SOAR and Threat Intelligence: How Do They Work Together? – Part II

In Part I, we introduced SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) and explained how it differs from SIEM (Security Information and Event Management).

Now, in Part II, the SecuRetain team takes a deep dive into how SOAR integrates with Threat Intelligence to enhance security operations and incident response.

How Does SOAR Work?

A SOAR platform is designed to automatically respond to security alerts by seamlessly orchestrating the various tools and technologies in an organization's security stack. The system then executes the appropriate actions through the triggering of specific playbooks and runbooks tailored to each threat. The goal is to automate responses to alerts, freeing up valuable analyst time to focus on more complex tasks, like threat analysis and incident investigation.

SOAR aims to boost efficiency, effectiveness, and consistency across security operations and incident management. It does this by automating processes and streamlining workflows into three key components:

What is Threat Intelligence ?

Threat Intelligence is organized, analyzed, and actionable data about current or potential security threats. This information helps organizations make informed decisions about how to respond to and mitigate cyberattacks.

As Gartner puts it:

"Threat intelligence is evidence-based knowledge, including context, mechanisms, indicators, implications, and action-oriented advice about an existing or emerging hazard to assets."

The world of cybersecurity is rife with challenges: an overwhelming volume of threats, persistent and evolving attackers, and the constant problem of false positives. Organizations are under increasing pressure to manage these threats efficiently especially with the current shortage of skilled security professionals.

Why Threat Intelligence and SOAR are a Perfect Pair ?

Effective automation and orchestration can only work if an organization has the right tools to correlate both internal and external threat intelligence. The value of SOAR is in its ability to rapidly integrate this intelligence and trigger the right actions such as identification, containment, detection, and response.

Threat Intelligence helps SOAR platforms avoid common pitfalls like false positives, which can waste valuable time and resources. By providing accurate, real-time insights into threats, external threat intelligence enhances the ability of SOAR to respond quickly and appropriately, minimizing disruptions to operations.

Let's explore a few examples of how Threat Intelligence helps SOAR platforms respond more effectively:

1. Endpoint Diagnostics: A Critical Security Task

Managing endpoint devices is one of the most challenging tasks for security teams. The sheer volume of alerts from endpoint logs can be overwhelming. With threat intelligence, security teams can rapidly assess the risk of new threats and respond effectively.

SOAR automation can help by:

• Analyzing SIEM data
• Querying security tools for more information on malicious activity
• Quarantining and removing infected files
• Updating signatures to protect against repeat attacks

By integrating threat intelligence, SOAR can detect and mitigate attacks across multiple endpoints and prevent future infections, ensuring security remains proactive rather than reactive.

2. Phishing Attacks: Protecting Your Organization from Deceptive Emails

Phishing remains one of the most common and dangerous forms of cyberattack. Cybercriminals often impersonate legitimate entities to trick individuals into divulging sensitive information like account credentials, credit card numbers, or Social Security details.

Threat intelligence helps security teams by identifying patterns and clusters of phishing attempts. It provides crucial insights into the techniques, tactics, and tools used by attackers.

For example, when a SOAR platform is integrated with threat intelligence, it can:

• Identify malicious emails by analyzing headers, subject lines, sender details, and content
• Assign severity to phishing threats
• Block users from receiving emails from suspicious sources
• Update signatures to prevent further phishing attempts

The platform's ability to automatically respond to phishing threats—and even inform users about potential risks greatly improves the security posture of an organization and reduces human error.

SOAR's Growing Role in Security Operations

According to Gartner's SOAR Market Guide, by 2022, 30% of organizations with security teams larger than five people will be using SOAR tools up from less than 5% today. The reason for this dramatic rise? Security Operations Centers (SOCs) are under increasing pressure. They're overwhelmed by the sheer volume of security alerts, many of which come from disparate sources, including SIEM systems.

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