Automated cybersecurity has become a fundamental operational process for safeguarding our digital environments. According to a study by Capgemini, over 63% of organizations state that AI has increased threat detection and response speed by at least 12%. The integration of automation and AI serves as a force multiplier for many businesses with lean security teams. It can significantly reduce incident response times and mitigate the risk of catastrophic data losses. Inevitably promoting a more mature security posture, even in the face of a massive cybersecurity skills shortage.  

But how do you effectively automate your cybersecurity operations?  

The integration of Microsoft Sentinel, a security information and event management (SIEM) platform, with Difenda AIRO, an advanced incident orchestration and response engine, provides an invaluable solution. Microsoft Sentinel harnesses the broad intelligence gathering and analytics capabilities of Defender XDR. While Difenda AIRO brings future-proof machine learning algorithms and automation workflows. 

In this blog, we’ll deep dive into how you can achieve automated cybersecurity using the Microsoft Security technologies you already trust.  

The Role of Automation in Cybersecurity

As we delve deeper into the digital era, the frequency and complexity of cyber threats continue to escalate at a concerning pace. Cybersecurity incidents have become an inevitable aspect of our daily digital transactions. The cybersecurity skills gap exacerbates the situation, leaving many organizations vulnerable to increasingly swift breaches. The 2023 Cybersecurity Ventures report suggests that cybercrime will cost the world $6 trillion annually by the end of the year, reflecting the urgency and importance of robust cybersecurity measures, today.  

We also must acknowledge that cyber attackers are not dormant in the technological race. They are actively crafting more sophisticated attacks using AI and automation. Automated tools enable assailants to rapidly scan for vulnerabilities, orchestrate complex DDoS campaigns, and even deploy thousands of tailored phishing attacks a second. In the past year, artificial Intelligence was even leveraged to create adaptive malware that evades detection by learning from past interactions with security systems.

Hence, the ongoing battle of wits between security professionals and cybercriminals.  

This dynamic underscores the necessity for continuous innovation and updates in cybersecurity methodologies to counteract evolving AI-enhanced threats. But despite the rise in cyber threats, cybersecurity budgets are not keeping pace. Luckily, Phonemon Institute revealed that organizations can save up to 80% in total cost of security operations when fully employing automation compared to those that have not. 

Microsoft Sentinel: A Unified Security Platform

As a cloud-native SIEM solution, Microsoft Sentinel provides real-time analysis of security alerts generated across all users, devices, applications, and services, enabling security analysts to swiftly detect potential threats. 

Key to Sentinel’s efficacy is its seamless integration with the Microsoft Defender XDR (Extended Detection and Response) ecosystem. When paired with Defender XDR technologies, Sentinel amplifies its ability to correlate alerts and provides a cohesive view of the Microsoft Security threat landscape. This tight coupling ensures that security data and insights flow freely between the two platforms, allowing Sentinel to leverage Defender XDR’s endpoint detection capabilities. 

The synergy between these platforms is significant to seamless automated cybersecurity. Microsoft Sentinel, with its Defender XDR integration, offers a wide-reaching view across an enterprise’s digital landscape, enabling proactive threat detection. Difenda AIRO magnifies this capability by efficiently prioritizing alerts and responding to incidents with precision and speed. 

Difenda AIRO: Elevating Microsoft Sentinel’s Capabilities

New to Difenda MXDR is AIRO, our Automated Incident Response and Orchestration engine. AIRO is built on native Microsoft Sentinel playbook automation and integrates with customer Sentinel instances. It leverages threat enrichment, auto triage, incident scoring, auto-response and service synchronization while using all the Defender XDR technologies to help customers integrate AI into their security operations processes.  

Operating entirely within the customer’s Sentinel instance AIRO streamlines the flow of triage and response activities, while also facilitating the collection of crucial forensic artifacts. It liberates analysts from low-impact tasks and equips them with additional incident context to act swiftly and decisively. 

In real-world applications, AIRO’s advantage is unmistakable. A food manufacturer bombarded by intricate phishing schemes threatening its secure transaction systems. Difenda detected a multi-stage attack through multiple Microsoft Defender technologies. Quickly engaging the RIR team through Difenda AIRO, Difenda conducted an in-depth triage, revealing further compromised assets. The collaborative effort between Difenda’s SecOps, Difenda AIRO, and RIR, effectively prevented a potential ransomware disaster. 

AIRO’s efficacy is not static; it multiplies exponentially when integrated into the Defender XDR ecosystem. AIRO is engineered to scale and mould itself to any security posture. Each Microsoft Defender technology layered incorporated into your defence equips AIRO with greater intelligence. Effectively, refining threat detection acuity, incident prioritization, and reactive agility with a broader environment context.  

Advantages of an Automated Cybersecurity Strategy

Embracing an automated cybersecurity strategy with AIRO and Microsoft Security bears multiple strategic advantages: 

  • Rapid consolidation of all alert information within a span of two minutes. 
  • Employ automated playbooks to quicken the triage process, ensuring that threat response measures are swift and decisive. 
  • Collect further threat intelligence with Microsoft tools and other third-party tools.  
  • Correlate data to develop a prioritization score, enabling a more strategic resource allocation for threat management. 
  • Validate if entities (users, endpoints, cloud services, ect) are high priority in seconds  
  • Leverage a custom priority score to understand what alerts to look at and when 
  • Automatically execute response playbooks to isolate an endpoint or disable user accounts without any manual interaction 
  • Assign a verdict based on all data inputs to reduce false positives 

By harnessing automated processes within Difenda AIRO, organizations can position themselves ahead of the evolving threat landscape. 

Implementing Microsoft Sentinel and Difenda AIRO

Organizations preparing to adopt automated cybersecurity processes can engage in our Microsoft Sentinel + Difenda MXDR Proof of Concept (PoC). This is a strategic engagement that fortifies and scales your cybersecurity operations with robust resilience. 

Experience the future of cybersecurity management with automation and AI. Our 30-day Microsoft Sentinel + Difenda MXDR PoC brings you into the realm of AI-enhanced security, where you can see first-hand the transformative power of automated solutions across endpoints, email, identities, and cloud services.  

With this risk-free trial, you’ll expand your horizons with enhanced efficiency in threat detection and incident response, optimizing Microsoft Sentinel and Defender XDR to elevate operational effectiveness. 

With Difenda AIRO, you’re not merely adapting to the cyber landscape—you ensure your security operations are robust today and scalable for tomorrow.