Category: Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR)

D3 Security launched D3 Chronos

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D3 Security has introduced D3 Chronos, a simplified SOAR package for managed security services providers (MSSPs) that can reduce alert-handling times by 90% in under two weeks. D3 Chronos is designed to provide return on investment and prioritize MSSPs’ effectiveness and business outcomes, in contrast to full-scale SOAR implementations that can take months. By optimizing the customer-to-analyst ratios, D3 Chronos enables MSSPs to onboard their clients and automate triage, both of which boost profitability. 

Denis Barnett, VP of Sales at D3 Security, “In today’s competitive managed services landscape, everyone needs automation, but not every MSSP has the resources to commit to a full-scale SOAR implementation. D3 Chronos fills a critical gap in the market by making the revenue-generating potential of SOAR immediately accessible to every MSSP without compromising the power of the software.” 

MSSPs can begin saving time and money by connecting D3 Chronos to the alert sources of their clients. The pricing structure of D3 Chronos is flexible, and it includes a pay-monthly option for smaller businesses that fits the revenue cycle of MSSPs while assisting them in reducing capital expenditures. 

D3 Security’s Event Pipeline, a SOAR technology that works globally to normalize, deduplicate, and triage incoming events, filtering out 90-98% of events and removing false positives before they reach a human analyst, recently made a breakthrough that allowed the development of D3 Chronos. 

D3 Chronos is made for busy MSSPs who want to automate their client growth and increase profits. According to D3 Security, automating triage alone can result in annual savings of more than $1 million for an MSSP processing 400 events per day. 

D3 Chronos also automates tracking of client SLAs and billable hours in addition to the triage and enrichment pipeline. When a situation necessitates a second level of investigation, D3 Chronos compiles the findings into a report for the client, saving MSSP analysts a tremendous amount of time. Growing D3 Chronos MSSPs are supported as they develop with new SOAR options that are suited to their requirements. 

Read More : Security Automation & Orchestration (SOAR)

Security Automation & Orchestration (SOAR)

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What is SOAR?

SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) is a set of software solutions and tools that allow businesses to automate security operations in three major areas: threat and vulnerability management, information security, and cybersecurity automation.

Security automation, to put it another way, is the automated management of security operations-related duties. It is the process of carrying out these duties without the need for human interaction, such as scanning for vulnerabilities or looking for logs. A way of connecting security tools and combining diverse security systems is known as security orchestration. It is the interconnected layer that automates security operations and streamlines security activities.

Why is SOAR important?

Your security staff is most likely drowning in a sea of notifications, many of which are false positives or repetitions of earlier alarms. Each week, the average security team receives upwards of 175,000 notifications. There are very genuine hazards hidden among all that noise, many of which go completely unnoticed if security experts manually handle each one.

That’s where SOAR comes in, freeing up your security team to focus on more essential tasks by automating many of the repetitive, monotonous tasks.

SOAR enables you to:

  • Make security, IT operations, and threat intelligence tools work seamlessly. To reach a more thorough degree of data collecting and analysis, you can integrate all of your different security solutions – even ones from different suppliers. Security teams can no longer juggle many consoles and tools.
  • See everything on one site. Your security team has access to a single console that contains all of the data it requires to investigate and resolve incidents. Security teams can obtain all of the information they require in one location.
  • Quick response to incidents. SOARs have been shown to decrease the meantime to detect (MTTD) and the meantime to respond (MTTR). A substantial percentage of events may be dealt with instantly and automatically because many actions are automated.
  • Prevent time-consuming activities. SOAR helps security analysts save time by reducing false positives, repetitive jobs, and manual processes.
  • Gain access to more information. SOAR solutions combine and evaluate data from threat intelligence platforms, firewalls, intrusion detection systems, SIEMs, and other technologies, providing additional insight and context to your security team. This makes resolving concerns and improving processes much easy. When problems develop, analysts are better able to undertake deeper and broader investigations.
  • Improve communication and reporting. Stakeholders can get all the information they need, including clear analytics that helps them find ways to enhance workflows and minimize reaction times because all security operations activities are pooled in one location and displayed in intuitive dashboards.
  • Boost capacity to make decisions. SOAR platforms seek to be user-friendly, even for less experienced security analysts, because they may include features such as pre-built playbooks, drag-and-drop functions for creating playbooks from scratch, and automated alert prioritizing. A SOAR tool can also collect data and provide insights that make it easier for analysts to review issues and perform the appropriate remediation activities.

