Solving the Integration Problem at Scale: How Torq Connects With Any Tool Using Hyperautomation

Setting up your security tools to work together seamlessly is often easier said than done, leading to time-consuming tasks and potential security gaps, especially without the proper tools. You must have both the ability to connect to any product, using APIs, CLIs or proprietary protocols, and do that in a simple no-code manner, without having to know the ins and outs of each technology. Without these, the ability to quickly automate is greatly diminished – as in legacy SOAR products.

Torq hyperautomation solves that by providing a powerful automation engine and a true no-code step creation ability. This combination empowers you to connect and work with any other product or tool in your security stack and, right out of the box, to create near-limitless automations. Torq also provides a fast-growing library of official integrations and automation actions that feature any of your products, both legacy and new, right when you need them.

The usual problems

There are three requirements for a powerful security automation solution

  1. Scalable orchestration platform to support your event loads and computation.
  2. Simple language to create this automation. 
  3. Great connectivity and integration with your entire security stack, across multiple cloud and on-prem environments. 

As the cybersecurity ecosystem is ever-evolving and most security organizations adopt several new tools each year, meeting all three of these requirements can be exceptionally challenging. Maintaining an up-to-date library of integrations for the latest tools, plus easily onboarding new tools required, becomes a major undertaking. 

How legacy SOAR attempts to solve it, and why that doesn’t work

Legacy SOAR is renowned for having poorly addressed this last problem of connecting to any tool quickly. Integrations in legacy SOAR products are based on building dedicated code modules for every single new product you interact with. This requires specialized software developers to build these integrations, making it an expensive, slow, and time-consuming effort to develop in-house. Waiting for the SOAR providers themselves to integrate new tools would take many months or years until that specific integration was completed. Integrating any homebrew or internal system is out of the question unless you have dedicated software development resources for this purpose. 

Example code snippet to establish rudimentary connectivity to a third-party application

How newer no-code tools attempt to solve it, and why that also doesn’t work

After the frustration with legacy SOAR products’ difficulty integrating with new platforms, a host of newer, no-code tools emerged. They claim to integrate with any product without any integration-building required.

This is based on the assumption that most products today provide some HTTP-based APIs available to interact with. Then, these no-code tools provided a Postman-like experience for creating HTTP calls.

Example Postman HTTP call

Though this approach is definitely a league more flexible than the legacy SOAR pace, at scale, it often fails. Enterprises try to integrate with systems that don’t provide any clear HTTP APIs. The ability to integrate with proprietary protocols, perform remote RPC calls, or even run a small script is often the last crucial piece in building a full enterprise-grade automation process. Plus,  requiring users to build their own HTTP calls for every action on every product has become a burden on the security operations team.

Instead of focusing on automating their processes, analysts are forced to be experts in the specificities of each of the APIs of their security tools. They must stay up to date with any changes in the APIs of these ever-evolving tools, otherwise, the connectivity often breaks, preventing automations from running. With no-code, the responsibility to maintain these HTTP calls falls on the shoulders of the security team instead of on the no-code automation tool itself.

Sampling of Torq’s ever-expanding pre-built integrations that are managed and maintained by Torq to provide the latest functionality without breaking your connectivity.

How Torq solves the content problem – Orchestrating any containerized logic

The understanding that an automation platform should be able to orchestrate any kind of technology, both new or legacy, was in our minds from the very first days of developing  Torq’s hyperautomation platform. 

This principle was introduced into our product design goals and led to the decision for a step in Torq to be any kind of containerized logic. Containers have become the ubiquitous technology for shipping and deploying software and the orchestration of each kind of logic, and even executing it in different environments, means that Torq can support communicating with any kind of tool in an organization’s security stack over any kind of technology. This can range from the latest HTTP-based API, a proprietary database protocol, any command line interface (CLI), or even a homebrew system, using the ability to bring your own containerized logic and run it from the same simple, no-code UI.

