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Automate Security for an Efficient and Agile Security Team

Automate security operations like: low-brain high-time tasks, alert enrichment with threat intel and correlated artifacts, investigation workflows, and response playbooks.

deployed rules through automated playbooks
Automate Security Operations

Avoid Team Burnout
and Accelerate Threat Response with

Security Automation

Overburdened security teams can use automation to gain efficiency, accelerate security operations, and avoid burnout.

API Group streamlines the detection-investigation-response process with automation in GreyMatter.

  • 47% increase in visibility across security stack
  • 52% decrease in response times through automated playbooks
The ability of GreyMatter to detect and take automated response actions utilizing the integration with Microsoft Defender and Azure Sentinel is a key component of our security strategy.
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Overcome Repetitive Work

Inefficiency Hinders Threat Response
and Saps Team Morale

Automate Low-Brain,
High-Time Tasks

Apply technology to eliminate repetitive activities that drain time and energy, like investigation tasks and response actions.

Reduce the burden and risk of DIR by scaling your team with a security operations platform.

deployed rules and active hunts notifications

Enrich Investigations
with Threat Intel

Easily add any GreyMatter-supported feeds, or “bring your own keys” to integrate threat intel to your Investigations.

Automated Threat Intel lookups ensure quick and comprehensive investigations with quicker response decisions.

automated threat intel feed lookups

Automate the
Investigation Workflow

Speed investigations by automating the investigation process to avoid pivoting between tools.

Automatically collect related information and normalize data from multiple platforms such as your SIEMs, EDRs, and multi-cloud environments.

correlated security log event data

Speed Response and Consistency Through Playbooks

Automate the response process by running playbooks from a single console leveraging existing tools to speed resolution.

Automated actions enable consistent and repeatable mitigation across existing security tools without requiring expertise in managing and configuring individual tools.

deployed rules through automated playbooks
Streamline DIR with Automation

Free Up Time, Make Better Decisions, Speed Response Through Automation

automation for security operations teams
ReliaQuest delivers peace of mind and support that keeps our security operations running smoothly. Sam Barco Cyber Security Analyst, Moffitt Cancer Center
Integrations and Connections

Reinforce Your Security Ecosystem with GreyMatter

Seamlessly integrate GreyMatter into your existing security operations tech stack to enhance visibility across your tools and gain the context and insights you need to operationalize security and protect your business.

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customer success

Leading Companies Trust ReliaQuest to Help Automate Their Security Operations

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8 months ago, we saw the potential of GreyMatter but were just starting to use it. Now, it’s the only place we go for investigations. Between the ease of integrations and depth of automations, we’ve seen significant ROI in the form of cost and time savings. CISO, Leading Operator of Assisted Living Communities
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ReliaQuest is the augmentation dream team for detection and response teams. They offer a concise platter of options from detection and response to hunting, automation, and platform pivoting . And for the truly technical detection and response teams, they understand and display the skills we expect." Cyber Defense Manager, $7.4B Global Consumer Goods Manufacturer
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One of the areas we’ve recognized big time savings with GreyMatter is through the Microsoft Office 365 integration. The automation playbooks allow us to perform actions in less than 2 minutes, instead of having to log into the O365 console every time we want to so something simple like block a suspicious email address, which takes 2-3x longer. Director of Security, Fortune 1000 Global Manufacturing Company

Security Automation FAQs

What is Security Automation?

Security automation is the use of automated processes and technology employed to ease the difficulties security teams encounter, which include limited resources and the complexity of managing various security tools. It also encompasses the coordination of workflows and the execution of repetitive tasks on a large scale and at high speeds. As a result, security teams are able to concentrate on more advanced tasks that require human intelligence and cognitive skills. 

Most organizations start with automating low-impact response actions like vulnerability patching, blocking malicious domains, resetting user credentials, and data restoration from backups. With the reduction in repetitive time-consuming tasks your team gets time back for analysis, containment, and incident management. You can also implement security automation into detection and investigation processes for use cases such as alert enrichment, threat intelligence lookups, etc. 

What Are the Benefits of Security Automation?

Force-Multiplying Your Security Team

Automation works in harmony with the skills and expertise of your team, empowering them to make more informed decisions and enhancing their overall effectiveness.

Streamlining Threat Qualification and Investigation

Automation speeds up identifying and verifying potential threats, enabling faster response times and reducing the risk of delays or oversight.

Normalizing Data

By automating data normalization, you pave the way for effective alert orchestration, ensuring that all data is organized and structured consistently, leading to more accurate and meaningful insights.

