Incident response automation is a practice that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities in order to speed up the incident response process.
Since incident response is a cornerstone of cloud security, its automation can be an absolute game-changer. Because cloud incidents occur at breakneck speeds, SOC teams, SecOps teams, and incident responders are often stretched beyond their bandwidth to identify, triage, and remediate incidents. What automation does is speed things up and cut down manual tasks, both of which are crucial to keep pace with attackers who move quickly in the cloud.
AI-driven incident response can make life easier for cloud security teams and improve their response capabilities. According to IBM, businesses that use any form of AI or automation in cloud incident response cut down their mean time to identify (MTTI) and mean time to contain (MTTC) by 33%. Like we said, expedited and well-orchestrated incident detection and response is a game-changer.
What does incident response automation include?
Here’s a breakdown of the activities and actions that incident response automation covers:
Discovering cloud security incidents
Pinpointing attack vectors (i.e., the entryway for the threat)
Assessing incident urgency and impact
Collecting and analyzing data
Executing incident resolution steps
Reporting on the incident and its remediation
How does incident response automation work?
Next, let’s look at the core components of incident response automation and how they work:
Telemetry data
The most important raw material for automating incident response management is data. After all, successful incident response automation depends on the quality and volume of data available for ingestion, processing, and deep analysis.
This data, which comes from the cloud environment itself, is often stored in an SIEM tool for analysis. Also, don’t forget: Integrating disparate security tools, logs, and telemetry sources like AWS CloudTrail logs and Azure Monitor into a unified incident response automation platform is key. (Equally important is automating telemetry collection from various sources.)
Rules, runbooks, and triggers
Automated incident resolution only works when there are clearly defined baselines, rules, and triggers. Without predefined rules and runbooks, you might be walking in circles. But with the right rules, automated incident management processes benefit from reduced dwell time. This basically means that responders can find incidents and validate fixes quicker than before.
Remember that your predefined rules and runbooks (playbooks or manuals that focus on specific types of incidents) should cover all steps across incident management processes, including detection, triage, and response. Consider a scenario where your automated incident response solution, via Amazon GuardDuty, identifies a compromised S3 bucket. A runbook for a compromised S3 bucket will have a clear set of instructions, including how to uncover the root cause, identify whether there is sensitive or mission-essential data in the bucket, and assign a level of incident urgency.
The runbook will also automatically suggest specific remediation options and fixes. In this case, it might include blocking public access, activating backup data, and recommending better authentication protocols for the future, as well as a list of personnel these fixes can be routed to.
Automated triaging and mitigation
With automated incident response, tools like SIEM trigger alerts any time suspicious or irregular activities occur. Traditionally, a SIEM-triggered alert means that it’s time for incident response teams to take the wheel, but with automated incident response, an accelerated remediation process kicks into gear without human-driven activation.
By accelerating incident detection, triage, and response using deep cloud and workload contexts, automated incident response solutions are the ideal support for incident response teams. In some cases, all incident response teams need to do is conduct a one-click fix or validate an automated fix.
Keep in mind that security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) tools are very useful for setting up automated triaging and remediation workflows. Why? Because SOAR tools bring together and orchestrate disparate security tools, processes, and personnel, which is a key part of creating fast, productive, and practical automation workflows.
Evidence collection and forensics
For effective incident response, teams need immediate access to critical evidence and forensic information. That’s why automated incident response hinges on the capabilities of tools like runtime sensors, cloud investigation and response automation (CIRA), identity detection and response (ITDR), and data detection and response (DDR).
The unified capabilities of these tools ensure complete coverage across complex cloud estates, rapid access to incident data, and the provisioning of important evidence. These capabilities can help with security improvements, compliance audits, and the next iteration of automation capabilities. In the past, these activities took a lot of elbow grease from incident response teams, but incident response automation accelerates and simplifies this process.
The issue with incident response in the cloud is that most cloud workloads are ephemeral, which means crucial evidence can easily disappear. One way businesses can use automated incident response solutions to tackle this cloud-specific concern is by setting up automated playbooks to capture forensic evidence immediately. For instance, a playbook that captures an EC2 forensic image on AWS is priceless because it allows incident response teams to get to the bottom of an incident before things escalate.
What are the benefits of incident response automation?
Improved cyber resilience: Cloud environments face constant incidents, putting enterprises under severe pressure. Incident response automation improves an enterprise’s digital operations and cyber resilience by swiftly taking care of critical incidents before they cause widespread chaos.
Reduced dwell time: SecOps teams and incident responders can’t afford to waste time when identifying and addressing cloud incidents. Every second wasted increases the possibility of a large-scale disaster. Automating incident response in cloud environments significantly reduces dwell time and improves mean-time-to-resolution (MTTR), which can save millions of dollars via data breach prevention, along with other huge benefits.
Fewer false positives: Nothing kills the momentum of a cloud security program like false positives. The more false positives an enterprise faces, the higher the chance of severe alert fatigue. Incident response automation involves analyzing multiple cloud contexts to accurately assign incident priority levels. This guarantees that incident responders don’t get buried by alerts or become bogged down by unimportant issues.
Better ticketing and alerting protocols: Automation reduces the degree of human intervention in incident resolution, but incident responders and SecOps personnel still play an important role. For example, an automated incident response tool might flag a critical incident, uncover the root cause, and even suggest a fix, but that still has to be routed to the right individual to validate or complete. Incident response automation upgrades ticket management. In short, the right alerts are sent to the right teams.
Cost reduction: Higher degrees of automation equal lower degrees of human error. Also, by embracing automation, incident response workflows won’t have redundant steps that waste valuable resources. Automation makes the entire incident response process faster and more effective, which naturally results in significant cost reduction.
Enhanced productivity: Automation can improve the morale and productivity of incident response teams. When automated AI- and ML-powered mechanisms do the heavy lifting for incident response, it frees up SecOps teams and other security personnel for more creative and human-centric activities.
Proactive improvements: By embracing automation, businesses can improve and update their incident response capabilities faster. This is important because, according to Gartner, most businesses test incident response programs only once a year, leading to slow and inadequate response capabilities. With automation, it’s easier to stay ahead of the curve.
Wiz Defend: The key to automating incident response workflows
To start reaping the rewards of incident response automation, businesses need a strong security springboard like Wiz Defend. Wiz Defend is a powerful solution for automating incident response workflows that are built for the cloud. With Wiz Defend, businesses don’t have to worry about data breaches because incidents can be caught and dealt with as soon as they emerge.
So what exactly does Wiz Defend do?:
To start off, Wiz Defend will tell you everything you need to know about a cloud incident by cross-analyzing data from an eBPF runtime sensor, audit logs, and the Wiz Security Graph.
It also provides complete visibility across your cloud environments, gets rid of blind spots, maps telemetry to frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK, and shines a light on hidden threats.
With Wiz Defend, you can establish automated containment and response workflows for cloud incidents and give your SOC teams and incident responders what they need to complete fixes in just a few simple clicks.
And as we’ve seen, incident response automation involves multiple cloud security tools like SIEM and SOAR, but these tools are only beneficial if they are seamlessly interconnected. Wiz Defend integrates automation workflows and telemetry collection with tools like SIEM and SOAR, building a solid foundation for comprehensive incident response.
Long story short: No matter what incident your cloud faces, Wiz Defend will give you thorough visibility and insights to efficiently nip it in the bud. Ready to see it in action? Get a demo today to start automating and reinforcing your incident response capabilities.
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