version, are documented properly.
