Palo Alto Networks releases Cortex XSIAM to automate the SOC

Working in a safety operations middle (SOC) isn’t straightforward. The truth is, the excessive quantity of handbook alert processing and triaging takes an enormous psychological toll on the analysts securing the atmosphere. Analysis reveals that 70% of SOC groups report feeling emotionally overwhelmed by the quantity of alerts. 

Consequently, automation is essential for making certain that safety groups aren’t slowed down managing false optimistic alerts, however have the flexibleness to deal with professional safety incidents. 

In an try and convey its imaginative and prescient for the automated SOC to life, in the present day, Palo Alto Networks introduced the final availability of Cortex XSIAM, an automatic safety operations platform designed to automate the SOC. Palo Alto Networks claims the answer can ship an 80% discount in alerts that SOC groups want to investigate. 

For enterprises, this answer may present a solution to analyst fatigue within the SOC, and act as a false multiplier in order that human customers can course of safety incidents sooner. 

Cortex XSIAM makes the SOC extra environment friendly 

The announcement comes after Palo Alto Networks made Cortex XSIAM accessible to a handful of design companions as a part of the XSIAM Design Companion Program earlier this 12 months. It’s an answer primarily based across the thought of constructing the SOC extra environment friendly by means of the usage of automation. 

“The underlying drawback is that, as new safety applied sciences developed, they’ve generated an increasing number of information. That information is saved in numerous programs, and the duty of sifting by means of 1000’s of alerts each day, then triaging every alert, is left to human analysts, who’re overwhelmed. Consequently, threats get missed and breaches preserve occurring,” mentioned Rick Caccia, SVP and CMO of Cortex and Unit 42 at Palo Alto Networks. 

Caccia explains that Cortex XSIAM addresses these challenges by means of the usage of automation. XSIAM handles the majority of automated SOC work, tackling all of the alerts it will possibly, whereas passing incidents to analysts which are too sophisticated to be automated. This provides analysts the chance to handle “fascinating and strange” incidents. 

Palo Alto Networks is revamping the SIEM market 

As an answer, Cortex XSIAM is most immediately competing in opposition to safety data and occasion administration (SIEM) options. The SIEM market itself continues to develop, with researchers valuing the market at $2.8 billion in 2019 and anticipating it’ll attain a worth of $6.2 billion by 2027 as organizations try and automate safety operations. 

As we speak, Google Cloud is among the primary opponents on this area, following the launch of Chronicle Safety Operations and Chronicle SIEM yesterday, and the rebrand of Siemplify. Chronicle SIEM guarantees to leverage Google’s menace intelligence to reinforce a company’s detection, investigation and response capabilities. 

Earlier this 12 months Google Cloud introduced it has surpassed $6 billion in cloud income.

One other key competitor available in the market is Splunk with Splunk Enterprise. Splunk Enterprise collects and ingests information from 1000’s of sources all through a company’s atmosphere, whereas utilizing machine studying and synthetic intelligence (AI) to determine safety points and cut back handbook admin for human customers. Splunk just lately introduced elevating $2.7 billion in income. 

Caccia argues that at the moment, the important thing differentiator between Cortex XSIAM and current applied sciences is that the extent of automation requires a lot much less enter from human analysts. 

“These applied sciences have been in use for twenty years, and had been constructed to current alerts to people, forcing analysts to determine what was an actual menace. XSIAM flips this mannequin on its head, assuming that automation comes first, that the XSIAM software program will course of far more information than a human can, and can deal with the majority of the tedious work,” Caccia mentioned.