In the world of cybersecurity, there are many different acronyms. Two popular acronyms that are often used interchangeably are SIEM and SOAR. Both tools focus on helping cybersecurity teams become hyper-efficient, but they do differ in how exactly they work.
Before going any further, it is important to understand what exactly the acronyms SIEM and SOAR stand for:
SIEM = Security Information and Event Management
SOAR = Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s explore what each tool offers and how they are similar and different.
SIEM platforms have been around for more than a decade now and they are common among cybersecurity teams. SIEM platforms were created to help deal with a huge problem in cybersecurity which is organizing security events. On a typical day, cybersecurity teams can receive hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of security events. These events can easily overwhelm security analysts.
SIEM platforms address this issue by compiling log events and data into one platform which then allows for each event to be categorized, analyzed and queried later on. SIEM platforms start by collecting logs from various sources such as devices on networks, servers, etc. The SIEM will then organize the logs and analyze them to detect threats. The last step for SIEM platforms is to uncover security breaches and alert cybersecurity teams. The cybersecurity analysts and engineers must then investigate and resolve the alerts.
SOAR platforms are newer cybersecurity solutions that began really taking off in 2017 after Gartner reported on and coined the term “SOAR”. Since 2017, SOAR platforms have become more and more popular among cybersecurity teams. SOAR platforms focus on three key domains:
#1 – Orchestration – SOAR ingests and consolidates alerts from a wide array of disparate tools and technologies onto a single platform.
#2 – Automation – SOAR connects a variety of tools and creates automated workflows or playbooks for triage and response for low-level repeatable actions.
#3 – Response – SOAR enables you to trigger actions automatically to respond to security alerts, reducing Mean Time to Response (MTTR) and mitigating security risk.
A key difference with SOAR compared to SIEM is that SIEM is consuming raw logs and generating alerts and SOAR is consuming and resolving alerts. Instead of needing to address each alert individually, SOAR platforms allow for engineers and analysts to automate and orchestrate common alerts which can be a repetitive and time-consuming to address. This is done using workflows or playbooks.
Both SIEM and SOAR solutions help to improve the efficiency of entire security teams. Whether you’re a security analyst, security engineers, SecOps, or CISO, you will benefit from having both of these solutions. SIEM solutions allow for data to be collected and alerts to form. But to address the many alerts that come in, SOAR platforms are essential. Automated workflows created and processed with SOAR platforms help to automatically address alerts which frees up analysts and engineers to address the most important and complex ones.
On top of SIEM and SOAR, DTonomy’s AI further automates the cognitive/decision making process for alert investigation and recommends actions for every alert and every organization. Once there is an actionable process set up for each alert, DTonomy’s AI converts them to an automated process. Ultimately, AI enables further cost reduction and mitigation of security risk by making alerts actionable and turning them into automated responses.