homepage
Open menu
Contact Sales
Go one level top
  • Train and Certify
    Free Course Demos

    Free course demos allow you to see course content, watch world-class instructors in action, and evaluate course difficulty.

    Train and Certify
    Immediately apply the skills and techniques learned in SANS courses, ranges, and summits
    Learn More
    • Overview
    • Courses
      • Overview
      • Full Course List
      • By Focus Areas
        • Cloud Security
        • Cyber Defense
        • Cybersecurity and IT Essentials
        • DFIR
        • Industrial Control Systems
        • Offensive Operations
        • Management, Legal, and Audit
      • By Skill Levels
        • New to Cyber
        • Essentials
        • Advanced
        • Expert
      • Training Formats
        • OnDemand
        • In-Person
        • Live Online
      • Free Course Demos
    • Training Roadmaps
      • Skills Roadmap
      • Focus Area Job Roles
        • Cyber Defense Job Roles
        • Offensive Operations Job Roles
        • DFIR Job Roles
        • Cloud Job Roles
        • ICS Job Roles
        • Leadership Job Roles
      • NICE Framework
        • Security Provisionals
        • Operate and Maintain
        • Oversee and Govern
        • Protect and Defend
        • Analyze
        • Collect and Operate
        • Investigate
        • Industrial Control Systems
      • European Skills Framework
    • GIAC Certifications
    • Training Events & Summits
      • Events Overview
      • In-Person Event Locations
        • Asia
        • Australia & New Zealand
        • Latin America
        • Mainland Europe
        • Middle East & Africa
        • Scandinavia
        • United Kingdom & Ireland
        • United States & Canada
      • Live Online Events List
      • Summits
    • OnDemand
    • Get Started in Cyber
      • Overview
      • Degree and Certificate Programs
      • Scholarships
      • Free Training & Resources
    • Cyber Ranges
  • Enterprise Solutions
    New Cyber Trends & Training in 2023

    This eBook offers a glimpse into the key threats that are expected to emerge as forecasted by SANS experts.

    Enterprise Solutions

    Build a world-class cyber team with our workforce development programs.

    Learn More
    • Overview
    • Group Purchasing
    • Build Your Team
      • Assessments
      • Private Training
      • By Industry
        • Health Care
        • Industrial Control Systems Security
        • Military
    • Leadership Training
      • Leadership Courses
      • Executive Cybersecurity Exercises
  • Security Awareness
    2023 Security Awareness Report

    Empowering Security Awareness teams with industry benchmarking, program growth, and career development.

    Security Awareness
    Increase your staff’s cyber awareness, help them change their behaviors, and reduce your organizational risk
    Learn More
    • Overview
    • Products & Services
      • Security Awareness Training
        • EndUser Training
        • Phishing Platform
      • Specialized
        • Developer Training
        • ICS Engineer Training
        • NERC CIP Training
        • IT Administrator
      • Risk Assessments
        • Knowledge Assessment
        • Culture Assessment
        • Behavioral Risk Assessment
    • OUCH! Newsletter
    • Career Development
      • Overview
      • Training & Courses
      • Professional Credential
    • Blog
    • Partners
    • Reports & Case Studies
  • Resources
    Security Policy Templates

    In collaboration with security subject-matter experts, SANS has developed a set of security policy templates for your use.

    Resources
    Enhance your skills with access to thousands of free resources, 150+ instructor-developed tools, and the latest cybersecurity news and analysis
    Browse Here
    • Overview
    • Webcasts
      • Webinars
      • Live Streams
        • Wait Just An Infosec
        • Cybersecurity Leadership
        • SANS Threat Analysis Rundown (STAR)
    • Free Cybersecurity Events
      • Free Events Overview
      • Summits
      • Solutions Forums
      • Community Nights
    • Content
      • Newsletters
        • NewsBites
        • @RISK
        • OUCH! Newsletter
      • Blog
      • Podcasts
        • Blueprint
        • Trust Me, I'm Certified
        • Cloud Ace
        • Wait Just an Infosec
      • Summit Presentations
      • Posters & Cheat Sheets
    • Internet Storm Center
    • Research
      • White Papers
      • Security Policies
    • Tools
    • Focus Areas
      • Cyber Defense
      • Cloud Security
      • Digital Forensics & Incident Response
      • Industrial Control Systems
      • Cyber Security Leadership
      • Offensive Operations
      • Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT)
  • Get Involved
    Join the Community

