How SOAR Automation Can Help You Respond Faster to Security Incidents

Boost Your Security Response Times with SOAR: A Practical Guide
When a cybersecurity incident strikes, the clock starts ticking. Security teams are under pressure to respond quickly, but the reality is that manual processes and fragmented systems often slow them down, leaving organizations vulnerable to greater damage.
SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) changes the game by transforming the way teams respond to incidents. Instead of handling each alert and action manually, incident response automation SOAR automates repetitive tasks and streamlines workflows-cutting response times drastically and allowing security teams to focus on what truly matters: stopping threats before they cause harm.
In this blog, we’ll dive into how SOAR automation can accelerate your incident response, minimize human error, and strengthen your overall security posture.
The Incident Response Lifecycle
The Incident Response (IR) lifecycle is a structured approach to handling and managing security incidents in an organization. It typically consists of several stages, each crucial to identifying, containing, and mitigating the impact of a cyberattack. Here’s a breakdown of the key stages in the lifecycle:
1. Preparation
The preparation stage is the foundation of an effective incident response plan. During this phase, organizations develop and implement policies, procedures, and security measures to be ready for potential security incidents. This includes training security personnel, setting up tools and technologies (like SIEM and SOAR), and establishing communication protocols. The goal is to ensure that the organization is well-equipped to detect and respond quickly when an incident occurs.
2. Identification
In this phase, security teams focus on identifying whether an incident has occurred. The identification stage involves continuous monitoring of systems, networks, and data to detect anomalies that may indicate a security threat. Tools like SIEM systems, endpoint detection, and intrusion detection systems (IDS)[1] help detect suspicious activity. Once a potential incident is identified, it is confirmed and classified according to severity.
3. Containment
Once an incident is identified, the next priority is to contain the threat to prevent further damage. Containment involves limiting the scope of the incident and stopping its spread across systems and networks. This can include actions like isolating affected devices, blocking malicious IP addresses, or disabling compromised accounts. Containment is typically performed in two phases: short-term containment (immediate actions) and long-term containment (putting measures in place to prevent the attacker from spreading further).
4. Eradication
After containing the threat, the next step is to completely remove the cause of the incident. Eradication involves finding and eliminating the root cause of the attack, whether it’s malicious code, compromised credentials, or a vulnerability. This may include actions like removing malware, patching vulnerabilities, or re-imaging infected systems. Eradication ensures that the threat is completely removed and cannot resurface in the future.
5. Recovery
The recovery phase focuses on bringing affected systems back online while ensuring that no threats remain. During this stage, organizations carefully restore systems and services to normal operations, making sure that all systems are thoroughly tested and secured before being reconnected to the network. This stage requires close monitoring to ensure that the recovery process does not introduce any new vulnerabilities or risks.
6. Lessons Learned
After the incident has been resolved, the organization conducts a retrospective analysis of the entire event. The lessons learned phase involves reviewing the incident to understand what happened, how it was handled, and what could have been done differently. This review helps identify weaknesses in the incident response process and strengthens future defenses. Recommendations for improving policies, procedures, and technologies are made to improve readiness for the next incident.
What is SOAR? Explain the Technology
(Source: IBM Technology)[2]
SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) is a powerful technology designed to help security teams manage and respond to security incidents more efficiently. It combines three core functions—orchestration, automation, and response—into a unified system that streamlines the entire incident response process.
1. Orchestration
SOAR integrates and coordinates various security tools (like SIEMs, firewalls, and endpoint detection) into seamless workflows, enabling faster, more efficient responses to incidents.
2. Automation
SOAR automates repetitive tasks, such as data collection, diagnostics, and immediate actions (e.g., blocking IPs, isolating devices), speeding up response times and reducing human error.
3. Response
SOAR enhances incident response with predefined, customizable playbooks, ensuring consistent, quick actions to mitigate threats before escalation.
Key Benefits of SOAR for Incident Response
SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) offers a transformative solution that empowers security teams to streamline and accelerate their incident response processes, resulting in faster, more consistent, and cost-effective threat management.
1. Faster Detection and Response
SOAR significantly reduces the time between detecting a threat and taking action. By automating the initial steps of incident detection and response, security teams can act almost immediately. This rapid response prevents the threat from spreading and minimizes potential damage, ensuring a quicker containment of incidents.
2. Consistency and Accuracy
With automation in place, SOAR ensures that every incident is handled according to predefined protocols, without the risk of human error. This consistency not only improves the quality of responses but also guarantees that best practices are always followed, reducing the chance of missed or incorrect actions.
