Dealing With Alert Overload? There’s a Guide For That

The Great Resignation – or the Great Reshuffle as some are
calling it – and the growing skills gap have been dominating
headlines lately. But these issues aren’t new to the cybersecurity
industry. While many are just now hearing about employee burnout,
security teams have faced reality and serious consequences of
burnout for years.

One of the biggest culprits? Alert overload.

The average security team gets tens of thousands of alerts
each day. Many analysts feel like they can’t get their
heads above water…and are starting to give up. This looks like
physical burnout and even apathy. Surveys found that some security
analysts feel so overwhelmed they ignore alerts and even walk away
from their computers.

In fact, these surveys found that 70% of security teams^[1]
feel emotionally overwhelmed by alerts, and more than 55% of security professionals^[2] don’t feel fully
confident that they can prioritize and respond to every alert that
really does need attention.

Sadly, there isn’t a single moment to waste when there’s a
legitimate threat. The threat landscape is changing so quickly, you
need a security team that’s not only on top of their game but also
has the foresight to anticipate emerging threats. So the issue of
alert overload is one of the main ingredients in a recipe for
disaster when it comes to business risk. And the risks are only
growing (think supply chains and ransomware attacks on critical
industries like healthcare).

It goes without saying that if this is prolonged, it’s only a
matter of time before a legitimate threat goes undetected and
results in devastating consequences for an organization and even
private citizens who entrust their data to that organization.

But according to XDR provider, Cynet, “… the problem isn’t
about alerts – it’s about response.”

Security teams are at a critical juncture and need to figure out
how to mitigate alert overload and get strategic about the
response. Luckily, there’s a guide for that^[3].

Cynet’s recently released guide offers a few ways security leads
can pull their analysts out of the ocean of false positives and get
them back to shore. It includes tips on how to reduce alerts using
automation and shares guidance for organizations that are
considering outsourcing their managed detection and response (MDR).
Spoiler: the guide also shares how security teams can detangle the
web of security tools necessary for automation.

In addition to providing context for why alerts are making
cybersecurity worse and how these alerts become overwhelming, the
guide shares insights on:

• The question of outsourcing – Outsourcing
  managed detection and response (MDR) is a great option if you need
  to scale quickly and don’t have the resources. MDRs can help reduce
  stress and give your team time back. Another consideration is cost.
  You also will need to invest time in finding an MDR that’s right
  for your business. Outsourcing may or may not be the right solution
  for your unique needs.
• How to reduce alerts – It starts with
  strategy. Look at your existing tech and make sure you’ve optimized
  their settings and your tools are calibrated. Ultimately, it’s not
  about reducing alerts so much as it’s about how you’ve set your
  team up to respond.
• Introducing automated response – Even the
  leanest security teams can tackle threats if they use automation.
  Automation allows security teams to quickly respond to alerts at
  scale. But one of the biggest challenges with automation is knowing
  how to properly set it up in the first place.
• Tools that facilitate automation – One of the
  reasons setting up automations is a challenge is because of the
  abundance of tech tools that need to be integrated (like EDR, NDR,
  IPS, firewalls, antispam, DNS filtering, etc.). The key is to know
  how to put all of these tools in one place.
• Autonomous breach protection made easy –
  Again, it all comes down to integration. But having these tools in
  one place has some significant benefits: it’s easy and doesn’t
  require a lot of technical expertise, the all-in-one solution is
  more cost-effective, and it allows for faster detection and more
  informed response.

The future is far from bleak. Cynet informs us that “More than
just the solution to alert overload, integrated tools and automated
response are the future of cybersecurity – a future where the
defenders reclaim the advantage.”

If you want to find out more and learn how to stop alert
overload, download the guide here^[4].