What are some examples of SOAR applications?

Before you start talking to vendors regarding SOAR platforms, consider how your company will use the solution. Use cases should highlight your biggest problems and show how technology can help you solve them. The typical use cases vary greatly depending on your industry. Here are some ideas to get you thinking about how you could implement SOAR in your own company.

  1. Automated incident response to combat cyberattacks: SOAR platforms can automatically detect and investigate the sources of these types of attacks. They may, for example, detect and evaluate a suspected phishing email, search for copies elsewhere on the network, quarantine or destroy them, and block IP addresses and URLs to prevent these dangerous emails from reaching other people’s inboxes.
  2. Threat hunting: Security teams typically spend hours each day responding with a flood of alerts, leaving little time for threat hunting, investigation, and long-term planning. Many previously known malicious risks are promptly addressed thanks to automation, giving security professionals more time to work on projects that improve overall network security.
  3. Improving overall vulnerability management: A SOAR solution can help your security team prioritize and manage the risk posed by newly found vulnerabilities in your environment. As a result, they may be proactive, obtaining more information on weak points and properly researching them, while also putting measures in place to prevent breaches or other threats.

The Bottom Line

SOAR optimizes security operations

SOAR allows you to shift from a reactive to a proactive strategy by relieving your team of false positives, recurrent alerts, and low-risk cautions. Rather than putting out fires, security analysts may put their skills and considerable training to greater use, thereby boosting the overall security posture of your company. It’s feasible to accomplish more in less time with efficient security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) solutions while still allowing for human decision-making when it’s most important.

Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) – Buying Guide

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Purchasing a Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) platform is a smart and strategic move. Selecting a system for building a security operation center (SOC) is perhaps more crucial than selecting a specific security solution. The SOAR system becomes a central and critical component of an organization’s cybersecurity, serving as the operating software for its security environment.

The Power of Automation

When the SOC identifies a threat, the security incident response might mean the difference between containing the danger and allowing a devastating data breach to occur. Because manual processes take longer to respond, cybercriminals have more time to cause damage. Common inquiries and reactions can be automated to decrease response times and risk to the organization. While buying SOAR solution organizations should look for vendors who have powerful automation systems with highly efficient machine learning algorithms.

Orchestration

Orchestration is an approach that links tools, integrates systems, and eventually simplifies and automates activities and it is a critical aspect in determining an organization’s security operation readiness. The security procedures should always be examined and improved to improve performance. Codifying these processes allows businesses to make substantial progress in reducing risk. Organizations should look for SOAR solution providers whose system easily connect or integrates with security systems. The SOAR solutions security processes must be easy to code and improve.

Automation Use Cases

Each security incident is turned into a case that is managed by the SOC and several other departments within the company, including, network operations, IT operations and legal. When a security organization has few established processes, employee wisdom becomes the vehicle for completing tasks. This only helps as long as the team stays together. If someone goes, they take their knowledge, skills and experience with them. Analysts can decrease incident reaction time with pre-packaged, customized automation. Case books or prepared procedures are used in automation use cases. This helps to retain internal knowledge. Automation frequently conjures up images of abrasive defences. The use cases for different sectors like medical, pharma, logistics and IT will be different. An organization should look for vendors who have rich and industry-related use cases.

Dashboard

The dashboard should be professional and simple to use. Analysts should be guided by intuitive workflows and information reports rather than having to comprehend the underlying data architecture. Security Staff in the SOC should be able to work naturally, assigning and completing tasks without thinking about the tool. To enhance event investigation, powerful search capabilities and single-click capability should be accessible. 

Customizability and Flexibility

Choosing a SOAR solution that provides a high degree of customization and flexibility is always a good option. A good SOAR solution will allow an organization to integrate with other security technologies easily and provide an easy-to-use user interface.

Cost

The cost of SOAR varies depending on the size, capability of the network, use cases and power of automation. It’s important to note that a SOAR solution must comply with other security solutions. Because SOAR systems have an expiration policy, which means the vendor will no longer support them, the cost and frequency of system upgrades must be considered. How much money firm is ready to spend? What are the benefits company is going to receive?

Security Support and Maintenance

The second step after selecting a SOAR solution is to implement and support it. In order to be effective, SOAR must be administered by committed trained staff or added to the responsibilities of professional employees. Does the vendor provide training to security teams? There are disparities in terms of costs and levels of service assistance. It’s essential to look into the type of assistance that a particular vendor offers. In any case, comprehensive technical support is an optional extra that could dramatically increase implementation expenses.

The SOAR solution operates as a strategic instrument for the security team, allowing it to accomplish more with fewer resources while freeing up important analyst time from data overload, dull and repetitive activities. It enables the security staff to be more useful and accurate. Using this solution would surely shorten the time it takes to detect and resolve threats, boost the return on existing security solutions, and lower the risk posed by security incidents.

Ransomware – Everything You Need Know

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Ransomware is a cryptographic malware that threatens to release or permanently block access to the victim’s data until a ransom is paid. Ransomware encrypts information and documents on any device, including servers, from a single computer to an entire organization’s network. Ransomwares are part of cryptovirology. Cryptovirology is the study of the creation of effective harmful malware using encryption. 

Ransomwares encrypt the victim’s files making them unusable and demand a ransom to unlock them. Recovery of documents without the decryption key is an unsolvable problem in a properly executed cryptoviral extortion attack. The payment of ransoms is demanded in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, making it impossible to track down and prosecute the culprits. 

Recent Ransomware attacks  

The WannaCry ransomware attack swept across the Internet in May 2017, employing the EternalBlue vulnerability vector. The ransomware attack, which was unparalleled in scope, infected over 230,000 devices in over 150 countries and demanded money from customers using the Bitcoin cryptocurrency in 20 different languages. At least 16 hospitals in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) had to turn away patients or cancel scheduled surgeries. The US Colonial Pipeline was the target of a cyberattack on May 7, 2021. DarkSide was recognised by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as the culprit of the Colonial Pipeline ransomware assault, which resulted in the voluntary shutdown of the primary pipeline carrying 45 percent of petroleum to the US East Coast. 

How Attackers Attack? 
  • Ransomware comes as an email attachment – Invoice, attached document, etc. It may include a real vendor’s name or even your organization’s name. 
  • Employees’ computers are usually connected to the company’s network, shared cloud services, and so on. Without any human involvement or indication, ransomware begins encrypting all of the files it can as soon as it is launched. 
  • It then notifies the user and gives payment instructions. 
  • Some other ways are – Compromised webpages, infected removable drives, malicious software bundles.
  • Payment is mostly in Bitcoins 
 Key choices: 

– Pay the ransom and get data 

– Restore from backup 

– Lose Data 

Paying the Ransom increases Risk of Future Attacks 

The majority of cybersecurity experts don’t recommend paying a ransom in the event of a ransomware attack. Paying won’t guarantee that a company will get their data and it will encourage hackers behind ransomware attacks to keep doing what they’re doing, maintaining the illegal industry. The targets of a ransomware attacks are mostly given a time limit with the threat of deleting a particular amount of data every hour until the ransom is paid. This can be extremely stressful and unpleasant for the key management people in an organization, leading them to believe that they have no other option except to pay. The best suggestion is to be properly prepared for an attack so that enterprise firms can defend themselves. 

Ransomware and Cryptocurrency  

Bitcoins are a type of cryptocurrency, which means they don’t have a physical form. They are kept in anonymous digital wallets. They can be sent to any location. They can be paid with complete anonymity from anywhere to anywhere. Aside from the advantages, they are an excellent method of payment for illegal operations. One may claim that cryptocurrency is one of the ransomware’s enablers. After all, the software would be worthless if the hackers couldn’t safely take cash. The emergence of Bitcoin has coincided with an increase in ransomware attacks.