Example of Torq connecting to systems via webhook, SSH with embedded commands or scripts and HTTP-based API requests

How Torq solves the content problem – Calling any HTTP API and making it a no-code step with flexibility

While having the ability to run any container and CLI command from a single interface is extremely powerful, today, most security products expose an HTTP-based API (REST or GraphQL) to allow integrating and communicating with them. InTorq,q you can quickly call any of those products using the “Send an HTTP request” step. This step exposes a simple UI to model any type of HTTP call, with any authentication required, and built-in support for OAuth and JWT auths, just like the Postman app. It even automatically translates a cURL command, available from many API references, to the proper fields in the step, making connection with new API-driven products a breeze.

How Torq solves the content problem – Create new content at scale using Torq’s step builder to drive hypergrowth of no-code integrations and steps

Having the ability to easily create HTTP API-based steps is significant for quickly connecting with new tools and never having to stop automation building. Messing around with raw HTTP mode isn’t that useful over time and is a lot more complicated for new team members who want to use true no-code steps. This is exactly why we developed the Torq step builder. A simple builder that takes your raw HTTP steps and turns them into true no-code steps, complete with the appropriate parameters, descriptions, and examples on how to operate the specific step you’re building. Torq eliminates the complexities of formatting JSON and handling the authentication for a specific API. These custom steps can be saved to your workspace’s custom step library, and shared with your team members to enable them to build further automations with no-code simplicity.

To create new steps and content, there’s no need to start from scratch each time. Torq allows you to take any API-based step from the Torq public library and switch it over to its raw HTTP mode. You can then modify it to fit any specific need or requirement, like adding new optional parameters, updating API paths, or making any other changes, and convert it back into its fully no-code parameterized form. These new versions of steps can again be saved to your custom steps library. Should you choose to share them with the entire Torq user community, they can also be published to the public step library. 

Torq’s step builder which allows building true no-code steps from HTTP based steps.

Torq’s content team and technical partners use precisely this method to expand Torq’s public step library. They build Torq steps with Torq’s step builder, test them by using them in automations, and finally, after validation, publish them. By having these extremely quick building and testing processes, in-app, new content in Torq can be published within hours instead of weeks and months in legacy SOAR systems, all while providing a mature content management system, complete with seamless content updates, notifications, and tracking for changes.

Conclusion

Torq has reimagined the approach to security automation by focusing on security hyperautomation and seamless content creation, unlike legacy SOAR solutions that necessitate specialized software development skills to achieve simple integrations. Torq provides an extensible platform that leverages containerized logic and an extensive, user-friendly library of no-code steps to get you automating in minutes. Our approach frees your security analysts from the constraints of needing to become API experts and instead lets them focus on what matters most: securing your organization and digital assets.

Want to learn more about how Torq can dramatically enhance your security workflows so you can stay ahead of emerging threats? Test drive Torq Hyperautomation, here: https://torq.io/demo/

Redefining Cybersecurity Operations: The Power of Torq’s Workflow-Centric Case Management

Cybersecurity is a landscape forever in motion, an arena where threats evolve at an alarming pace. The tools we employ to counter threats should match this pace and anticipate the unforeseeable. Still, a chasm exists where tools are not keeping up with the changes, particularly regarding case management.  

I’m Dor Morgenstern, lead PM for Case Management at Torq. With a background rooted in cybersecurity, I’ve seen firsthand the evolving challenges that security operations face. In this blog, I aim to shed light on the transformational power of workflow-centric case management and how it addresses these challenges head-on. 

The Sunset of Legacy SOAR Solutions

From their start, case management and SOAR solutions carried the promise of transforming cybersecurity operations. They introduced playbooks, welcoming an era that promised seamless automation and rapid response to threats. On paper, they’re the perfect solution.

But the reality has been disappointing. Instead of simplifying the security process, these platforms layer automation onto existing ticketing or case management solutions. Like placing a new engine in an old car chassis–it might run faster, but it still can’t navigate the modern digital highway efficiently.

Legacy SOAR gives people clunky configuration panels resembling aircraft cockpits. Analysts and SOC architects are forced to mentally sift through a mess of switches, knobs, and redundant options. Instead of enabling rapid response, the tools become a stumbling block. More often than not, critical response actions get delayed by the sheer complexity of the tool meant to streamline them. SOAR is not alone in this complexity problem, of course, as Ross Haleliuk pointed out in a recent blog

“…every product today has hundreds of configurations, options, and knobs that security practitioners need to turn a certain way to achieve a particular outcome.” 

That’s where workflows come into play.

The Intuitive Power of Workflows

At the heart of this new paradigm shift in cybersecurity lies the idea of dynamic workflows.  Instead of getting bogged down in static configurations and limited predefined settings, why not design a system that evolves and adapts on the fly?

Workflows act like dynamic decision trees, charting a course through the complexity of security incidents. They are inherently flexible, allowing for real-time adaptation based on the unique characteristics of each security event. Teams are no longer forced to stick to a rigid script; instead, they can navigate the ever-changing terrain of cybersecurity threats. 

Simple, drag-and-drop interface that you can create complex no-code workflows.

The distinction between legacy configuration panels and workflows is clear– where configuration panels are static, workflows are dynamic. Where panels force users into a one-size-fits-all mold, workflows adapt and mold themselves around the unique life cycle of each case. Workflows breathe life into the cybersecurity process, transforming it from a static chore into a dynamic dance of defense.

Torq’s Hyperautomation: A New Dawn in Cybersecurity

Our approach at Torq is a game-changer in case management. Instead of bolting automation onto dated case management systems, we’ve designed our case management system as an integral part of a powerful no-code automation foundation, ditching the messy bolt-on experience most SOC teams struggle with for an organically embedded case management process. What does this mean in practical terms? Let’s break it down with some clear examples:

1. Dynamic Case Tailoring: Consider a scenario where suspicious activity is detected from a list of IP addresses. With traditional systems, you might be constrained by pre-defined case layouts and parameters. With Torq, the case can be dynamically modified on the fly using workflows (i.e., surfacing relevant information or even remediation workflows as quick buttons to the case), adapting to intel as it comes in.

Automatic alert triage and investigation mapping malicious IP address activity to MITRE ATT&CK framework techniques with intelligent automatic investigation and remediation workflows

2. Intuitive Workflows Over Configuration Panels: Torq liberates SOC architects from sifting through overwhelming configuration panels. Want to add a new data enrichment step? Simply tweak the workflow. It’s as straightforward as connecting a new step in a visual editor, without a single line of code.

Drag and drop simplicity of connecting steps in a visual editor.

3. Automated Remediation Built-In: Remediation isn’t an afterthought; it’s part of the process. If the case’s workflow identifies a malicious email, it can automatically initiate remediation steps, like isolating affected systems or revoking email access, all within the same case environment.

4. Intelligence at Your Fingertips: Traditional SOAR systems separate threat intelligence from case data, requiring teams to hop between different platforms. With Torq, observables and indicators of compromise (IOCs) like IP addresses and file hashes are first-class citizens, easily accessible and actionable within the case.

Automatic analysis of IP address reputation with the attack origin locations and contextual information allowed with the associated tactics, techniques, and procedures from third-party threat intelligence information.

5. Lifecycle Triggers for Contextual Actions: The dynamic nature of Torq empowers SOC architects to set up triggers based on case milestones. For instance, when a case moves to the investigation stage, a workflow could automatically pull in additional forensic data, notify team leads, or modify the case’s layout as it evolves.

The numerous and varied case management triggers that can be customized to meet your organization’s needs.

The power of automation is harnessed when it’s organically embedded into the case management process, not slapped on as an afterthought. This provides a more cohesive and efficient system for handling security events.

Our emphasis is not on rigid configuration panels that can stifle response flexibility. Instead, Torq’s system is designed to harness the full potential of dynamic workflows. We empower analysts and architects to craft unique response strategies tailored to specific threats and organizational needs. Security professionals are not restrained by the limitations of their tools. With Torq, they are free to innovate, adapt, and respond with unparalleled precision.

The Torq Difference: Dynamic Control Across the Lifecycle

Another thing that sets Torq apart is the degree of control we’ve built-in throughout the case’s lifecycle. In traditional SOAR platforms, playbooks–though groundbreaking for their time– are often employed merely as remediation tools. Torq’s approach is more holistic. Every stage, from detection to analysis and finally to remediation, can be steered by dynamic workflows. This ensures that the system is always in tune with what’s occuring in a case, leading to spot-on accuracy and timely responses.

Furthermore, Torq’s platform eliminates the need for redundant back-and-forth between separate systems. Integrating no-code automation into the fabric of case management means that every action, automated or manual, is executed within a unified environment. It’s a symphony orchestra where every instrument, no matter how disparate, plays in perfect harmony.

The Future of Hyperautomation is Here

We’re at a turning point in cybersecurity. On the one hand, threats are multiplying and evolving at a pace that’s hard to keep up with. Conversely, the tools and systems at our disposal are often found wanting. But with Torq’s innovative approach to case management, the tide is turning.

By placing powerful hyperautomation at the heart of our platform, we’ve ushered in a new era in cybersecurity operations that prioritizes agility, precision, and efficiency. Legacy SOAR platforms had their moment in the sun. As the landscape changes, so must our tools. Torq is lighting the way to a safer, more secure digital future in this fast-changing arena.

Want to learn more about how Torq can dramatically enhance your security workflows so you can stay ahead of emerging threats? Test drive Torq Hyperautomation, here: https://torq.io/demo/

The 5 Hidden Costs of SOAR

Every investment in SOAR is accompanied with the hidden costs of onboarding and troubleshooting. The licensing structure SOAR brings to an organization is outdated and overpriced. The value of SOAR drastically declined when it transitioned its primary focus from being a force-multiplying automation solution to a glorified ticketing system still requiring countless professional service hours. In fact, 90% of security professionals claim that their SOAR needed upfront investment to build automation workflows and response playbooks. 

Here are 5 hidden costs of SOAR no SecOps professional can afford to ignore:

1. Initial setup and implementation costs

SecOps is routinely shocked by the astronomical professional services and deployment costs SOAR involves. In contrast, Torq users experience a 10X+ operational and productivity boost just weeks after deployment. From day one, organizations can enjoy serious ROI via Torq’s cost savings by maximizing team productivity and process effectiveness with the Torq Insights dashboard. It granularly measures time savings and operational efficiency for total visibility into the hyperautomation platform’s impact.

2. Ongoing maintenance and support for self-managed infrastructure

As organizations adapt and calibrate their SOAR platforms, they discover the need for continuous monitoring, troubleshooting, and adjustments to ensure peak efficiency and adaptability for evolving threat landscapes. Simply put, the greater the maintenance required, the greater the price tag. 

3. Hiring personnel and expertise

Qualified SecOps professionals are getting scarce. They’re in demand and the competition to secure them is severe. This is compounded by existing SecOps teams that are understaffed and burning out. All Torq customers benefit from dedicated technical experts that help organizations achieve their automation goals at no extra cost. Say goodbye to surprise consulting bills that cost more than the automation solution.

4. Cost of custom development required on top of SOAR

What SOAR solution providers fail to disclose is the additional set of expenses necessary to provide custom development. Organizations with a SOAR often find themselves needing customized solutions to align the system with their unique operational requirements and existing security stack.

5. Expensive reconfiguration of inflexible playbooks and workflows 

In an effort for organizations to be agile in combating security landscape changes, automation sequences set in an organizations SOAR platform are often not up to par for addressing the complexities of today’s threat landscape. If organizations fail to adapt, they could face delayed response times and decreased agility.

It’s Time to Break Up With Your SOAR…

Seriously, stop settling. There are no strings attached or hidden costs with hyperautomation. The choice is clear. Hyperautomation’s radically different approach delivers a much better correlation between price and value. Need more reasons to ditch your Legacy SOAR? Download our Manifesto to learn exactly why SOAR is Dead.

8 Key Benefits of Using Hyperautomation

SOAR was never built for hybrid cloud adoption at enterprise scale. SOAR’s complexity, critical operational holes, and technical limitation, make the fatal flaw sinking your organization’s ship. If you’re still using outdated Legacy SOAR, it’s time to make the switch TODAY. 

Here are the 8 key benefits of using hyperautomation

1. Simplicity

You don’t need to be a developer or experienced security professional to create powerful workflows in minutes with never-seen-before efficiency. The solution is powerful enough for the most complex threat responses, yet easy enough to deploy with a drag-and-drop interface. Unlike legacy SOAR solutions, multiple teams can eliminate repetitive security tasks with automations that can be created in minutes.

