What is a security automation system? Are they really necessary?

Basic cybersecurity protections are not suitable for the sophisticated attacks that cybercriminals carry out against systems. Gone are the days when they took these measures on their own. Now, they deploy advanced tools to remotely attack the most secure networks.

The arsenal you bring to the ongoing cyberwarfare can make or break your chances of successfully defending your application. Security automation systems level the playing field by providing advanced threat monitoring and resolution tools to secure your network. Here's how you can leverage them to improve your security.

What is a security automation system?

Security automation systems are software applications that you can use to monitor, detect, and prevent cyber threats. Effective security must happen around the clock. Since there is no set time for cyber attacks, your best bet is to stay alert.

Security automation systems allow you to monitor, detect, and contain threat vectors you normally miss. They have advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) built from monitoring diverse threat patterns. Powered by Machine Learning technology, they recognize different threat behaviors and establish cause-and-effect relationships.

How does a security automation system work?

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Deploying cybersecurity involves performing a series of tasks against vulnerabilities. Threat vectors are not visible on the surface. Identifying them requires you to perform security testing like vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, patch management, etc. Performing these operations manually consumes time and resources. Furthermore, it is not possible to execute them around the clock, so you may miss some threat actors.

There are three elements of a security automation system: Data sources, analytics tools, and feedback.

Data sources

Data sources are areas of your system that have information about ongoing activities such as network traffic, security logs, and attack surfaces. Security systems continuously collect data from these locations and record all inputs. Accuracy in data collection from sources sets the pace for high performance. Any omission will affect the final result.

Analysis tools

The data that automated systems collect from sources is in raw format. Regardless of the data source, it is not reliable or accurate. Deploying it in this state raises concerns about data integrity.

Systems pass data to their analytical tools for sorting and processing. The goal at this stage is to detect threat vectors using artificial intelligence. They must distinguish malicious traffic components from others.

Feedback mechanism

When analytics tools identify a threat vector from analyzing the heap, it notifies the response mechanism to initiate appropriate actions to prevent or manage the threat.

The first step is to stop the threat in its tracks, so that it doesn't spread across your network. It blocks the infected area to stop the spread and then eradicates them. The system sends you threat alerts on development, so you can take further actions to effectively combat it.

What are the benefits of using a security automation system?

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Deploying security automation systems is a proactive measure to prevent cyberattacks with the following benefits.

1. Reduce human error

Manually monitoring cybersecurity requires a lot of attention to detail, critical thinking and resilience, among other attributes. Humans can make mistakes, so it's more likely to make inevitable human mistakes even if you're extremely cautious. These bugs cause a number of attacks.

Intruders are well aware of the role humans play in facilitating cyber attacks whether intentional or unintentional. They take advantage of that weakness with tricks to trick you into making compromises, and Social Engineering pressures you into revealing sensitive information.

Security automation systems take core security functions out of your hands. They are automated to perform repetitive routine checks and maintenance accurately, minimizing human input greatly reducing errors.

2. Provide Continuous Threat Monitoring

If you monitor your system 24/7, you will notice all the threat vectors that can endanger the system. But you can't do it all day even if system security is your top priority. Besides other responsibilities, you will feel tired.

Security automation systems are machines. They have no pressure, nor are they exhausted. After you program them to monitor your system, they will do the job without changing the base.

3. Maintain compliance standards

If you operate in a regulated industry, you will need to meet a number of compliance requirements. How you collect and deploy data is a sensitive topic that you must prioritize, especially if your activities involve others. Dealing with such an important issue manually is risky because important details can drive you insane.

Using security automation increases your level of compliance. These systems are designed with the latest compliance standards in mind and you must follow them exactly one by one. However, you must update your compliance requirements across all areas of your network because of their programmatic systems.

4. Eliminate the fatigue of constantly receiving alerts

Receiving and responding to multiple threat alerts on a daily basis is exhausting. While you try to solve your problems, keep learning more. How do you deal with all these problems? Which ones should take precedence over the others? Everything really makes you tired.

This fatigue is gone for security automation systems. They can manage hundreds of threat notifications. Thanks to AI features, they can also determine the level of each alert and prioritize those that cause the most damage over others. This is called the cyber classification and it allows you to deploy your cybersecurity resources efficiently. Delays in dealing with urgent crises can damage your most important data.

5. Enhance decision making with data reporting

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Effective cybersecurity is based on accurate performance data. Security automation systems generate data about the activities in the system, especially about its security. This data includes malicious network traffic, vulnerable surfaces, and outdated software.

Analysis of reported data gives you a clear picture of the digital environment and helps you make informed decisions in your best interest. For example, identifying vulnerable surfaces will guide you to fortify them to avoid being taken advantage of.

Jessica Tanner

Update 24 July 2023