SIEM vs. SOAR: Which Tool Is Right for Your Security Needs?

SIEM (security information and event management) and SOAR (security orchestration, automation, and response) are popular cybersecurity solutions for enhancing your organization’s cybersecurity capabilities.

Many business owners find it challenging to distinguish between SIEM and SOAR due to their overlapping functionalities. Both cybersecurity solutions ingest logs and event data, detect threats and manage incident responses. Additionally, some next-generation SIEMs now incorporate SOAR capabilities, further blurring the lines between the two.

This article will unpack everything you need to know about SIEM vs. SOAR. We’ll explore the functions, use cases, and key differences between SIEM and SOAR and also highlight a few reputable options for each category.

SIEM vs. SOAR

Let’s take a look at table below for a concise comparison between SIEM and SOAR, highlighting their key differences.

After having a bird’s-eye view of how SIEM and SOAR differ, let’s dive deeper into SIEM vs SOAR.

What Is SIEM?

SIEM (security information and event management) is a security monitoring tool that provides complete visibility across your IT infrastructure, helping you detect, analyze, and respond to potential threats before they impact your organization.

Gartner introduced the term ‘SIEM,’ blending security information management (SIM) and security event management (SEM) into a single, powerful security solution.

SIEM collects log data from various sources, such as operating systems, databases, proxies, routers, and applications. It then categorizes and analyzes this data to identify unusual behavior and potential threats. Depending on custom rules, SIEM escalates these threats for human analysis.

SIEM: Functions and Use Cases

SIEM solutions play a crucial role in modern cybersecurity. They enable you to see activities in all systems in your IT network. The following are the core functions of SIEM solutions: 

Log Management

SIEM is an excellent solution for log management. It can collect data from all sources in your IT network, including servers, endpoints, switches, routers, firewalls, applications, and many more. They organize and analyze aggregated data to detect signs of threat, attack, or breach.

Event Correlation 

Data enters your SIEM solution from various sources, such as applications, servers, and security tools, so it is not in a unified form. The event correlation process of the SIEM solutions normalizes and correlates incoming logs to identify relationships and patterns. This allows SIEM to easily detect security threats to your network and respond to the threats by analyzing the context. 

Digital Forensics

SIEM solutions can analyze historical data and offer search functionalities to help you understand the attack timeline, affected systems, and the incident’s root cause. This makes them indispensable for digital forensics.  

Incident Monitoring and Response  

SIEM solutions continually monitor your IT infrastructure for persistent security threats. They can audit all security incidents and alert you about any potential security threat before it can harm your network infrastructure. 

In addition to the above functions, you can easily integrate SIEM solutions with other security tools, such as intrusion detection and prevention systems, firewalls, and SOAR, to gain better insights and automate incident response. 

Key use cases of SIEM solutions include:

• Threat detection and incident response—SIEM solutions help Security Operations Center (SOC) teams detect and respond to potential threats in real-time. You can use a SIEM solution with SOAR software to automate responses to security threats.  
• Meeting compliance requirements—Most regulations require organizations to log all events and handle them in a timely manner to prevent security incidents. A SIEM solution can help in performing all those functions.
• User behavior analytics—SIEM software can analyze users’ behavior and discover deviations from standard patterns. These insights can help you identify users with risky online behavior and insider threats.  
• Forensic analysis and investigations—SIEM solutions have historical data, so they can help your SOC teams discover the timeline of a breach incident, affected devices, and the root cause of the incident. 
• IoT security—IoT devices don’t come with strong security defenses. SIEM solutions can track activities on IoT devices by analyzing logs and helping you monitor them for security breaches. 
• Operational Insights—SIEM solutions can analyze logs and events on all your systems in your IT network to offer operational insights into performance and operational issues, which can help you optimize your operational performance. 

What Is SOAR?

SOAR (security orchestration, automation, and response) is a cybersecurity solution that helps SOC teams automate repetitive tasks, such as responding to SIEM, endpoint detection and response (EDR), phishing alerts, and more.   

As defined by Gartner, SOAR integrates three security capabilities into one system: incident response, security orchestration and automation, and threat intelligence management. Let’s discuss these capabilities.

Incident response involves an organized approach to detecting and managing cyberattacks to minimize damage.

Security orchestration and automation refer to using various tools and technologies to automate and coordinate responses to threats. The key difference between them is that orchestration manages the coordination of multiple security tasks across your entire tech stack, while automation uses tools to execute these tasks automatically.

Threat intelligence management involves gathering and analyzing data on potential threats. 

Putting it simply, SOAR connects all your security tools into a defined workflow that can run automatically.