2. Extensibility

With Hyperautomation, you can empower your organization beyond security by connecting to collaboration, communication, infrastructure applications, and more. Whether it’s on-prem on in the cloud, Torq provides near-limitless connectivity to any system in your stack.

3. Enterprise-Grade Architecture

Torq is cloud-native, built on secure, zero-trust architecture, with elastic, horizontal scalability with flexible SLAs. It provides enterprise-grade immutable activity and audit logs to meet the most stringent compliance requirements, as well as granular scope, and role-based access control. 

4. Real ROI, Productivity, and Cost Savings

From day one, organizations can measure Torq’s cost savings by maximizing team productivity and process effectiveness with the Torq Insights dashboard. It granularly measures time savings and operational efficiency for total visibility into the hyperautomation platform’s impact. With Torq Hyperautomation, you’ll receive 10X+ operational and productivity boost just weeks after deployment.

5. Intelligent Case Management with Automated Contextual Resolution

Torq transforms large numbers of security events and signals into contextually-enriched cases, ordered by severity, priority, and field of ownership. It then orchestrates the analysis and remediation of security cases by centrally tracking all relevant activities and decisions, accelerating the detection, analysis, and response of security issues, freeing up significant analyst time to focus on strategic activities.

6. No Costly Professional Services

All Torq customers benefit from dedicated technical experts that help organizations achieve their automation goals at no extra cost. Say goodbye to surprise consulting bills that cost more than the automation solution.

7. Connect Every App and Stack

You never need to punch holes in your firewall for VPN services or reverse proxies. Torq uses zero-trust containerized agents to make outbound-only connections for on-premise connectivity.

8. Integrate Anything. Automate Everything.

Gain vast flexibility to expand use cases with capabilities such as SSH, PowerShell, SQL, Python, BASH, Kubernetes, AWS, GCP, Azure CLI, or other scripting or programming languages. Run multiple scripting languages concurrently within automation workflows.

The Writing’s On The Wall…SOAR is Dead

Simply put, your SOAR is hindering your organization. Hyperautomation equips your organization for the demands of modern cybersecurity. 

We’re just getting started… The SOAR is Dead Manifesto has the details on exactly why SOAR has been put to rest.

5 Reasons Why SOAR is Dead

SOAR is dead. At first glance, that might be a bold statement, but the writing’s on the wall. While SOAR may have been a thing in the past, it’s not built for hybrid cloud adoption at enterprise scale. Cue, Torq Hyperautomation

Here are 5 reasons why SOAR is dead: 

Disconnected Defenses

Lack of connectivity with ever-expanding tools = red flag. The traditional SOAR operating model is slow and inflexible. Legacy SOAR is built upon an outdated architecture that can’t meet the hyperconnectivity and scalability to address modern threats. Guess what? Torq Hyperautomation not only allows you to create workflows in minutes, but it allows you to do it without professional services. 

SOAR is Purely Reactive

You can’t be ahead of modern cyber threats if you’re a half a step behind. It’s not enough to just automate tasks around incident response, organizations need a solution that prevents incidents happening in the first place. Hyperautomation performs proactive, automated tasks like regular vulnerability assessments, configuration reviews, contextual threat intelligence, user behavior and insider threat monitoring, and threat hunting that prevent incidents while providing incident reports. Simply put, Hyperautomation allows you to stay ahead of the curve, SOAR keeps you a part of the pack. 

Limited Events Processing 

Pre-configured responses are a thing of the past. SOAR was built as a standard monolithic architecture, in which the entire application is deployed as a single entity, typically running on a single server or cluster of servers. You can’t teach a dog new tricks. Making SOAR extend beyond these configurations is too time-consuming, costly, and even potentially impossible to complete, as it typically requires the entire environment to be rebuilt and redeployed to upscale the entire system as a whole, instead of individual components. 

Narrow and Incomplete Visibility 

Lack of visibility? That’s sketchy. SOAR’s lack of a cloud-native architecture means they cannot deliver full visibility into on-premise, hybrid, and public or private cloud environments. Hyperautomation utilizes modern zero-trust containerized agents making outbound-only connections for on-premise environment connectivity. 