    Membership of the SANS.org Community grants you access to cutting edge cyber security news, training, and free tools that can't be found elsewhere.

    Get Involved
    Help keep the cyber community one step ahead of threats. Join the SANS community or begin your journey of becoming a SANS Certified Instructor today.
    Learn More
    • Overview
    • Join the Community
    • Work Study
    • Teach for SANS
    • CISO Network
    • Partnerships
    • Sponsorship Opportunities
  • About
    Our Mission

    To empower current and future cybersecurity practitioners around the world with immediately useful knowledge and capabilities, we deliver industry-leading community programs, resources and training.

    About
    Learn more about how SANS empowers and educates current and future cybersecurity practitioners with knowledge and skills
    Learn More
    • SANS
      • Overview
      • Our Founder
      • Awards
    • Instructors
      • Our Instructors
      • Full Instructor List
    • Mission
      • Our Mission
      • Diversity
      • Scholarships
    • Contact
      • Contact Customer Service
      • Contact Sales
      • Press & Media Enquiries
    • Frequent Asked Questions
    • Customer Reviews
    • Press
    • Careers
  • SANS Sites
    • Australia
    • Brazil
    • France
    • India
    • Japan
    • Middle East & Africa
    • United Kingdom
  • Log In
  • Join
    • Account Dashboard
    • Log Out
  • Contact Sales
  1. Home >
  2. Blog >
  3. Making 'AutoMagic' Happen in the SOC
Michelle Petersen

Making 'AutoMagic' Happen in the SOC

The future of security operations will see automation and infosec pros coming together intelligently, as we'll discuss at the SANS Blue Team Summit.

September 2, 2021

Automation, while hardly a new topic in the security operations field, is certainly having its time in the spotlight right now. And why not? Conditions are ripe for it. Security teams across the globe are being tasked to do more and more with the same level of resources, threats are becoming more sophisticated, and there’s something universally attractive about infusing the concepts of DevOps and Agile with the way we run our security operations.

“How do we do exponentially more work with linearly more effort?” said John Hubbard, SANS Instructor and course author. Automation is an easy answer to that question but easier said than done when it comes to injecting automation into the SOC. While tools like SOAR platforms are part of implementing automation, the other critical component is the decision behind what should and shouldn’t be automated.

“A lot of that comes down to whether you really understand the inputs and outputs of the particular thing you’re automating. Because if it goes wrong, it’s also going to go wrong with equal efficiency and makes a mess, like block things that shouldn’t be blocked,” John said, as an example.

And there’s a grey area, too, John added. On top of deciding what to automate, you also need to decide for which things there’s value in having human intervention. With phishing email detection, for example, if you’re automating the deletion of phishing emails from inboxes, if the automation engine makes the wrong call, then you’re deleting the wrong emails. So in these cases, automation might be applied to the whole process of identifying phishing attempts but then a human user verifies if the proposed action is correct, clicks a button, and then automation takes care of the rest. “There’s deciding, does a person need to make that call? Or can it just be scripted?” John said.

There are best practices when it comes to automating security operations, but every organization will have a unique environment and edge conditions that change the name of the game. A hospital will have different priorities than a government agency, for example, John said, “but everyone is on board with automation.” If the cost of a SOAR platform is prohibitively expensive, perhaps the goal becomes learning how to do without one. The new SANS course SEC586: Blue Team Operations: Defensive PowerShell, authored by SANS Certified Instructor Josh Johnson, was created to teach how to automate everything from regular hardening and auditing tasks to advanced defenses, arming students with the skills they need to do things on their own, or extend the skills and tools they already have.

