One of the best ways to improve information security is to use automation. There simply aren’t enough security personnel to respond to all the IT threats businesses face today. In addition, automation can reduce errors that create vulnerabilities as well as search through logs to find patterns that indicate potentially bad behavior.

Where to Introduce Automation into Security

Automation is much more effective when treated strategically, rather than randomly implementing a few scripts and scheduled jobs. Therefore, introducing automation requires understanding IT resources as a whole, to identify where the value will be maximized, rather than focusing on individual devices. Consider whether your priority is to use automation…

• where it’s easiest and quickest to implement.
• where it will save the most time.
• where it will make the biggest impact on security employees’ effort and satisfaction.
• where it will reduce bottlenecks.
• where it will change and improve processes.

Once you’re clear on your overall objective, you can consider specific applications of automation in security. Some aspects of security that can be automated include:

• inventorying assets.
• removing access rights.
• scanning for malicious code.
• analyzing audit logs.

Tools for Security Automation

Several tools help businesses introduce automation into security. These include:

Robotic process automation.

Note that robots can mean software bots that perform repetitive tasks such as scanning logs and initiating the incident response process. Automation such as this can reduce the time needed to detect and respond to threats. The automation can also identify applications and devices that are vulnerable, as well as ensure patches and updates are deployed across all systems.

Security incident and event management tools, or security orchestration automation and response software.

Both SIEM and SOAR collect and analyze security data from multiple sources to detect anomalies. SIEM tends to rely on operations’ manual response to alerts and to update rules; it’s also limited to known threats. SOAR uses artificial intelligence to recognize new threats and uses automation to respond automatically to alerts.

Certificate and key management tools.

Failing to protect certificates and keys leads to many vulnerabilities. Through the use of management tools, businesses can better track the certificates and keys they’ve generated, restrict access to them, and monitor where they are being used. Tools can also automate issuing, renewing, and installing certificates, or revoking them when needed.

Custom tools.

Sometimes, building your own scripts is the best way to meet your needs.

Make sure you have an effective cybersecurity solution by implementing automation where it’s appropriate for your business. Contact Prescient Solutions to talk about automation as well as other ways you can improve your information security and protect your data.