3. Increased Efficiency and Reduced Workload
By automating repetitive tasks such as data gathering, analysis, and reporting, SOAR frees up valuable time for security analysts. This allows them to focus on higher-level tasks like complex investigations and strategic decision-making, increasing team efficiency and productivity.
4. Scalability
SOAR platforms can scale with your organization’s needs. As the volume of security incidents increases, SOAR systems can manage and automate more responses without additional personnel. This scalability ensures that even as threats grow in complexity and frequency, security teams can maintain their efficiency.
5. Improved Collaboration and Communication
SOAR tools integrate with other systems and provide a centralized platform for communication across the security team. Automated notifications, task assignments, and real-time updates ensure that all team members are aligned and working together to resolve the incident as quickly as possible, even in large teams or across different time zones.
6. Faster Incident Triage and Prioritization
SOAR automates the process of triaging incidents, allowing security teams to prioritize the most critical threats first. This ensures that the most dangerous and impactful incidents are dealt with immediately, while less critical incidents can be handled later or automatically closed.
7. Reduced Response Time During High-Volume Incidents
During peak times, such as when multiple threats occur simultaneously, SOAR can handle a large volume of incidents without slowing down the team. Automated playbooks and workflows can quickly address multiple threats in parallel, preventing backlogs and ensuring no incident is overlooked.
8. Enhanced Reporting and Documentation
SOAR automates the generation of detailed reports on incident response activities, which are essential for compliance and future audits. This not only saves time but also ensures accurate and consistent documentation, providing a reliable record of actions taken during an incident.
9. Improved Threat Intelligence Utilization
SOAR integrates with threat intelligence platforms, enabling faster access to up-to-date threat data. Automated workflows can use this intelligence to take immediate action, such as blocking malicious IP addresses or deploying new detection rules, ensuring security teams are always ahead of evolving threats.
10. Cost Savings
By automating routine tasks, reducing the need for manual intervention, and improving response times, SOAR reduces operational costs in the long run. With fewer resources required for handling each incident and faster resolution times, organizations can optimize their security budgets.
How SOAR Reduces Incident Response Time
SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) dramatically shorten incident response times by automating critical tasks and improving the coordination between security systems and teams. Here’s how it works:
1. Automated Threat Detection and Alerts
SOAR platforms integrate with various security tools like SIEMs (Security Information and Event Management) and endpoint detection systems to automatically detect potential threats. As soon as an incident occurs, SOAR generates real-time alerts and triggers predefined response workflows, eliminating the delays caused by manual monitoring and initial threat identification.
2. Instant Data Collection and Analysis
With SOAR, the time-consuming task of gathering and analyzing data is automated. Once an alert is triggered, SOAR pulls relevant information—such as system logs, user activity, and threat intelligence—without requiring human intervention. This allows security analysts to quickly understand the scope of the incident and decide on the appropriate response faster.
3. Predefined Playbooks for Rapid Response
One of the key features of SOAR is the use of playbooks[3], which are predefined, automated workflows for handling specific types of incidents. When a security incident is detected, SOAR automatically initiates the playbook associated with that type of threat. These playbooks ensure that the response follows a clear, consistent path, without the delays caused by decision-making or figuring out the next steps.
4. Automated Incident Triage and Prioritization
SOAR platforms automatically triage incoming incidents based on their severity and potential impact. By using intelligence from threat feeds and previous incidents, SOAR can prioritize critical threats and escalate them for immediate action, while lower-priority incidents are handled later or even resolved automatically. This reduces the time spent deciding which incidents to focus on.
5. Automated Remediation Actions
Many SOAR platforms can trigger automated remediation actions in response to certain threats, such as blocking malicious IPs, isolating infected devices, or applying security patches. These actions happen within seconds of threat detection, allowing security teams to mitigate the impact of an attack without needing to manually intervene, thus reducing response time dramatically.
6. Streamlined Communication and Collaboration
SOAR platforms facilitate real-time collaboration by centralizing communication across teams. Automated notifications and task assignments ensure that the right people are notified instantly when an incident occurs, eliminating the delays that often arise when teams are spread across different tools or unaware of an ongoing threat. Everyone is aligned on the same platform, improving response speed.
7. Faster Decision-Making with Threat Intelligence Integration
SOAR integrates with external threat intelligence feeds, providing security teams with up-to-date information on emerging threats. By incorporating threat intelligence into automated workflows, SOAR ensures that security teams can make informed decisions quickly, speeding up the response to evolving cyber threats and minimizing delays caused by manual research.