Doing more with less is not just about where we are going from here, but how we will get there. “And what’s the right thing to measure to make sure you’re actually making progress toward your goals?” John said. “Metrics can be a struggle for almost every security team.”

This is one of the themes you’ll hear about at the SANS virtual Blue Team Summit, taking place September 9-10, which if you haven’t heard, has been opened up to the entire community for FREE. Of particular interest to those mulling over the intricacies of implementing automation in operations, will be the Day 2 keynote from Anton Chuvakin, Head of Solution Strategy Chronicle, Google Cloud. Can we REALLY 10X the SOC? Join 7,000+ blue teamers at the free Summit to find this out and more. Register here.

Share:
TwitterLinkedInFacebook
Copy url Url was copied to clipboard
Subscribe to SANS Newsletters
Receive curated news, vulnerabilities, & security awareness tips
United States
Canada
United Kingdom
Spain
Belgium
Denmark
Norway
Netherlands
Australia
India
Japan
Singapore
Afghanistan
Aland Islands
Albania
Algeria
American Samoa
Andorra
Angola
Anguilla
Antarctica
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Aruba
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belize
Benin
Bermuda
Bhutan
Bolivia
Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba
Bosnia And Herzegovina
Botswana
Bouvet Island
Brazil
British Indian Ocean Territory
Brunei Darussalam
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cambodia
Cameroon
Cape Verde
Cayman Islands
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile
China
Christmas Island
Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Colombia
Comoros
Cook Islands
Costa Rica
Croatia (Local Name: Hrvatska)
Curacao
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic
East Timor
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
Faroe Islands
Fiji
Finland
France
French Guiana
French Polynesia
French Southern Territories
Gabon
Gambia
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Gibraltar
Greece
Greenland
Grenada
Guadeloupe
Guam
Guatemala
Guernsey
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Heard And McDonald Islands
Honduras
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Iraq
Ireland
Isle of Man
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Jersey
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kiribati
Korea, Republic Of
Kosovo
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Lao People's Democratic Republic
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macau
Macedonia
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Marshall Islands
Martinique
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mayotte
Mexico
Micronesia, Federated States Of
Moldova, Republic Of
Monaco
Mongolia
Montenegro
Montserrat
Morocco
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
Netherlands Antilles
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Niue
Norfolk Island
Northern Mariana Islands
Oman
Pakistan
Palau
Palestine
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Pitcairn
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Qatar
Reunion
Romania
Russian Federation
Rwanda
Saint Bartholemy
Saint Kitts And Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Martin
Saint Vincent And The Grenadines
Samoa
San Marino
Sao Tome And Principe
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Sint Maarten
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
South Africa
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
South Sudan
Sri Lanka
St. Helena
St. Pierre And Miquelon
Suriname
Svalbard And Jan Mayen Islands
Swaziland
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Togo
Tokelau
Tonga
Trinidad And Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Turks And Caicos Islands
Tuvalu
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United States Minor Outlying Islands
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Vatican City
Venezuela
Vietnam
Virgin Islands (British)
Virgin Islands (U.S.)
Wallis And Futuna Islands
Western Sahara
Yemen
Yugoslavia
Zambia
Zimbabwe

By providing this information, you agree to the processing of your personal data by SANS as described in our Privacy Policy.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recommended Training

  • SEC560: Enterprise Penetration Testing
  • SEC505: Securing Windows and PowerShell Automation
  • SEC450: Blue Team Fundamentals: Security Operations and Analysis

