Keeping yourself secure in today’s cyber threat landscape has never been more challenging.
The surge in cyber attacks, paired with the increasing sophistication of cybercriminals and the rise of AI-powered attacks, has made cybersecurity more difficult and complex than ever before.
And the evidence of this is clear. Data breaches dominate headlines worldwide, and, according to the UK’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey for 2024, an average of 50% of businesses report having experienced some form of cyber security breach or attack in the last 12 months.
With the threat higher than ever before, Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) has become essential for businesses big and small around the world looking to keep themselves secure.
What is Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR)?
Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) is a set of software tools designed to help security teams integrate and coordinate separate security tools, automate repetitive tasks, and streamline incident response workflows.
SOAR solutions give security teams a central console where they can integrate these tools into optimized threat response workflows and automate low-level, repetitive tasks in those workflows.
This console also allows them to manage all the security alerts generated by these tools in one, central place.
By streamlining alert triage and ensuring that different security tools work together, SOARs not only allow organizations to reduce the time to detect and respond to cyber attacks but also observe, understand and prevent future incidents, improving their overall security posture.
How do SOAR solutions work?
A comprehensive SOAR solution is designed to operate under three primary software capabilities – threat and vulnerability management, security incident response, and security operations automation.
1. Threat and vulnerability management
SOAR solutions automate the process of collecting data from various security tools like SIEM, vulnerability scanners, and threat intelligence feeds. They analyze and prioritize threats based on severity, potential impact, and context. This helps security teams focus on the most critical threats first.
SOAR allows for the creation of automated playbooks for handling specific types of threats. These playbooks can trigger actions like isolating infected devices, blocking malicious IPs, and even escalating the incident to analysts.
Once the threat is identified, SOAR provides comprehensive reports on each potential threat, allowing security teams to track progress and identify any lingering vulnerabilities.
2. Security incident response
SOAR solutions significantly enhance security incident response by automating tasks, streamlining workflows, and providing better visibility into the entire process.
They do this by automating repetitive response tasks like isolating infected devices, blocking malicious IPs, and escalating incidents to analysts. This significantly reduces the time it takes to contain a threat and minimize its impact.
At the same time, SOAR prioritizes alerts based on severity, potential impact, and context. This ensures that analysts focus on the most critical incidents first, further reducing the Reduced Mean Time to Response (MTTR).
3. Security operations automation
Many SOAR solutions leverage AI and machine learning to analyze data and learn from past incidents. By automating tasks like vulnerability scanning and patching and the initial analysis of security alerts, they allow security teams to focus on more strategic activities like threat hunting, investigation, and overall security planning.
SOAR solutions also act as a central hub for security teams, integrating various security tools and systems to help them mitigate threats and act fast when they strike.
This allows them to communicate and work together seamlessly, eliminating the need for manual switching between tools and streamlining the overall workflow.
Best SOAR Solutions
There are a variety of SOAR solutions available today, each of which can help you mitigate threats, identify vulnerabilities, and keep yourself secure. But like with any business tool, these solutions are not all made the same.
We’re counting down ten of the best SOAR solutions on the market today based on their popularity with users and effectiveness at keeping organizations secure in 2024.
Swimlane Turbine
Swimlane Turbine is a leading SOAR solution designed to simplify and enhance security operations automation. The platform is known for its low-code approach to automating security, providing a visual interface that allows users to build automated workflows (playbooks) with minimal coding experience. It resembles drawing a flowchart, making it intuitive and user-friendly. It also comes with a powerful set of AI features under the Hero AI umbrella, allowing it to automate tasks like threat detection, incident prioritization, and playbook optimization, further enhancing efficiency and effectiveness.
Turbine offers a centralized platform for managing incidents, visualizing data through dashboards, and generating comprehensive reports, providing valuable insights into security operations. The solution also comes with an Active Sensing Fabric feature, which extends visibility beyond traditional security tools by ingesting data from hard-to-reach sources, providing a more comprehensive view of threats and vulnerabilities. It seamlessly connects with any API too, enabling connection to various security tools, telemetry sources, and external systems.