8. Parallel Handling of Multiple Incidents
Unlike traditional manual processes, SOAR can handle multiple incidents simultaneously by automating responses for each one. This parallel processing reduces the backlog of incidents, ensuring that no threat is left unaddressed for too long, even during high-volume attack periods.
9. Continuous Monitoring and Improvement
SOAR systems continuously monitor the effectiveness of the incident response process, allowing organizations to track key metrics like response time and resolution time. Over time, insights from these metrics can be used to fine-tune playbooks and workflows, ensuring even faster and more efficient responses in the future.
The Next Generation of Incident Response with SOAR
The future of incident response is poised for greater automation, intelligence, and seamless integration. Here’s how SOAR will shape it:
1. Advanced Automation
SOAR will automate more complex workflows, reducing manual intervention and speeding up response times.
2. AI and Machine Learning
Integration of AI and machine learning will enhance decision-making, predict attack behaviors, and continuously improve incident response.
3. Better Integration
SOAR platforms will provide deeper integration with diverse security tools, creating a unified defense system across endpoints, networks, and cloud services.
4. Proactive Threat Hunting
SOAR will shift from reactive to proactive, identifying and neutralizing threats before they escalate.
5. XDR Integration
SOAR will integrate with Extended Detection and Response (XDR) platforms for a more holistic, coordinated response across all environments.
6. Smarter Incident Triage
Advanced threat intelligence will enable automated triaging of incidents, allowing security teams to focus on the most critical threats.
7. Enhanced Collaboration
SOAR will improve team collaboration with integrated communication tools and streamlined workflows for faster decision-making.
8. Automated Post-Incident Analysis
Post-incident reviews will be automated, providing insights for refining future responses.
9. Cloud and Hybrid Support
SOAR will adapt to secure hybrid and cloud environments, offering scalable incident response across all infrastructures.
10. Emerging Technology Security
SOAR will evolve to handle the unique challenges posed by emerging technologies like IoT, 5G, and blockchain.
How NewEvol Enhances SOAR for Faster, Smarter Incident Response
NewEvol’s Dynamic Threat Defense Platform elevates SOAR by combining AI-driven analytics, advanced threat intelligence, and real-time orchestration. With machine learning, it rapidly analyzes patterns, correlates threat data, and prioritizes incidents with precision, significantly reducing false positives. Intelligent automation streamlines response workflows, enabling security teams to act instantly without manual intervention. Seamlessly integrating with SIEM, EDR, and threat intelligence feeds, it creates a unified security ecosystem. Automated remediation tasks—like isolating compromised devices, blocking malicious IPs, and enforcing security policies—ensure threats are mitigated in real time, minimizing response times and preventing escalation.
Final Thoughts
SOAR is reshaping how organizations handle incident response by automating repetitive tasks, enhancing coordination, and accelerating response times. As cyber threats continue to evolve, SOAR’s role in improving incident response efficiency will only grow. By integrating advanced technologies like AI, machine learning, and seamless security tool coordination, SOAR platforms provide security teams with the speed and intelligence needed to stay ahead of attackers. Embracing SOAR today means a more resilient, proactive cybersecurity posture for tomorrow.
Speed Up Your Incident Response with SOAR Today
Is your team overwhelmed by incidents? It’s time to upgrade your security with SOAR automation. Get in touch to see how our tailored solutions can drastically cut response times and improve your security posture.
FAQs
1. What is SOAR for incident response?
SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) automates and orchestrates incident response workflows, integrating security tools to speed up and streamline threat management.
2. What can automate an incident response?
SOAR platforms automate incident response by integrating security tools and automating tasks like data collection, triage, and escalation.
3. What is an example of a workflow that can be automated through SOAR?
A common example is automating phishing email response—SOAR can block the sender, isolate the affected device, and notify the team.
4. What is the main purpose of automating repeatable actions in SOAR?
Automating repeatable actions reduces human error, saves time, and lets security teams focus on more critical threats.
5. What feature can be used to automate repetitive tasks?
Playbooks in SOAR automate repetitive tasks, guiding security teams through standardized workflows for common incidents.
6. Which will help in automating predictable and repeatable activities?
Playbooks help automate predictable and repeatable activities by defining steps for handling specific incidents.
7. How can you ensure the effectiveness of an incident response plan?
Regularly update the plan, conduct drills, and integrate SOAR for faster, more consistent responses.
8. What are the three reasons SOAR is used?
SOAR is used for efficiency, accuracy, and scalability, automating tasks, ensuring consistent responses, and handling more incidents.
9. What is incident response tools?
Incident response tools include software like SOAR, SIEM, EDR, and threat intelligence platforms that help detect and manage security incidents.