Tags:
  • Cyber Defense

Related Content

Blog
Reason_to_Attend_Blue_Team_Summit_2023_340x340.png
Cyber Defense
May 23, 2023
Top 5 Reasons to Attend SANS Blue Team Summit 2023
The SANS Blue Team Summit & Training 2023, June 12-13 brings together world-class experts from the industry to share their insights & best practices.
Emily_Neuens_370x370.png
Emily Neuens
read more
Blog
CD_Blog_HowtoautomateinAzure_Part2_2.jpg
Cyber Defense, Cloud Security
March 2, 2023
How to Automate in Azure Using PowerShell - Part 2
In this post, we will discuss automation approaches to mitigating risks identified in Part 1 of the How to Automate in Azure Using PowerShell series.
370x370_josh-johnson.jpg
Josh Johnson
read more
Blog
Top_10_Summit_Talks_2022.png
Cybersecurity Insights, Digital Forensics, Incident Response & Threat Hunting, Cyber Defense, Cloud Security, Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT), Security Management, Legal, and Audit, Security Awareness
December 5, 2022
Top 10 SANS Summits Talks of 2022
This year, SANS hosted 13 Summits with 246 talks. Here were the top-rated talks of the year.
370x370-person-placeholder.png
Alison Kim
read more
  • Register to Learn
  • Courses
  • Certifications
  • Degree Programs
  • Cyber Ranges
  • Job Tools
  • Security Policy Project
  • Posters & Cheat Sheets
  • White Papers
  • Focus Areas
  • Cyber Defense
  • Cloud Security
  • Cybersecurity Leadership
  • Digital Forensics
  • Industrial Control Systems
  • Offensive Operations
Subscribe to SANS Newsletters
Receive curated news, vulnerabilities, & security awareness tips
United States
Canada
United Kingdom
Spain
Belgium
Denmark
Norway
Netherlands
Australia
India
Japan
Singapore
Afghanistan
Aland Islands
Albania
Algeria
American Samoa
Andorra
Angola
Anguilla
Antarctica
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Aruba
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belize
Benin
Bermuda
Bhutan
Bolivia
Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba
Bosnia And Herzegovina
Botswana
Bouvet Island
Brazil
British Indian Ocean Territory
Brunei Darussalam
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cambodia
Cameroon
Cape Verde
Cayman Islands
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile
China
Christmas Island
Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Colombia
Comoros
Cook Islands
Costa Rica
Croatia (Local Name: Hrvatska)
Curacao
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic
East Timor
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
Faroe Islands
Fiji
Finland
France
French Guiana
French Polynesia
French Southern Territories
Gabon
Gambia
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Gibraltar
Greece
Greenland
Grenada
Guadeloupe
Guam
Guatemala
Guernsey
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Heard And McDonald Islands
Honduras
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Iraq
Ireland
Isle of Man
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Jersey
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kiribati
Korea, Republic Of
Kosovo
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Lao People's Democratic Republic
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macau
Macedonia
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Marshall Islands
Martinique
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mayotte
Mexico
Micronesia, Federated States Of
Moldova, Republic Of
Monaco
Mongolia
Montenegro
Montserrat
Morocco
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
Netherlands Antilles
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Niue
Norfolk Island
Northern Mariana Islands
Oman
Pakistan
Palau
Palestine
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Pitcairn
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Qatar
Reunion
Romania
Russian Federation
Rwanda
Saint Bartholemy
Saint Kitts And Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Martin
Saint Vincent And The Grenadines
Samoa
San Marino
Sao Tome And Principe
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Sint Maarten
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
South Africa
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
South Sudan
Sri Lanka
St. Helena
St. Pierre And Miquelon
Suriname
Svalbard And Jan Mayen Islands
Swaziland
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Togo
Tokelau
Tonga
Trinidad And Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Turks And Caicos Islands
Tuvalu
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United States Minor Outlying Islands
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Vatican City
Venezuela
Vietnam
Virgin Islands (British)
Virgin Islands (U.S.)
Wallis And Futuna Islands
Western Sahara
Yemen
Yugoslavia
Zambia
Zimbabwe

By providing this information, you agree to the processing of your personal data by SANS as described in our Privacy Policy.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
  • © 2023 SANS™ Institute
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
  • Contact
  • Careers
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn