Top Security Processes to Automate
According to IBM, organizations with fully deployed security AI and automation experienced breach costs of $2.90 million, compared to $6.71 million at organizations without security AI and automation. That’s an 80% difference.
In today’s landscape, automating security processes is paramount for any organization. It can improve efficiency, help an organization stay consistent in their security efforts, reduce resource-intensive processes, and improve threat response times significantly.
Which Security Process Can Be Automated?
With the benefits of security automation in mind, let’s take a closer look at some of the security processes that can be automated. Consider this a checklist—what processes on this list can your organization automate to improve your security posture?
System updates: Restore or change certain software through an automated push on your personal or work device.
System hardening: Configure your server, application, and network devices automatically to reduce security risks and produce reports at a much faster rate.
Patch management: Automate the identification, testing, and deployment of software patches and updates to ensure that systems are protected against known vulnerabilities.
Vulnerability scanning: An automated vulnerability scanner can continuously scan for vulnerabilities and categorize them based on risk.
Incident detection: Automate incident detection and response processes, including the initial alert, investigation, containment, and mitigation of security incidents.
Log management: Automate the collection of log data to show patterns and identify security issues or suspicious activities.
User access management: By automating user provisioning and de-provisioning, your organization can ensure that users have appropriate access levels.
Identity management: Automate identity verification, multi-factor authentication, and single sign-on processes.
Lastly, you can use automation to build a security scorecard that shows trends over time to see if your overall security program is on or off track.
What Automation Tool is Right for My Organization?
There are a lot of automation tools on the market. Now that you know the why and how of security automation, you might be wondering where to start. Learn more about choosing the right tool for your organization through a few simple suggestions:
Do your research: Look at reviews for different automation tools and scope out the difference between platforms. Putting in the time to research what each tool can offer will help you get what you need without unnecessary complexity.
Scope out what you don’t need: Along with studying up on your options, it’s important to figure out what you don’t need. Automation platforms differ from industry to industry, and there are a great deal of options out there. By minimizing what tools don’t fit your needs first, you can narrow your scope to what will benefit your organization the most.
Get buy-in from senior management: Security is often a top-down process. When organizations have the green light for security automation from leadership, those processes and best practices often trickle down to the rest of the team. It’s a win-win for everyone involved.
Have a manual plan in place: While automation has many benefits, it’s important to have backup. As we’ve seen in the past few years, unexpected events like COVID or natural disasters can occur, making your data more vulnerable. No matter what platform you end up choosing, consider how a human element can complement or replace an automated process in the event of an emergency.
Automating security processes is paramount—which is why it should be done with careful consideration of your organization’s specific needs. It’s essential to balance automation with true ownership of a security program by a real human.
Interested in how automation can improve your organization’s security posture? Learn more from our team of experts at Audora.