Hidden Costs 

You wouldn’t pay for a Ferrari to get a Prius, so why would you pay more for SOAR? The price tag and value don’t add up. SOAR’s licensing was based on the number of analysts or users in the organization, but that changed when it became a ticketing system, decreasing its value. Hyperautomation’s radically different approach delivers a much better correlation between price and the value received. There are also no hidden costs associated with hyperautomation.

Torq Hyperautomation achieves 10X Faster ROI Compared to Legacy SOAR

Torq Hyperautomation analyzes cyberthreats at scale with unprecedented ease and efficiency, using built-in advanced AI capabilities that SOAR completely lacks. 

I’ve only scratched the surface on this topic… read the SOAR is Dead Manifesto to see exactly why SOAR has been put to rest: https://torq.io/resources/soar-dead-manifesto/

It Takes a Cybervillage: Torq Collaborates With Team8’s Ecosystem at CISO Summit

Torq firmly believes in Team8’s philosophy that it takes a village to address the escalation in critical cyberthreats. This is why Torq is collaborating with Team8’s vast ecosystem of partners to unleash the most advanced hyperautomation solutions possible, which seamlessly integrate across the Team8 community.

We’re excited to showcase Torq Hyperautomation at Team8’s CISO Summit in Tel Aviv during Innovation Day on June 21. It’s an exclusive gathering for C-level leaders to discuss the evolving role of CISOs, the latest trends and technologies, mutual opportunities, common challenges, and pathways to success.

“The Torq team is really looking forward to taking part in Team8’s CISO Summit, which is bringing together an incredible braintrust of global C-level executives to address some of the most pressing and important topics in cybersecurity today,” said Ofer Smadari, CEO and Co-Founder, Torq. “Torq is delivering significant value to Team8’s ecosystem with our Enterprise-Grade Hyperautomation platform, which is automating the most complex security infrastructures at dramatic scale. We look forward to productive dialogs at CISO Summit that drive effective solutions.”

Here’s what founders of Team8 companies are saying about working with Torq:

“The combination of Talon and Torq enables organizations to maintain robust security across their workforce without impacting productivity. Through the power of Talon’s Enterprise Browser and Torq’s Hyperautomation platform, organizations are able to simplify and improve enterprise security in an extremely powerful way. We look forward to continuing to work together to add joint value for customers.” 

– Ofer Ben-Noon, CEO, Talon

“Through our partnership with Torq, Dig Security customers can quickly automate full remediations through a single hyperautomation system to improve overall data security posture, and stop data exfiltration in real time.”

– Dan Benjamin, CEO and Co-Founder & CEO, Dig Security

“Torq and Gem share a mutual vision of transforming cloud security operations. Together, we give customers the tools they need to better automate cloud detection and response, enabling seamless workflows to stop threats faster.”

– Arie Zilberstein, CEO, Gem

“Our integration with Torq allows our mutual customers to benefit from a fully-automated lifecycle on remediating supply chain security findings. It works across multiple organizational units and drives them with human-in-the-loop resolution. Now customers experience faster responses, cutting a lot of time from MTTR and keeping the operation more efficient and secure.”

– Neatsun Ziv, CEO and Co-Founder, OX Security

“IONIX’s remediation Action Items, together with Torq’s flexible hyperautomation workflows, align remediation tasks with the way that security operations actually work. Now, customers can spend less time on routing tickets manually and further reduce their MTTM (Mean Time To Mitigate) exposure across their attack surface.”

– Marc Gaffan, CEO, IONIX

Ready to learn more about how Torq Hyperautomation can transform your organization? Schedule a demo, now!

Torq is an inaugural WIZ Integration (WIN) Launch Partner

Torq has been hand selected as a Wiz Integration (WIN) launch partner, bringing the power of Torq Hyperautomation to WIN, so that our joint customers can continue to seamlessly integrate Wiz into their workflows, empowering them to automate their response.

“Torq and Wiz work seamlessly together to give us a major real-time advantage in mitigating the ever-evolving cloud-based threat landscape.”

Jemuel Dalino, Application and Engineering Security Manager, Agoda

WIN enables Torq to deliver actionable remediation and response to threats with a full audit trail of automated security actions. Torq and Wiz work seamlessly together to provide a real-time advantage in mitigating the ever-evolving cloud-based threat landscape with comprehensive contextual and accurate malicious activity identification. And Torq frees up security teams’ precious time, empowering them to focus on strategic business initiatives without being overwhelmed by cloud alerts.

“Over 50% of our customers are utilizing our Wiz integration in order to strengthen their hyperautomation workflows and I’m thrilled for us to have been selected as a WIN launch Partner. I look forward to strengthening our relationship for the benefit of our joint customers.”

Eldad Livni, Co-Founder and CINO, Torq.

The combined value of Wiz and Torq streamline security for organizations that are on a cloud journey.

“A best-in-class cloud operating model reduces risk, improves ROI, and drives efficiency,” said Oron Noah, Director of Product Management, Wiz. “That value proposition is what lies at the heart of WIN, and what Torq as a partner helps to make a reality. This collaborative philosophy brings real customer benefits, and we are so thankful to have Torq on board for this launch.”

Interested to learn more about the power of Torq and Wiz together, schedule a demo.

Fix Cybersecurity Tool Sprawl with Hyperautomation

The evolution of cybersecurity tools is nothing short of remarkable, but I suppose they had to be when it isn’t just the Morris Worm you’re worried about. There has been a wave of buzz around the latest technology in years gone by. EDR evolved into MDR, then SASE, and in recent times we’ve seen Immutable Backup take the front seat.

But hey, I’m sure you can’t go far wrong by investing in all these kinds of technologies. The more the merrier, right? Depending on what you read, the number of cybersecurity-related technologies that enterprises have integrated and deployed in their infrastructure is between 45-70*, which is absurd. So, when there are vendors that are working in unison and supporting the idea of a better integrated and more visible cyber picture, it sounds like a win-win. This idea of your EDR, SASE and Email Security vendor working in tandem is a dream come true, right?

Some things don’t change unfortunately, and cybersecurity teams and CISOs are still being asked to do the impossible. Those age-old problems don’t budge easily: shortage of cyber professionals and resources, and a plethora of cyber vendors offering too many tools and too many processes. “With great tools, come great alerts,” or something along those lines, is what we’re typically told.

Who’s expected to deal with these additional alerts created from all of these technologies? Just because they integrate well, doesn’t mean they’re contributing to what the main focus should be: improving your cybersecurity posture and reducing the risk to your organization’s workforce. 

Some things do change, however. The new generation of CISOs don’t want to overload their teams with work to churn out results. They want to work smarter. They see business, people, and technology as one that can work together to get results.

CISOs are looking at the bigger picture. Empower the cyber teams, let them develop their skill sets, so they can return their knowledge and value back to the company. They’re not relying solely on the latest tech to churn through alerts and let the team on the ground deal with the processes.

The saying goes, “Train your people enough so they can leave, and treat them well enough so they don’t want to.” Nailed it.

Your infrastructure security engineer wants to develop into an AWS architect, but is too busy dealing with CSPM alerts. Your cyber analyst has aspirations of being a CISO themselves one day, but is bogged down by suspicious user activity, and misses all those opportunities to gain additional knowledge, learning how to present and communicate better, or simply lacks a development in strategic mindset to tackle problems. And that lack of development means they look elsewhere. Cybersecurity roles are notorious for job hopping, and I think that’s because the dreams of complex, technical and exciting projects are brushed away by daily firefighting.

Give the power back to the people, including the techies that are literally running the show, and retain them longer. But how? First, strip your mind of all pre-existing knowledge and thoughts on legacy SOAR. Those time consuming, low use case producing, pro-services heavy technologies are a thing of the past.

Hyperautomation is reforming how cyber teams, top to bottom, left to right, are approaching their CyberSecOps. The time to automate every task that comes from the latest and greatest cyber technologies you invest in, because it’s perfectly viable, is now. Torq’s enterprise-grade security hyperautomation has  made that possible.

