Security Orchestration, Automation & Response (Fast, Safe, Auditable)
SOAR ties your security stack together so incidents go from alert → action in minutes, with proof.
SolveForce engineers design SOAR playbooks that coordinate tools, enforce approvals, and cut MTTR—without risking outages. Every action is logged, reversible, and auditable.
Where SOAR fits:
📊 SIEM (Security Information & Event Management) raises the signal → SOAR executes the response. → SIEM
🔒 Cyber stack: EDR • MDR • NDR • IAM / SSO / MFA • ZTNA • SASE • DLP • WAF / Bot
🖧 Network control: SD-WAN • NAC • BGP Management
🎯 Outcomes (Why SolveForce SOAR)
- MTTR down — automated isolation, revocation, blocking, and ticketing in minutes.
- Consistent response — versioned playbooks, tested paths, and repeatable evidence.
- Lower alert fatigue — safe auto-closure for known-good patterns; escalate only what matters.
- Audit-ready — every action has an actor, time, change ID, and case link.
🧭 What SOAR Orchestrates (Common Integrations)
- Endpoints: isolate host, kill/quarantine, forensic pull → EDR • MDR
- Network: SD-WAN path pins, FW/IPS rules, NAC quarantine, Anycast withdraw → SD-WAN • NAC
- Identity: session revoke, step-up MFA, lock users, rotate privileged secrets → IAM • PAM
- Data/SaaS: DLP quarantine, SaaS session control, watermark/read-only → DLP • SASE
- Edge/Web: WAF virtual patching, bot rules, geo/IP blocks → WAF / Bot Management
- Cloud: provider APIs (AWS/Azure/GCP) to disable keys, close security groups, snapshot assets → Cloud
- Cases & ITSM: open/route tickets, change records, approvals, exec comms → Incident Response • NOC Services
🧱 Playbook Library (ATT&CK-Aligned Examples)
1) Ransomware Behavior (Sev-1)
- Trigger: EDR encryption heuristics + shadow-copy tamper.
- Actions: isolate host → kill process → block hash/domain → NAC quarantine VLAN → force re-auth → restore from immutable backup.
- Approvals: emergency isolate auto; restore requires IR lead.
→ EDR • NAC • Backup Immutability
2) Account Takeover / Token Theft
- Trigger: IdP impossible travel + risky sign-in + anomalous API usage.
- Actions: revoke sessions → require MFA → rotate privileged secrets (PAM) → tighten ZTNA groups.
→ IAM • PAM • ZTNA
3) C2 Beacon / Data Exfil
- Trigger: NDR periodicity or new ASN exfil spike; DNS tunneling features.
- Actions: block domain/IP → SD-WAN pin to sinkhole → Anycast withdraw (if edge POP affected) → DLP case open.
→ NDR • SD-WAN • BGP Management • DLP
4) Phishing / BEC
- Trigger: email gateway verdict + user report.
- Actions: auto-quarantine message, purge tenant-wide, invalidate tokens, notify targets, open IR case.
→ SIEM • IAM
5) WAF Virtual Patch (0-day)
- Trigger: SIEM rule for emerging CVE pattern.
- Actions: push WAF rule + bot fingerprint block; staged rollout; verify traffic health; ticket change.
→ WAF / Bot Management
🧯 Safety Controls (Automation That Won’t Break Prod)
- Human-in-the-loop for destructive steps (e.g., global blocks, key revocation).
- Simulation / dry-run mode with diffs before commit.
- Blast-radius limits (per-site, per-tenant caps) and rate-limits.
- Circuit breakers (auto-revert if SLOs break after an action).
- Change IDs & approvals tied to ITSM; everything is reversible with rollback steps.
