Written by Noor Boulos 

Let’s face it, we’ve talked about security automation for years. We’ve grappled with what, when and how to automate. We’ve debated the human vs machine topic. And at certain points, when we’ve been “burned” (automatically shutting down systems in error), we’ve wondered if there’s any place at all for automation. But in our heart of hearts, we’ve known for years that automation is the future. Now the future is here.

While most organisations had at least minimal automation of key security and incident response (IR) processes, the events of 2020 served as a tipping point. The new SANS report discusses how the global pandemic forced many organisations to accelerate their plans for automation, where they are prioritising their investments and the plans they have for the future. The survey spanned companies of all sizes, representing a diverse blend of industries and with operations in North American, Europe, Asia Pacific and Africa.

Some of the key findings include:

• Nearly one-third of organisations indicated that their plans for automation accelerated because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• More than 80% of organisations have at least partial automation of key security and IR processes, up from 47% in 2020.
• Drilling deeper, IR processes saw the most significant growth in automation – with extensive automation jumping nearly 18%, from 10.5% in 2020 to 28.3% in 2021.
• Security operations and event or alert processing remains the top area for automation with 35.5% reporting extensive automation.
• The future looks bright for security automation, with 85% planning on automating key security and IR processes in the next 12 months alone.

As you look to the future and use these survey results to help better understand how to expand your use of automation within your security operations, it’s important to consider when to apply automation within the security lifecycle to maximise business value. At ThreatQuotient, we have long believed that data is the lifeblood of detection and response automation, so the key to effective automation starts with data. Let’s take the two primary use cases in the report, Alert Triage and Incident Response, as examples.

Alert Triage:

Analysts are inundated by the number of alerts that require human attention, generated by noisy SIEM rules and default defense infrastructure. In an attempt to reduce the volume and velocity of security alerts they must tackle on a daily basis, analysts apply external threat data and threat intelligence feeds directly to the SIEM, but challenges continue for two main reasons. First, the amount of external threat data is staggering. Sending all of this data directly to the SIEM for correlation results in tons of non-contextual alerts, each of which requires significant work by an analyst to research. Second, there is a lack of decision support capabilities in current tools to provide additional context and understanding to determine relevance, before applying threat intelligence feeds directly to the SIEM. Prioritisation is imperative to focus and determine the appropriate next actions to take during the alert triage process.

With the ThreatQ Platform you can address the alert triage challenge and stop the useless alerts before they happen by ONLY feeding threat intelligence that is relevant to the organisation. By automatically applying context, relevance and prioritisation to threat data prior to applying it to the SIEM, the SIEM becomes more efficient and effective. Customised threat intelligence scores based on parameters you set, coupled with context, allows for prioritisation based on what’s relevant to your specific environment. Now, using a subset of threat data that has been curated into threat intelligence, the additional overlay allows the SIEM to generate fewer false positives and encounter fewer scalability issues.

Incident Response:

The current approach to Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) has focused on automating processes. The challenge is that when applied to detection and response, process-focused playbooks are inherently inefficient and complex because the decision-making criteria and logic are built into the playbooks and updates need to be made in each playbook. This complexity grows exponentially as you increase the number of playbooks. Automating and orchestrating noisy data just amplifies the noise.

With ThreatQ TDR Orchestrator you can take a simplified, data-driven approach to SOAR, where the data, or information, drives playbook initiation and data learned by actions taken is used for analytics and to improve future response. Putting the “smarts in the platform” and not individual playbooks provides for simpler configuration and maintenance, and a more efficient and effective automation outcomes. Users can curate and prioritise data upfront, automate what’s relevant and simplify actions taken.

Many points favour hiring a virtual assistant for work or personal reasons (or both), and many individuals have already taken that step and have benefitted greatly from it. You may even have a good knowledge of some of the reasons why and how a virtual assistant can help you, such as letting you save time and giving you the chance to focus on other aspects. Still, there are other reasons why there is a rise in the hiring of virtual assistants nowadays. But what can hiring one do for you? Here’s why it makes complete sense to get a virtual assistant in these times.

You can have peace of mind

This may be an obvious thing, but let’s delve further into why it is a big deal. By getting a virtual assistant to help you with various tasks, you can rest in knowing that an expert is assisting you. Most virtual assistants these days are not just trained to answer your calls or respond to queries – they are also well-versed in other matters, including blog posting, social media management, and the creation of business plans, amongst others. So if you rely on one, you can have peace of mind knowing that whatever task you have them do will be done in the best possible way – perhaps even better than you can do it yourself.

