WEI Tech Exchange

Imagine this: you’re a security analyst on the frontlines of your organization’s cybersecurity team. You stare at your monitor as alerts flood from various security programs, like alarms all going off at once. Then you ask: is it a full-blown attack or simply a routine update? The sheer volume of data makes prioritizing the most urgent threats a constant challenge.

This is the reality for many security operations center (SOC) teams. However, many are drowning in a sea of information overload. This constant influx of alerts, often referred to as alert fatigue, makes it difficult for analysts to prioritize critical threats. The challenge is further compounded by a widening cybersecurity skills gap. Most SOCs are siloed and understaffed, leaving team members struggling with the ever-growing workload. This creates a dangerous feedback loop: overworked analysts become less effective at filtering valid alerts, leading to missed warnings and a weakened overall security posture.

To build a strong and resilient security strategy, we need to address both alert fatigue and staffing shortages. Let’s delve deeper into the challenges faced by SOC teams and how organizations can effectively navigate these situations.

Understanding SOC Challenges

Chronic alert fatigue and staffing deficiencies create a significant vulnerability in an organization’s security posture. They are aware they are under attack but lack the resources to effectively defend themselves.

• Staff shortage and limited budget: Evasive attacks trigger a flood of security alerts. This overwhelms security staff and desensitizes them to real threats. The pressure to investigate creates a stressful environment, causing burnout and high turnover which worsens existing staffing shortages. While adding headcount to security teams can be a solution, it is often a difficult, expensive, and unsustainable approach in the long run.
• Siloed security tools and limited budget: Investigations are further hampered by siloed security tools lacking a central control point. Security information and event management (SIEM) systems may also lack the depth and automation needed for efficient analysis.

This one-two punch creates a state of perpetual anxiety for IT security leaders. The combined effect of these challenges is an overwhelmed SOC struggling to keep pace with incident response and proactive security measures. This constant pressure creates a dangerous environment where the risk of a serious security breach becomes significantly higher.

SOAR Is The Answer

In today’s cybersecurity landscape, teams face a constant barrage of threats with limited time and resources to respond. This is where security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) comes in.

SOAR acts as a force multiplier for your security team. The secret weapon behind its effectiveness is a powerful combination of artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and complete integration.

This integrated approach delivers significant benefits:

• Faster Response: AI analyzes massive amounts of data to identify and prioritize attacks, allowing analysts to focus on remediation efforts quickly.
• Automated Threat Intelligence: This ensures you have the latest threat data to defend your systems proactively.
• Reduced Analyst Burden: Repetitive tasks are automated, freeing up analysts for complex investigations and strategic security planning.
• Standardized Workflows: Integration across security products and departments ensures a consistent approach to threat detection and response, boosting overall efficiency.

By harnessing the power of AI, automation, and integration, SOAR empowers your security team to operate more effectively and efficiently, leaving them better equipped to mitigate cyber-attacks.

Empowering Your SOC Team With Advanced Solutions

Leveraging the advantages of SOAR, FortiSOAR tackles modern security challenges for SOCs and businesses. This comprehensive incident management platform empowers the entire IT team.

FortiSOAR goes beyond powerful features. It offers a holistic approach to reduce alert fatigue, optimize staffing and collaboration, and improve operational efficiency. Here’s how it empowers your SOC team:

FortiSOAR eliminates the need to switch between consoles by consolidating security data from all your existing tools. This streamlined approach facilitates investigations and empowers you to deliver faster, more comprehensive responses.

For OT management, FortiSOAR enables teams to monitor their assets, proactively respond to security alerts, improve threat investigation activities, and safeguard them from cyberattacks – all within a unified platform. Additionally, the package includes pre-defined remediation playbooks specifically designed for OT systems which integrate seamlessly with a wide range of IT/OT security products from various vendors.

The solution tackles incident response chaos with effective case management tools. Analysts can create standardized workflows, assign tasks, and track investigation progress to ensure clear accountability and efficient collaboration.

FortiSOAR integrates threat intelligence feeds and enriches security data with real-time indicators. This empowers analysts to prioritize alerts based on actual attack methods, which improves response times. Key features include built-in feeds, support for any source, a machine learning engine for threat analysis, and standardized IOC export. It even offers a collaborative workspace and ticketing system for managing threat intelligence requests.

Machine learning capabilities to analyze past data and patterns, which translates to actionable insights. These insights guide security analysts through investigations and recommend potential next steps.

The platform’s intuitive, drag-and-drop playbook designer automates workflows and empowers analysts to focus on complex investigations and strategic decision-making. Key features include support for both natural language and Python scripting, pre-built content, guidance recommendations, contextual reference blocks, full CI/CD integration, and simulation tools for smooth deployment.

Going Beyond The Key Features

The platform empowers teams through a comprehensive Content Hub. This Hub offers a rich library of pre-built content (connectors, playbooks, widgets, solution packs) from both Fortinet’s developers and the user community. This combined approach ensures a wide variety of resources available for your automation needs.

Beyond content, the Hub also fosters collaboration. Teams can access news, discuss ideas, and discover best practices from peers through moderated forums and knowledge sharing.

Final Thoughts

SOC teams struggle with alert fatigue and staffing shortages in today’s threat landscape. AI-powered SOAR solutions offer relief by streamlining processes, prioritizing alerts, and empowering team members. This translates to both increased efficiency and reduced alert fatigue.

Here is where WEI can help. As WEI serves as Fortinet’s most comprehensive partner in the northeastern United States, our certified experts will assess your specific needs and design a custom SOAR solution like FortiSOAR to optimize your security posture. Contact us today and take control of your cybersecurity. With our expertise, your SOC team can confidently confront cyber threats and keep your organization safe. 

Next steps: Given the sensitive nature of patient data and the critical importance of medical systems, it’s clear why cybersecurity is a paramount concern to healthcare executives. The expansion and non-stop merging of healthcare organizations across multiple locations necessitates scalable, manageable, and flexible access controls to ensure consistent security regardless of location. This is precisely why a cloud-delivered Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is ideally suited to meet the unique needs of today’s healthcare industry.

This free tech brief explores:

• Why healthcare is an ideal use case for SASE
• Importance of a universal cybersecurity experience
• Introduction to FortiSASE
• Importance of Zero Trust