Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) is a group of cybersecurity technologies that allow organizations to respond to some incidents automatically. SOAR is a stack of compatible software programs that enables an organization to collect data about security threats from multiple sources. The more data gathered through these sources, the better the chance of detecting threats, along with assembling more complete context and improving collaboration. SOAR tools allow an organization to define incident analysis and response procedures in a digital workflow format.
SOAR’s individual components—orchestration, automation, and response—work together to ease the burden on an organization’s security teams. Security automation is the automatic handling of security operations-related tasks, such as scanning for vulnerabilities or searching for logs, without human intervention. Security orchestration refers to a method of connecting security tools and integrating disparate security systems. It is the connected layer that streamlines security processes and powers security automation.
SOAR solutions provide flexibility and additional opportunities for collaboration, adapting workflows for organizations, creating custom integrations, and more. The automation features of SOAR set it apart from other security systems because they help eliminate the need for manual steps, which can be time-consuming and tedious. Security automation can accomplish a wide range of tasks, including managing user access and query logs. Automation can also be used as a tool for orchestration. As an orchestration solution, SOAR can automate tasks that would normally necessitate multiple security tools.
