When it comes to threat intelligence and security operations automation, managed security service providers (MSSPs) face some pretty unique challenges. In our recent webinar, we had the pleasure of hosting two MSSP leaders, Alan Jones and Corey Bussard, who shared their own automation journey. They talked about the hurdles they encountered at the beginning, the value automation brought to the table, and how it has impacted the human element of cybersecurity. Let's dive right in.
The Problem: Alert Overload
One of the biggest challenges is the overwhelming number of alerts generated by various security tools. A significant portion of this alert noise originates from inadequate or improperly adjusted threat intelligence feeds. Instead of offering valuable context, many threat intel feeds end up exacerbating false positives and increasing the workload for analysts. Because MSSPs manage a large number of clients, this challenge is amplified compared to your average company.
The Solution: Trusted Threat Intel + Automation + Human Expertise
In order to overcome the overwhelming amount of noise, these MSSPs recognized the need for improved threat intelligence sources to validate alerts, as well as workflow automation. By validating threat intelligence from trusted providers like GreyNoise, they were able to effectively reduce false positives by swiftly eliminating non-malicious alerts. The implementation of automation for these repetitive analyst tasks and interactions with security tools resulted in a significant boost in overall efficiency.
Key Learnings:
- Leverage threat intel to validate alerts, not just enrich them. Focus on reducing noise instead of increasing it.
- Streamline repetitive workflows and tool interactions through automation. This will free up your skilled analysts for non-routine incidents.
- While cost savings are important, they are not the sole measure of success. It's equally important to assess improvements in the time to resolution (MTTR), capacity gains, and analyst churn.
By combining automation with high-fidelity threat intelligence, these MSSPs were able to streamline their operations and empower their analysts to focus on the most critical threats.
A big thank you goes out to Alan and Corey for graciously sharing their automation journey. They did an exceptional job of explaining the immense value of automation, as well as underscoring the crucial role that the human element plays in their success. We highly encourage you to watch the full webinar on-demand and gain valuable insights from these industry leaders.
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