Quicker Response

Organizations can decrease mean time to respond (MTTR) and the dwell time of the potentially malicious activity with response actions include isolating compromised systems, patching vulnerabilities, blocking malicious domains/IPs, and more.

What Are Security Automation Use Cases?

Reduce Alert Noise 

Incident Detection 

Use of machine-learning to analyze data logs and identify abnormalities or patterns of suspicious activity and flag them for further investigation. 

Ticket Triage 

Automatic de-duplication, correlation, and prioritization of tickets based on their severity level or other criteria, reduce alert noise and allow your team to focus on the most critical alerts. 

 

Speed Up Investigation 

Alert Enrichment 

Automated collection and analysis of threat intelligence from internal and external sources for enriched threat alerting, quicker investigations and proactive identification of risks. 

Vulnerability Management 

Automatically scan for available patches, deploy to affected systems, and verify installation. This reduces the chance of human error and ensures timely patching. 

 

Reduce MTTR 

User Notifications 

Automated user notifications can be integrated into existing workflows or incident management systems. Integration enables notifications to be captured, tracked, and escalated seamlessly. Users can acknowledge, respond, or escalate notifications directly within the system or application. 

Response Playbooks 

Automated, predefined incident response processes for standardized investigations and mitigation attempts allow your team to take faster containment and remediation actions.  

What Are Signs My Organization Needs Security Automation?
  • Overstretched security teams and incomplete investigations. 
  • Highly repetitive tasks taking up valuable time. 
  • Inefficiencies due to manual workflows spanning multiple security tools.
  • Management of multiple tools each with unique workflows. 
What Types of Security Automation Tools Exist?

Security Operations Platforms 

A security operation platform includes AI-driven analysis capabilities to automate the investigation and collection of data related to an alert, reducing the manual effort required to respond to alerts. Platforms using AI can automate data collection relevant to incoming alerts, automatically aggregate artifacts from various security technologies (SIEM, EDR, etc.), and normalize the data using a universal query language.

SIEM Tools 

SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) tools help accomplish security automation by collecting, analyzing, and correlating security events and logs from various sources, such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and antivirus software. 

EDR Tools 

EDR tools automate various security tasks like using advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms to proactively search for threats. They can automatically analyze large volumes of data, identify patterns, and detect anomalies that may indicate a compromise. In terms of incident response, EDR tools can automatically gather and analyze data from affected endpoints, prioritize incidents based on severity, and provide actionable insights for security analysts. They can also integrate with other security tools, such as SIEM and SOAR platforms, to streamline the response process.  

Threat Intelligence Platforms 

Threat intelligence platforms can automatically gather threat data from various sources, such as open-source intelligence, commercial feeds, and internal sources. 

SOAR Platforms 

A Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) platform is a tool focused on automating and orchestrating security operations processes, especially response actions. It integrates with some security tools like firewalls and intrusion detection systems to automatically trigger responses based on predefined rules, workflows, or playbooks. 

What Are Security Automation Best Practices?

Identify Time-Consuming, Low-Value Tasks 

Examine IT and security operations to find tasks that take up too much time, are monotonous, but don’t require advanced qualifications. These tasks hinder cyber analysis every day.

Begin with the Simple Tasks 

By automating the simple, time-consuming tasks, like querying technologies or resetting passwords, you can achieve quick wins and a better Mean Time to Resolve (MTTR). 

Leverage Existing Tools to Automate Security Procedures 

Discover methods to utilize the capabilities of your team and leverage the technological investments you have already.  

Prepare for Changes in Standard Operating Procedures 

Be prepared to modify the way your team approaches certain tasks, reallocate physical resources, and change operating procedures for individuals who will be significantly impacted once automation is deployed within your environment.  

What Are Key Considerations When Implementing Security Automation?

Will It Stop Ongoing Threats from Spreading? 

What’s the effectiveness of the automation? Does it ensure an immediate and effective countermeasure to prevent further damage of an ongoing threat?

Is It A Routine Action? 

Will it free up time? Is the automation a routine and well-established task that humans usually take? 

Does It Impact Critical Business Activity? 

Does the automation impact productivity or service delivery? Will it maintain operational efficiency while addressing threats?

Is It Within Acceptable Risk Tolerance? 

Is the automated response within the organization’s acceptable risk parameters and overall cybersecurity strategy? 

Can You Reverse It If Needed? 

Can you reverse the automated action if the initial detection is incorrect or circumstances change? 

Automate and Take Your Security Operations to the Next Level

Automation drives efficiency and consistency, enabling your team to improve visibility, reduce complexity, and better manage risk.

GreyMatter's security operations platform dashboard