soars

SOAR stands for Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response. It is a category of cybersecurity software designed to help security operations teams manage, automate, and coordinate responses to security incidents. A SOAR platform collects data from multiple sources—security tools, cloud services, and endpoint telemetry—enriches it with context, and routes it to automated workflows or to human analysts.

Key components include case management, where incidents are tracked; playbooks or runbooks, which codify repeatable response actions; and automation or orchestration capabilities that execute tasks across tools. Playbooks can be triggered by alerts from SIEMs, EDRs, or threat intelligence feeds and can perform actions such as isolating an affected host, blocking or updating firewall rules, revoking credentials, collecting forensic data, or opening tickets in a service desk.

Typical workflow involves ingesting an alert, enriching and correlating data, selecting a response path, automating routine tasks, and having analysts review or escalate as needed. SOARs are designed to reduce mean time to respond, improve consistency, and free staff for more complex work. They are often used alongside SIEM and EDR solutions and may integrate with ticketing systems, cloud platforms, identity providers, and threat intelligence feeds.

Limitations include the need for proper governance and validation of playbooks, potential risks from automated actions, integration complexity, and the requirement for skilled personnel to design and maintain workflows. Deployment considerations include scope (what to automate), the security of the SOAR platform, data handling and privacy, and alignment with incident response processes and regulatory requirements.