SOAR: Functions and Use Cases

SOAR streamlines and automates security operations, enabling faster and more efficient threat detection and responses. The following are key functions of SOAR solutions.

Security Orchestration

A SOAR system enhances your security operations by integrating various scattered security tools into a single, cohesive platform. This integration enables more efficient threat detection, enrichment, monitoring, and incident response. 

As a result, your SOC (Security Operations Center) team can manage most tasks from one unified platform rather than juggling between multiple disconnected tools.

Workflow Automation 

A SOAR system enables your SOC (Security Operations Center) team to automate routine, low-risk tasks based on predefined criteria. This automation allows SOC members to respond more proactively to security events and significantly reduces the time spent on repetitive tasks.

Proactive Incident Response 

The system enhances your SOC’s response time to both general and specific lower-risk incidents. It also supports analysts by offering a centralized platform where they can efficiently access, search, and share threat intelligence.

The main objective of SOAR solutions is to help your security team coordinate multiple security tools, automating low-risk routine tasks so they can focus on more complex threats.

Key use cases of SOAR solutions include:

• Threat intelligence coordination—SOAR solutions aggregate and centralize data from various sources, such as endpoints, intrusion detection systems, regulatory bodies, and malware analysis tools, offering a single dashboard for better incident response.
• Unified incident management—SOAR solutions collate data from different tools, presenting a unified view of correlated events. This enables case managers to identify and address threats quickly.
• Risk prioritization—SOAR solutions correlate threat data across security tools, helping SOC teams calculate risks and prioritize threats efficiently.
• IOC Enrichment—SOAR platforms enhance the indicators of compromise (IOC) enrichment process by accessing multiple threat intelligence sources. This allows analysts to quickly gather context and assess large volumes of data, saving time while improving accuracy.
• Automation of low-risk tasks—By automating responses to low-value risks, SOAR solutions allow SOC teams to handle a large volume of common threats quickly, freeing up time to focus on high-risk, complex security issues.

Now that you have an overview of SIEM and SOAR solutions, let’s explore the key differences between these security technologies.

SIEM vs SOAR: Key Difference

SIEM and SOAR are both widely used to identify and mitigate threats. SIEM collects and analyzes real-time security data, while SOAR automates threat response processes, improving efficiency. The following are the main differences between SIEM and SOAR.

Primary Function

The primary function of SIEM solutions is to collect, correlate, and analyze security event data to find potential threats and generate alerts for security operations teams. Based on these security alerts, your SOC team members will investigate threats and take proactive actions to mitigate those threats. 

Conversely, SOAR solutions focus on automating incident responses to routine, low-risk security threats without human involvement. They free up SOC team members’ time, enabling them to focus on high-value, complex security threats. 

Data Handling

SIEM solutions ingest log and event data from traditional infrastructure components, such as endpoints, routers, firewalls, intrusion detection systems, databases, and servers.

SOAR solutions can collect data from SIEM, external emerging threat feeds, and cloud security platforms.   

Automation

SIEM solutions offer limited automation capabilities, often restricted to alert generation and reporting. SOC analysts have to perform manual actions for incident responses. 

In contrast, SOAR solutions automate incident responses through playbooks triggered by security alerts, reducing the time required for incident response.

Incident Response

SIEM solutions offer visibility into security incidents, but they rely on human analysts to analyze and respond to them, leading to a longer resolution time. 

However, SOAR solutions can automate most low-value incident responses through playbooks, lowering mean time to threat response (MTTR).  

Scalability

Though both SIEM and SOAR solutions are scalable and can adapt to any organization’s growing security needs, SIEM solutions may require powerful hardware and extensive software infrastructure to work in large organizations. 

Human Intervention

SIEM solutions require significant human involvement in investigating, assessing, and responding to alerts. On the other hand, SOAR solutions minimize human intervention by automating low-risk incident responses, providing your SOC team members with more time to focus on complex security incidents.  

When To Use SIEM?

You should use SIEM solutions for real-time threat detection, incident response, and compliance management. They help SOC teams detect and respond to security threats. SIEM solutions also analyze user behavior to identify insider threats and monitor IoT devices, which often lack strong security measures.

SIEM solutions are indispensable for forensic investigations because they provide historical data to track breach timelines and root causes. They also offer valuable operational insights by analyzing system logs to optimize performance.

When To Use SOAR?

You should use a SOAR solution when you want to automate incident response processes, reduce the mean time to threat response, minimize manual labor, and enhance threat detection by seamlessly aggregating threat intelligence from multiple sources.

