The following is adapted from a conversation between Torq and Robbie Jakob-Whitworth, Cybersecurity Solutions Architect at Next DLP. Next DLP is a leading provider of insider risk and data protection solutions. Read on to learn how Robbie has used Torq Hyperautomation to automate alerts and reduce alert fatigue within his organization.
Introduction to Robbie and Next DLP
I’m Robbie Jakob-Whitworth, Solutions Architect with Next DLP. Next DLP is focused on reinventing data protection, DLP, and insider risk. So, I spend a lot of time working with customers and enterprises focusing on how we can protect the data in their organization, how we can prevent a data leak or data breach, and also how we can manage the insider risk.
So a key thing that I work on with a lot of customers is alerts, detections and incidents from a data protection perspective as well as an insider risk perspective. And alert fatigue is something that is a very real problem for security analysts. They spend a lot of time looking through alerts.
Next DLP provides a fantastic platform to get an overview and take control of risky behavior taken by users. For example, the sharing of sensitive data, or accessing data that is controlled by regulation or compliance. But going through all of these alerts and all of these incidents can be quite a time thing sometimes for an analyst. So in that theme of alert fatigue, I was able to use Torq to build a workflow to notify me separately via Slack about the most serious data breaches.
Combatting Alert Fatigue with Hyperautomation
So in the example that I’m going to show you here, we can actually reduce alert fatigue by using Torq to just alert us about the most high severity alerts. So using Next DLP, I built out a web hook integration directly into Torq and streamed detection information for Torq where the data is Personal Identifiable Information (PII).
I’m only going to focus on the most high risk users, and I only want events that are a score of at least 80. So, particularly high severity alerts. Now, when a policy violation or incident occurs that meets these thresholds, a workflow in Torq is triggered and I get notified in real time through Slack or on my phone.
Then, I can launch an investigation in real time. So I can go and spend my time on other things that are more important to me than looking through logs. I’m saving a lot of time by getting these alerts through Torq.
A Real-World Example
Consider this – from a data protection perspective, I might have data in my organization, maybe personal information, social security numbers, or customer information that needs to be protected. And in this case, if I’m a user and I’m sharing this data through a site like WeTransfer, either maliciously or accidentally, Next DLP can provide real-time data protection by enforcing IT and corporate policy, preventing the taking of sensitive data.
So in this case, we caught the fact that this file contains this sensitive information – email addresses and social security numbers – and that it was leaked out through WeTransfer. Next DLP protected and blocked that activity.
Now as a SOC or security analyst, I don’t need to sit in the Next DLP platform and look through every single alert. With this automation, Torq notifies me with all of the information around the incident: which user violated the policy, what the policy was, that it contains social security numbers, how the data was being exfiltrated, in this case to WeTransfer. I get a link to view the file and the forensic evidence, along with a screenshot of the user’s desktop at that moment in time. So I’m able to launch an investigation to dive down deeper into the context of this user’s activity.
The Power of Torq Hyperautomation
Traditionally, for an analyst or in a SOC, you spend all your time kind of combing through logs and alerts. You have a lot of false positives to deal with. And all the information is presented to you within a powerful UI of most products. But, you have to spend a lot of time going through each alert.
It was super simple to build this automation because I’m combining the powerful open API provided by Next DLP with the really helpful no code workflow UI provided by Torq. Plugging those two together is the best of both worlds. It’s really a fantastic way to orchestrate and connect different systems together and to save me time by automating those manual tasks.
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