Organizations moving to cloud environments face a series of novel and evolving cyber threats prompting them to prioritize security measures. The arc begins with maturing the Security Operations Center (SOC).
In the security space, Fortinet leads the charge to fortifying SOCs. Known for solutions like FortiSOAR that can provide automated and intelligent security responses, the company pioneers solutions purpose-built to enhance SOC operations.
Navigating the Cloud Security Landscape
The cloud era has introduced significant opportunities for application and system modernization. But the transition also marks a significant shift in security risks. This means SOCs must work harder than before to defend the perimeter. Many security professionals are battling with alert fatigue and a tool overload that keeps getting worse. With the amount of data, logs, and errors on an upward climb, it is increasingly harder to distinguish real problems from the noise.
Traditional reactive SOCs are woefully inadequate and outmoded for this. Organizations need proactive, intelligent defense units that can see threats from a mile out and neutralize them before they come knocking at the door.
The integration of AI and ML supports this evolution. Studies show that automation and intelligence are not just advantageous, but essential to modern cybersecurity strategies.
Fortinet: Pioneering Next-Gen Cybersecurity
Fortinet offers many solutions to protect against emerging threats. In their presentation at the recent Cloud Field Day event, Fortinet highlighted a key metric. They compared the value of automated responses of a cloud SOC with that of manual efforts. The winner is automation.
The team demonstrated an interactive example of a drone’s API attack to explain how FortiWeb delivers protection against both known and zero-day API threats. This resonates in isolation, but it’s by integrating this level of protection with a centralized platform for security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) can the benefits be fully realized. Enter FortiSOAR.
FortiSOAR is Fortinet’s flagship product for security orchestration, automation, and response. It represents their vision of a more efficient, automated, and intelligent SOC. The platform improves operations, helping make SOCs agile, responsive, and accurate at identifying security incidents.
Elevating SOCs with Smart Automation
FortiSOAR is a security operations hub, supporting over 500 deep integrations with other tools and platforms, including more than 800 built-in playbooks. It focuses on automating security operations, and helping protect organizations from vicious attacks.
At the presentation, Aidan Walden commented, “The biggest scale problem anybody ever has is scaling people. This is a people scale tool.” This point was corroborated while exploring the features of FortiSOAR. Some of them are security incident response, vulnerability management, machine learning for automating decisions, and playbook creation.
A standout feature is the ability to create playbooks without coding knowledge. Security teams can design, build, and deploy automated workflows using a simple drag-and-drop interface. The playbooks consist of sequence of steps for a specific outcome. They help customize responses quickly and efficiently.
But FortiSOAR is not only about automation; it’s also about intelligence. The platform can collate and analyze real-time data, helping SOCs predict and prevent attacks. This proactive stance is a significant shift from traditional reactive models that focus on response than prevention.
Fortinet demonstrated several integrations with FortiSOAR, which included other Fortinet products like FortiCNP, FortiWeb, and FortiGate, as well as external solutions like VirusTotal, NIST, OpenAI, and GitHub. The intelligence provided back to the SOC as an outcome of these integrations establishes FortiSOAR as a prospective solution.
Conclusion
FortiSOAR is a remarkable solution that leverages an innovative approach to automation and intelligence to advance Security Operations Centers. The team told a compelling story using real-world attacks and scenarios, demonstrating FortiSOAR’s automation and integration capabilities, extensive playbook options, and easy-to-use interface. My view of the product is overwhelmingly positive. Its potential to transform SOCs into centers of excellence is undeniable.
For more, be sure to check out Fortinet’s deep-dive presentations from the recent Cloud Field Day event.
