How Can Automation Improve Security Compliance?

By CIOReview | Wednesday, September 30, 2020

FREMONT, CA: The rise of automation has been a common theme in stories that touch almost every business sector. In fact, one of the places where automation has shown the most value has been in enterprise security, where it can reduce costs and mitigate vulnerabilities in many instances. Trying to maintain a secure and compliant business environment through manual operations is complex. The usage of automated tooling is not a silver bullet, but it is close to one as enterprises can get.

Many enterprises think the significant threats are external, but most vulnerabilities come from human error. It is not that people are not doing their jobs; it's that the jobs are too laborious. The networks and infrastructures have expanded in size, scope, and complexity—on-premises, in the cloud, on edge—and with new models like containers and serverless. Security teams are striving to stay on top of vulnerabilities in an environment where developers are working fast and furiously.

As employees across the organization see the benefits of automation, the world will see increasing demand for it to provide security, compliance, and beyond. Many enterprises are implementing a platform that will let them widen automation efforts to enhance compliance with security policies, deploy resources at scale, and identify and remediate security vulnerabilities faster. Security automation can also help companies respond rapidly to security events. Instead of manually reviewing common, reoccurring security events, an automated system can parse logs for critical alerts, and then automatically block network ports or shut unwanted actions from occurring.

However, unless enterprises fully understand the threats and vulnerabilities of business, it's important that they work with a security professional who can help them successfully implement a system for their business. Used effectively, security automation can perform regular maintenance activities that keep business safe while finding breach attempts before they infiltrate the whole system.