📐 SLO Guardrails (Automation You Can Measure)
| Metric | Target (Recommended) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Automation start latency | ≤ 30–60 s post-alert | From SIEM/EDR/NDR to SOAR |
| Containment execution (Sev-1) | ≤ 5–10 min | Host isolate / block / revoke |
| Action success rate | ≥ 98% | Retries, back-offs, vendor health checks |
| Rollback time (failed change) | ≤ 2–3 min | Circuit breaker auto-revert |
| False-automation rate | ≤ 2–3% | Weekly tuning loop |
| Evidence completeness (Sev-1/2) | 100% | Timeline, artifacts, approvals |
Dashboards sit in SIEM/SOAR and the NOC; monthly exec reports track MTTR, auto-closure %, and risk reduction.
→ SIEM • NOC Services
🛠️ Implementation Blueprint (No-Surprise Rollout)
- Trigger inventory — list alert sources (SIEM, EDR, NDR, IdP, email, cloud).
- Connector health — API limits, auth, retries, vendor status checks.
- Schema normalization — consistent fields (host, user, src/dst, action, result, severity).
- Playbook design — define who/what/when; approvals; rollback; evidence.
- Safe staging — simulate → pilot rings → broad rollout; change windows.
- Case mgmt & ITSM — Sev classes, ownership matrix, escalation trees.
- Testing — table-tops, blackhole tests, quarantine drills; record RCAs. → Tabletop Exercises
- Tuning loop — weekly review of false positives, action failures, run times.
🔗 What We Integrate (Typical Actions)
- EDR/MDR/XDR: isolate, kill, quarantine, collect triage. → EDR • MDR
- NDR/Firewalls/IPS/WAF: block IP/domain, virtual patch, ACL insert. → NDR • WAF / Bot
- Network & Access: SD-WAN policy pin, NAC quarantine, ZTNA revoke. → SD-WAN • NAC • ZTNA
- Identity: force MFA, lock user, expire tokens. → IAM
- Data/SaaS: DLP quarantine, session watermark, restrict download. → DLP
- Cloud: disable keys, rotate secrets, snapshot EBS/disks, freeze buckets. → Cloud
📊 Metrics That Matter
- MTTD/MTTR deltas after SOAR compared to manual baseline.
- Auto-closure % (safe incidents closed with zero human touch).
- Playbook success & median runtime (per type).
- Human approvals per week (trend down as confidence increases).
- Rollback count (keep low; investigate causes).
- Coverage % (alerts with a mapped playbook; target ≥ 90–95% of priority use cases).
🔒 Compliance Mapping (Examples)
- PCI DSS — incident response automation; evidence retention.
- HIPAA — audit controls, immutable logs, access revocation workflows.
- ISO 27001 — A.16 incident mgmt; A.12 ops security; change control ties.
- NIST 800-53/171 — IR/CP/AC families; automated containment; chain-of-custody.
- CMMC — IR maturity; automated evidence packs from SOAR.
All cases/actions stream to SIEM/SOAR with WORM/immutability options. → SIEM
✅ Pre-Engagement Checklist
- 📄 Source list (EDR/NDR/IdP/Email/Cloud/WAF) and priority detections.
- 👤 Approvals matrix (who can isolate/lock/rotate/block).
- 🔐 Safety guards (simulation, rate-limits, blast-radius caps, rollback).
- 🧪 Drill plan (quarantine, DLP, WAF patch, BEC, ransomware).
- 📈 SLO targets (latency, success, rollback, evidence).
- 💵 Licensing & API quotas (per connector vendor limits).
- 🧰 Runbooks aligned with IR/NOC and change calendars.
🔄 Where SOAR Fits (Recursive View)
1) Grammar — signals ride Connectivity & Networks & Data Centers
2) Syntax — delivery patterns in Cloud inform which actions run where
3) Semantics — Cybersecurity supplies truth; SOAR enforces it
4) Pragmatics — SolveForce AI enriches, deduplicates, predicts, and selects safe actions
5) Foundation — shared terms under Primacy of Language
6) Map — indexed in the SolveForce Codex & Knowledge Hub
📞 Launch SOAR That’s Fast and Safe
Related pages:
SIEM • Cybersecurity • EDR • MDR • NDR • IAM / SSO / MFA • ZTNA • SASE • SD-WAN • NAC • WAF / Bot Management • DLP • Incident Response • NOC Services • Knowledge Hub