You can save more

Hiring a virtual assistant is a lot more cost-effective than taking on a new employee altogether. Since they work virtually or remotely, you don’t have to worry about their equipment and your overhead expenses. Since they are not technically your employee, you don’t have to deal with sick days, vacation leaves, the cost of recruitment and training, and so on. Your virtual assistant will work by the hour, and you will pay them by the hour, so there’s no wasted time. They will be productive from the get-go, unlike a regular employee who may spend more time chatting around the water cooler than working!

You can easily scale up (or scale down)

Since you have lower costs when you hire a virtual assistant, this gives you more freedom and flexibility to scale up (or scale down) when necessary. In addition, virtual assistant services not only help you reduce your overhead and equipment costs – they can work on an as-needed basis, so you don’t have to contend with a fixed salary, either.

They can take care of various tasks

This is quite obvious as well, but it’s still a crucial aspect to remember. We all have to deal with a lot of administrative tasks, but they are often time-consuming and take a lot of effort. But your virtual assistant can take this burden off your shoulders from the beginning – they can deal with your calendar and schedule as well as your emails, phone calls, travel plans, social media, and more. With this, you’ll find it a lot easier to focus on what you really need to do and can even spend more quality time with your family and those who matter. In addition, you have complete access to someone with a different set of skills, and with their help, you can be more productive and more content with your work-life balance.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

Looking beyond the financial bottom line and showing consideration for the environment and society is a more astute business decision than usually assumed. It’s not just investors who pay attention to corporate social responsibility, it’s also consumers. More pharmaceutical companies need to treat employees, society and customers well, and commit to greater sustainability and environmental consciousness.

Bachem is keen to share how they are implementing sustainable practices and how other companies can address their production processes and optimize supply chains to enhance environmental sustainability.

The implementation of a CSR management system

The Bachem Group’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy is aligned with UN Sustainable Development Goals. The strategy includes their CSR Vision and Mission and lays out how to manage and measure their progress so that they can meet their annual CSR goals. For more than 20 years, Bachem participated in the Responsible Care® program. In 2020 they introduced a new program for CSR, and have since received an EcoVadis Silver Rating, indicating that Bachem Group is one of the top 25 most socially responsible companies.

At Bachem, health and wellbeing is at the top of their priority list, and this is what motivates them to provide the highest quality goods and services to their customers. Especially since their support enables Bachem to continue developing medicines and drugs, while maintaining their position as the market leader in peptide production after 50 years in business.

Continuous improvement through ambitious targets

Bachem’s mission for social responsibility focuses on ensuring that the company is a good employer and behaves ethically towards both people and the environment. This motivated the Board of Directors to meet in 2021 to set long term goals in areas like occupational health and safety, diversity, equal opportunity, sustainability and energy efficiency.

Fighting climate change by being energy efficient

Manufacturers, like Bachem, need energy in order to function. However, as a company they are keen to see the link between growth and unsustainable energy and resource consumption broken. The company is aiming to achieve the BoD’s ambitious target of 20% less energy consumption per FTE by 2026. The arrival of new production facilities will make this a difficult goal to reach, but not an impossible one.

Bachem recognizes and supports the Paris climate change agreement and is enthusiastic about participating in the battle against global warming. By 2026, Bachem intends to have reduced their energy consumption and employed additional measures to halve their emissions by 2026. This includes both Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions and by 2030, aim to be entirely carbon neutral.

High importance on employee wellbeing

Bachem places the utmost importance on their employees’ wellbeing. Bachem is aware that they need people with brilliant skills and innovative ideas in order to produce great results for their  customers. That’s why, as a company, they maintain very high standards of occupational safety, and take the best possible care of employee health. As part of their vision for the great work environment they want to create, Bachem is aiming to cut accidents down to zero. If they achieve this, it will slash time lost to such incidents back to just one in 200,000 working hours.

Diversity and equal opportunities

Every employee contributes in their own unique way to the success of a project, and Bachem feels strongly that maximizing diversity and inclusion helps to foster creativity.

Bachem provides equal terms of employment to every staff member, and carries out regular wage gap analysis to quickly identify and correct any inequalities, and ensure appropriate consequences. Bachem is also making considerable efforts to bring more women not only into their overall workforce but specifically into upper management and regional executive committees. Bachem hopes that there will be 10% more women in these roles within the next 5 years. The company also hopes to ensure that their workforces accurately reflect the demographics of the communities in which they are based, with all significant groups and minorities represented.

CSR leadership

Bachem intends to establish itself, not only as the leading manufacturer of peptides and oligonucleotides for research, clinical development, and commercial application, but also as a company which takes responsibility. Bachem will continue to be committed to sustainability and corporate social responsibility, ensuring that they meet targets and deliver consistently in this area.