FortiSOAR
FortiSOAR is a comprehensive SOAR solution by the cybersecurity firm Fortinet that’s designed to empower security teams by automating incident response processes and streamlining security operations. FortiSOAR provides a single platform to manage the entire incident response lifecycle – from initial alert ingestion to investigation, containment, and reporting – and adapts to diverse security needs by handling large volumes of data and integrating with various security tools. It also It automates repetitive tasks like incident triage, playbook execution, containment actions, and report generation, freeing up analysts' time for more strategic activities.
FortiSOAR offers a library of pre-built playbooks for common incident scenarios, along with a visual builder allowing customization and creation of new playbooks. It also Integrates with various threat intelligence feeds, enriching alerts with contextual information and enabling better threat prioritization. FortiSOAR boasts over 250 out-of-the-box integrations with security tools and platforms too, ensuring seamless data flow and automation across the security ecosystem.
PishER by KnowBe4
KnowBe4’s PhishER is a lightweight SOAR solution specifically designed to manage and respond to the high volume of potentially malicious email messages reported by users. PhishER focuses on streamlining the process of handling user-reported suspicious emails, leveraging AI to analyze reported emails and prioritize them based on potential threat levels, reducing manual workload for analysts. It can also automate tasks like email analysis, classification (threat, spam, clean), and user feedback, and can create a configuration of custom rules to trigger specific actions based on email characteristics, such as quarantining or deleting emails.
Known for its lightweight and straightforward deployment, PhishER stands out as a leading SOAR solution for organizations struggling with the high volume of user-reported email threats. The platform excels in managing the specific challenge of user-reported email threats, a significant pain point for many organizations. The platform excels in managing the specific challenge of user-reported email threats, a significant pain point for many organizations. And ts focus on automation, user experience, and streamlined workflows makes it a valuable tool for improving email security posture and reducing the risk of phishing attacks.
Tines
Tines is a powerful SOAR platform designed for broad workflow automation across various functionalities within an organization. The platform emphasizes user-friendliness and scalability, offering a visual drag-and-drop interface called Workflow Builder that’s great for building custom workflows across different departments, including security, IT, and engineering. It also has extensive automation capabilities and can automate repetitive tasks across various departments, including incident response, IT ticketing, and software development processes.
Tines goes beyond traditional SOAR, offering workflow automation capabilities across various departments, making it adaptable to diverse organizational needs. Its Unlimited integrations and powerful event pipeline allow for customization and adaptation to specific workflows and security needs. Tines also provides a free version with limited features, allowing organizations to test and experience the platform before committing to a paid plan.
Torq Hyperautomation
While Torq Hyperautomation might be a newcomer in the SOAR space, it has quickly established itself as one of the best solutions on the market thanks to its incredible speed and efficiency. As the name suggests, Torq emphasizes hyper-automation at its core, speeding up and streamlining security workflows through AI and machine learning, allowing it to automate tasks like alert triage, investigation, and playbook optimization. It also comes with a tool known as HyperSOC, which focuses on automating and managing critical SOC responses to further reduce analyst workload and improve efficiency.
Torq positions itself as a future-proof solution that goes beyond traditional SOAR functionalities by prioritizing automation and AI-powered capabilities to reduce alert fatigue, manual work, and response times. Its focus on hyper-automation, AI-powered efficiency, and ease of use make it a valuable tool for streamlining workflows, reducing manual work, and improving overall security posture.
IBM QRadar SOAR
IBM QRadar SOAR is a leading SOAR solution designed to streamline incident response processes and improve security operations efficiency. The platform offers one of the industry’s best case management capabilities, which help facilitate in-platform notifications, information sharing, and collaboration among team members. It also allows direct escalation of alerts from QRadar SIEM, automates responses to low-level alerts, and can even extend communication beyond the SOC to involve other stakeholders – something which some of the best SOAR solutions on the market often struggle with.