If you rely on multiple security tools, a SOAR solution enables you to orchestrate them efficiently, offering a unified and coordinated response. SOAR can also automate routine tasks, making it especially valuable for understaffed SOC centers.

SIEM and SOAR for Better SecOps

You might think that SOAR solutions are better than SIEM, but both tools are different and offer optimum security when implemented in tandem. 

SIEM solutions alert about potential threats, and SOAR solutions can automate incident response, leaving SOC analysts with more time to handle complex security tasks. 

However, if you have to pick only one solution, SOAR is a clear winner. It offers advanced automation capabilities, efficient incident responses, and the ability to integrate various security tools for unified responses.  

How To Choose the Right SOAR Platform To Go With SIEM?

When choosing a SOAR platform, ensure it integrates seamlessly with your existing SIEM. You should look for features such as automation capabilities, scalability, and ease of use to streamline security operations.

Here is a structured approach to picking the right SOAR platform to go with SIEM:

• Compatibility with SIEM: Make sure the SOAR platform you consider is compatible with your SIEM solution. Find a solution that synchronizes data in real-time and allows for bidirectional communication, meaning security alerts generated in SIEM will trigger playbooks in the SOAR. 
• Automation capabilities: Evaluate SOAR’s automation capabilities carefully and choose a solution that allows you to create predefined incident response playbooks using a low-code method. 
• Pre-built integrations: Your chosen SOAR platform must have pre-built connectors and integrations with popular security tools, including threat intelligence feeds, endpoint protection solutions, ticketing systems, and more. 
• Scalability: As your company grows, you will likely implement newer security tools. Your SOAR solution should be able to scale easily to accommodate your organization’s growing security needs. 
• Cost: You should assess the initial and ongoing costs associated with various SOAR platforms to find the best solution that fits your budget. 
• Vendor support: To ensure smooth implementation and ongoing support, you should pick a vendor known for offering solid customer support.  

You should also find a SOAR platform that can manage and automate security processes across cloud and on-prem environments. 

What Are the Most Popular SIEM Platforms?

When considering SIEM platforms, you should dive deeper into features such as log management, scalability, compliance reports, real-time monitoring, and ease of integration.

Here are some of the top SIEM platforms trusted by security teams.

• Splunk: It is an industry-leading SIEM platform that offers you 1500 out-of-the-box detection aligned to reputed cybersecurity frameworks, such as Cyber Kill Chain, NIST CSF 2.0, and MITRE ATT & CK. You can easily integrate Splunk with AWS, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, and more. It offers risk-based alerting to defeat alert fatigue.
• LogRhythm: It can collect, normalize, and analyze data from over 1000 third-party products and cloud sources. In addition to allowing you to create custom rules with drag-and-drop GUI, you can select from 1,100 out-of-the-box correlation rule sets.
• IBM QRadar SIEM: It uses advanced AI and automation to improve alerts, prioritize threats, and correlate incident responses. Consequently, it reduces unnecessary alerts, saving time for your team members.
• Microsoft Sentinel: It is a cloud-native SIEM platform that uses built-in AI to analyze data across your IT infrastructure, offering proactive threat detection, investigation, and responses.

What Are the Most Popular SOAR Platforms?

Top SOAR solutions offer key features like automation, user-friendly interfaces, and seamless integration with existing security tools. Below are some of the most popular platforms trusted by security teams:

• Google Security Operations: Formerly known as Chronicle, Google Security Operations combines SIEM and SOAR capabilities to offer better detection, investigation, and response. It uses Google Threat Intelligence to identify and mitigate the latest security threats.  
• Fortinet FortiSOAR: It is a reputed SOAR solution that offers 500 integrations and 800 no/low code playbooks. FortiSOAR comes with a GenAI-powered Security Assistant and Recommendation Engine to automate security tasks and create playbooks.   
• Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR: It offers integration with around 500 third-party tools, including SIEM, firewalls, endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools, sandboxes, forensic tools, and more to offer orchestration across your security tech stack.
• IBM QRadar SOAR: It comes with dynamic playbooks, customizable automated workflows, and recommended responses. QRadar SOAR can help you manage breach response in compliance with 200 international privacy and data breach regulations. 

Conclusion

We hope this article has given you a clear understanding of SIEM and SOAR solutions, their differences, and the best use cases for each.

SIEM excels in threat detection and analysis, while SOAR automates routine incident responses for improved efficiency. Together, they enhance your SecOps.

You can proactively detect threats, streamline responses, and effectively mitigate security risks by implementing the right SIEM and SOAR solutions.

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