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Automate threat analysis

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Automating threat analysis is crucial in addressing the overwhelming amount of potential threats that security teams must triage and address. For many teams, the process of threat analysis requires navigating through disparate tools manually, reviewing the results of each analysis, capturing secondary artifacts, and synthesizing the data to formulate insights for corrective action. This manual approach leads to slower response times and wasted analyst cycles.

As threat actors continually adapt to security measures and exploit vulnerabilities, security teams find themselves constantly in catch-up mode, which is made worse by understaffed teams. The inefficiency of manual threat analysis becomes evident as the time it takes hinders the swift investigation and response needed in the face of evolving cyber threats.

What are the benefits of automating threat analysis?

Automated threat analysis is a new approach in cybersecurity, where advanced software tools and algorithms quickly derive associated forensics, verdicts, and scores to accelerate alert triage.

You can achieve the following benefits through using Splunk Attack Analyzer and Splunk SOAR to automate threat analysis in your organization:

  • Identify and assess potential security threats without the need for extensive human intervention.
  • Effectively manage phishing attacks, which for many organizations is a number one attack vector.
  • Analyze data at scale and speed that is unattainable by human analysts.
  • Keep up with new tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) to automatically take the steps needed for deep analysis that traditional tools do not have the architecture to support.
  • Automate the analysis of suspected phishing emails and suspected malware even where analysts are in short supply.
  • Respond to threats more quickly and effectively.

How do Splunk SOAR and Splunk Attack Analyzer work together to achieve automated threat analysis?

When SOCs combine Splunk Attack Analyzer and Splunk SOAR, they make the SOC more effective and efficient by responding to threats at machine speed. Splunk SOAR can identify events from SIEM solutions like Splunk Enterprise Security and user-reported phishing to open cases and pass potentially malicious files or URLs to Splunk Attack Analyzer. Splunk Attack Analyzer conducts automated analysis of credential phishing threats, and Splunk SOAR uses the rendered verdict to run the appropriate response playbook to automate first-level triage or protect the enterprise. All of this is delivered through out-of-the-box playbooks.

Splunk Attack Analyzer enhances the capabilities of the SOC to analyze and respond to credential phishing and malware threats and also helps to reduce cyber risk. It includes comprehensive attack chain following, interactive sandboxing, and Splunk SOAR integration capabilities for end-to-end threat analysis and response workflows. Embracing this powerful tool is a step towards a more secure, resilient and proactive cybersecurity strategy.

What are threat analysis automation best practices?

  • Attack chain following: Following an attack chain is paramount for understanding and mitigating threats effectively. An attack chain outlines the sequence of events or stages used by an attacker to infiltrate and compromise a system, and it provides crucial insights into the TTPs employed. A key component of automated threat analysis is the ability to navigate the varying delivery vectors in order to execute the entire attack chain, regardless of complexity.
  • Consistent, comprehensive analysis: Comprehensive insight into the actions taken by threat actors means that analysts are no longer required to piece together the intended tactics of a threat manually. And with consistent, high-quality automated analysis, security teams can achieve operational efficiency that would otherwise be lacking due to inconsistent processes and outcomes between individual analysts, as well as gain a deeper understanding of complex threats. Comprehensive analysis is vital not only for responding to ongoing threats but also for proactively strengthening defenses against future attacks.
  • Interactive sandbox: A secure and unattributable environment to submit potentially malicious URLs or files offers the ability to scrutinize suspicious content without risking the integrity of the business. This environment allows analysts to run and observe the behavior of suspected malware or phishing links in real time, providing a deeper understanding of their mechanisms and potential impact. This is particularly important as modern threats often employ sophisticated evasion techniques that can be difficult to detect with static analysis methods. Furthermore, insights gained from sandbox analysis can be used to update defensive strategies and educate users about emerging threats.
  • Interactive web browser: For analysis that requires human intervention (for example, entering credentials to get past an attacker’s login page), an interactive web browser can interact with URLs or HTML files to deal with data that needs to be investigated manually.
  • End-to-end automated threat analysis and response workflow: The pairing of automated threat analysis with security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) capabilities significantly advances threat analysis workflows. This synergy allows security teams to keep up with today’s fast-paced digital landscape. Automated threat analysis excels in quickly identifying and dissecting potential threats, while SOAR solutions streamline and automate the response process. By combining these two powerful tools, teams can immediately translate threat analysis into actionable response strategies.

What threat analysis automation processes can I put in place?