Ransomware and supply chain attacks represent attractive attack vectors for threat actors looking for a quick and easy payday. Until the cybersecurity industry figures out how to more effectively stop both types of attacks, they will continue with little resistance. So it is time to get serious by bringing in SOAR providers.
SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) is a relatively new cybersecurity paradigm consisting of innovative software solutions and a new cybersecurity mindset. It recognizes the realities of cybersecurity in the 2020s, seeks to understand the direction threat actors will take over the next decade, and promises new and better tools for fighting increasingly sophisticated attacks.
SOAR providers are companies like DarkOwl, companies that are integrating the SOAR principle with traditional dark web intelligence. By combining SOAR tools with their dark web intelligence counterparts, providers are equipping organizations with platforms better able to defend against ransomware and supply chain attacks.
Minimizing Operational Disruptions
Both ransomware and supply chain attacks can cost organizations millions of dollars. But there’s more than just immediate financial losses to worry about. Organizations also need to be concerned about operational disruptions. Disruptions of any significant length of time only add to the financial losses. They also threaten an organization’s reputation.
SOAR providers offer tools cybersecurity experts can use to go out and find potential threats before they strike. And when attacks are launched, the same tools can prevent escalation, mount automated responses, and even handle compliance and reporting. A successful response means little to no operational disruption.
Keeping the Blast Radius Down
Specifically where supply chain attacks are concerned, security experts are always worried about what is known as ‘blast radius’. In other words, how far up and down the supply chain will the effects of an attack be felt?
A single data breach occurring on a small company’s network could have ramifications across the entire supply chain. As the blast radius increases, negative consequences intensify. So the idea is to minimize that radius whenever an attack is launched.
This is something else SOAR providers seek to do. One of the tools they implement is AI. By deploying AI and deep learning, they can create tools capable of automatically responding to incidents in real time. Playbooks can be automatically modified, responses can be automatically triggered, and attacks can be quickly isolated before they spread.
Multi-Stage Attacks Are the New Thing
The cybersecurity industry has come a long way in defending against supply chain attacks. Unfortunately, threat actors have responded accordingly. They are now leveraging multi-stage attacks to get around organizational defenses.
Among all the advantages SOAR brings to the table is orchestration. A SOAR provider’s software is capable of coordinating multiple security tools and applications to create a unified front that can stop a multi-stage attack in its tracks.
Attack Surfaces Are Getting Bigger
Multi-stage attacks are proving more successful because attack surfaces are getting bigger. As organizations adopt more digital solutions, open-source components, connectivity, and hybrid cloud environments, they are giving threat actors more work. Once again, SOAR providers have the solution.
A SOAR platform centralizes visibility. It creates consistent playbooks that are critical to managing incident responses across distributed environments. It reduces the practical availability of the attack surface even while the physical size of that surface continues to grow.
SOAR providers are leading the fight against ransomware and supply chain attacks through sophisticated software and strategies that simply are not available with standard threat intelligence platforms. If I were betting on the future of cybersecurity, my money would be on SOAR providers.