Security Awareness Training  

It is advised that effective security awareness training is required. Employees do not come to work with the goal of clicking on phishing emails and infecting their machines. As many IT professionals can confirm, knowing what red flags or threat is, can make all the difference in an employee’s ability to distinguish malicious links/software from legitimate traffic. 

Protection  

Investing in a renowned security solution and putting in a strong firewall is a terrific approach to protect an organization’s network. There are various security solutions like Zero-Trust Security, Web Application Firewall and Cloud Security. Keeping the security system up to date will assist security teams in detecting a ransomware infection in the early phase. 

Backup of Data 

The most important piece of advice given by anti-ransomware experts is to back up all data outside of your organization’s network. Create an isolated network or buy a service to keep the company’s backup safe from infection. It’s necessary for an enterprise firm to restore the whole system. 

Ransomwares have grown into malware that disables entire infrastructure. It won’t be surprising if ransomwares evolve in the next few years. Hence, necessary steps to secure an organization should be taken into consideration. 

Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) – Everything you need to know

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Security Orchestration, Automation and Response is a system that collects data about security threats using integrated software solutions to analyze and respond to security threats using automated machine learning to provide assistance to human analysts.

The 3 Factors of SOAR are –

Security Orchestration – It is the process of incorporating various technological solutions, both security-related and non-security-related, in order for them to work together in a way that facilitates collaboration. These different tools gather information from multiple sources into a centralized system, which increases the accuracy and makes system more secure.

Automation – This concept empowers technical tools with the help of machine learning to perform security operations task without assistance of human beings. It saves the security analyst’s time by reducing the amount of time they spend on basic, routine tasks by automating them. Security analysts can utilize their time for more creative and challenging tasks. Automation is not an option for replacement of human analysts.

Response – Once a threat is identified, ‘Security Response’ offers security analysts a single centralized overview for tracking, planning, handling, and reporting measures taken. SOAR tools cover post-incident events including case management modules. These modules aid in the communication of lessons learned and the delivery of faster proactive response time to potential attacks.

SOAR vs. SIEM – SOAR and SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) are not the same, even though they gather data from different sources, spot anomalies, and generate alerts. SOAR systems give an additional option of automation to provide automated responses to attacks, while SIEM systems only have functionality of generating alerts to security analysts of a potential incident.

Benefits of SOAR for Organizations

1) Security Teams – Staffing shortages are a frequent occurrence in an Enterprise’s Security Operations Center. It’s a delicate balancing act to ensure an organization has the requisite personnel and it is making optimum use of human resource. SOAR solves this problem by enhancing the process, applying required degree of automation and orchestration by ensuring reliable, defensive response to threats so as to protect organization’s sensitive information. This includes automating repetitive tasks and provides structured incident handling responses. It also gives company the access to industry-leading machine learning algorithms, allowing them to react even faster to security incidents as they occur.

2) SOAR’s scalability and customization – There are default integrations available with every SOAR solution, but some companies’ security applications will not support them. As a result, the SOAR solution is made customizable enough to build integrations from both sides as per customer’s needs. An effective SOAR solution is flexible and customizable enough to work on top of various security tools.

3) Vendors – Normally, companies have a single vendor solution or software to manage the security operation center. Even if company uses more vendors there are complexities involved in it. But SOAR integrates a variety of security solutions into a centralized orchestration system that can be implemented in any cloud-based system. A SOAR solution is efficient enough to implement responses of various teams like SOC (Security Operations center) and CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team). Soar gives a centralized overview and control across the enterprise. This integration reduces security operations procedures by using case management, incident lifecycle and extends life of existing resources, maximizing the return on investment.

4) Data Enrichment – Data collected from a software is useful, but it is limited. SOAR tools overcome this limitation by collaborating multiple software solutions. This is a huge advantage, since data collected about security is rich and makes security system of an enterprise firm updated and robust.

Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) is introduced by one of the leading research firm is in initial phase of development in the market. With innovation and evolving market SOAR Solutions will be adapted by many organizations.