IBM QRadar SOAR stands out as a leading SOAR solution due to its tight integration with QRadar SIEM, focus on threat intelligence, robust case management capabilities, and extensive automation features. This combination empowers organizations to streamline incident response, improve security posture, and leverage valuable threat intelligence for informed decision-making. The platform also comes with pre-built tools for security investigation and provides a library of pre-built playbooks for common incident scenarios and allows customization and creation of new playbooks to automate repetitive tasks.
InsightConnect by Rapid7
InsightConnect by Rapid7 is one of the industry’s best SOAR solutions that’s specifically designed to streamline security operations by automating repetitive tasks, integrating diverse security tools, and accelerating incident response. The platform excels in automating various security workflows and can automate tasks like alert triage, investigation steps, containment actions, and reporting for compliance audits. The platform also boasts over 300 pre-built plugins for seamless integration with various security tools, SIEM platforms, IT systems, and communication channels – making it a versatile tool for organizations of all tech stacks.
Insightconnect leverages Rapid7's expertise in vulnerability management, offering advanced automation capabilities that other SOAR solutions simply can’t compete with. It also comes with a vast library of pre-built plugins to ensure seamless integration with existing security tools, allowing teams to eliminate data silos and adapt to diverse security environments This combination enables organizations to streamline security operations, improve response times, and achieve better overall security posture.
Microsoft Sentinel
While primarily a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) platform, Microsoft Sentinel offers robust SOAR capabilities that combine within a SIEM platform to provide a unified security operations experience. The platform allows you to create and deploy playbooks that automate repetitive tasks in the incident response lifecycle. These playbooks can trigger actions based on specific alerts, incidents, or user input. Playbooks are also built using Azure Logic Apps, a low-code/no-code platform, making automation accessible to users with varying technical skills.
Along with Microsoft SIEM, Sentinel integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft security tools and services like Azure Security Center, Defender for Cloud, and various third-party solutions. This allows it connect and orchestrate various security tools and systems within the Microsoft ecosystem, enabling seamless data flow and automated responses. The platform can also make use of Microsoft's threat intelligence platform to enrich incidents with valuable context for informed decision-making. This combination makes it a compelling choice for organizations already using Microsoft security tools and seeking a unified security operations experience.
Splunk SOAR
Splunk SOAR is a powerful SOAR solution designed to streamline security operations through automation, orchestration, and data-driven insights. Splunk SOAR leverages the power of Splunk's data platform, providing a comprehensive view of security data and enabling data-driven automation and decision-making for more effective responses to threats. It also seamlessly integrates with various threat intelligence feeds, enriching incident data for better prioritization and response.
Splunk SOAR stands out as a leading SOAR solution due to its data-centric approach, user-friendly automation tools, extensive integrations, and mobile accessibility. Its visual playbook editor and pre-built content also make automation accessible to security teams with varying technical skills, while its machine learning capabilities make it a great tool for tasks like threat detection, anomaly identification, and playbook optimization. This combination empowers organizations to streamline security operations, improve response times, and leverage valuable data insights for better security posture.
Corex XSOAR by Palo Alto Networks
Palo Alto Networks’ Cortex XSOAR is widely recognized as one of the best SOAR solutions available in 2024. The platform is consistently recognized by industry analysts for its comprehensive set of features designed to streamline security operations, automate tasks, and improve incident response efficiency. XSOAR comes with a range of automation content packs across a wide range of deployments to help you reduce the noise and handle repetitive, time-consuming tasks t to focus on what’s critical for improving your security posture.
Automation alone is just half the puzzle when it comes to SOAR. That’s why Corex XSOAR provides everything you need to remediate an incident in one place – incident data, indicators and threat intel are all fully integrated. You have a war room to collaborate in real-time, manage tickets, and conduct post-incident analysis and reporting. This combination empowers organizations to streamline security operations, improve response times, and achieve better overall security posture.