The barrier to entry is no longer a dedicated DevSecOps team of 5 who can code in every language A through Z. Cyber and dev teams have spent years trying to create use cases with legacy SOAR vendors, and might be lucky if they publish 4 or 5 workflows/playbooks in a year. With Torq, the entry need only be a laptop, mouse and keyboard. Maybe a slight oversimplification, but it’s not far wrong. The ability to imagine, create and publish a workflow is now astonishingly rapid with Torq.

So, yes, the latest tech tools are great to have, the integrations will no doubt provide you with additional advantages and help secure your workforce, and sure they’ll do what they say on the tin. But the real power in your CyberSecOps is their new found time, being in control of alerts and tasks, and effectively remediating all of those alerts with a hands-off approach where possible. Torq is the tool to augment everything you have, say (and show) how we give time back to your teams,  as well as increase the efficacy and ROI of other tools. Here’s a sneak peek at what time you could be saving:

If you’ve miraculously found time between all your alerts to read this, don’t take my word for it; put our hyperautomation platform to the test. Any and all CyberSecOps or CloudOps processes you want automating – we’ve got you!

CSPM, IAM, alert remediation, email phishing response, threat hunting, and secure access to sensitive data – honestly the list is only limited to your imagination (or in my case, a word count).

* https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/organizations-76-security-tools/

Building Efficient SecOps Pipelines with AWS Security Lake and Torq

Amazon Security Lake automatically centralizes an organization’s security data from cloud, on-premises, and custom sources it into a purpose-built data lake stored in a customer’s AWS account.

Amazon Security Lake reduces the complexity and costs for customers to make their security solutions data accessible to address a variety of security use cases such as threat detection, investigation, and incident response. Amazon Security Lake is one of the many solutions that now supports the Open Cybersecurity Schema Framework (OCSF), an open industry standard, making it easier to normalize and combine security data from AWS and dozens of enterprise security data sources. 

Operationalizing the above (and additional) scenarios on top of the security data lake requires a set of basic building blocks that can either be used directly by SecOps professionals, or combined into larger workflows driving specific outcomes.

Executing Automated Actions as a Response to Security Events

As an Amazon Security Lake subscriber, Torq consumes logs and events from Security Lake. In order to control costs and adhere to least privilege access best practices, Torq workflows can be automatically notified of new Amazon S3 objects for a source as the objects are written to the Amazon Security Lake by setting up one or more data access subscribers.  Data access subscribers are notified of new Amazon S3 objects for a source as the objects are written to the Security Lake data lake.

In Torq, this notification is received in an Integration Webhook, so the first step of the configuration process is to create a new Webhook integration in Torq, as described in Torq’s documentation here. Take note of the resulting Webhook integration URL (endpoint), as it will be needed to set up a data access subscriber in Amazon Security Lake.

Completing the creation of the subscriber also requires setting up a new AWS Integration in Torq, as described in Torq’s documentation here. This integration will also be used afterwards to pull data from the Security Lake in Torq Workflows. As described in Torq’s documentation, setting up an AWS Integration requires creating a new Role in AWS Identity and Access Management. For that role to be able to pull data from the security lake, please sure to add the following permission policies to the role:

  1. Create a new IAM Policy with the following contents:
{    "Version": "2012-10-17",    "Statement": [        {            "Sid": "AllowInvokeApiDestination",            "Effect": "Allow",            "Action": [                "events:InvokeApiDestination"            ],            "Resource": [                "arn:aws:events:*:{accountId}:api-destination/AmazonSecurityLake*/*"            ]        }    ]}

Make sure to replace “{accountId}” in the JSON above with your own AWS Account ID.

  1. Add this policy to the Permissions Policies for role you’re creating for Torq’s Integration
  2. Add the following policy to the Permissions Policies of the role AmazonAthenaFullAccess (this is needed to enable querying, writing results, and data management through Amazon Athena, which is how Torq workflows will query data from the AWS Security Lake.

While setting up the AWS Integration in Torq, take note of the Torq Account ID and the AWS External ID, as you will need these in the process for creating a custom subscriber 

Next, follow the following steps to set up a new Data Access Subscriber through your AWS Console:

  1. Open the Amazon Security Lake console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/securitylake/.
  2. In the navigation pane, choose Subscribers.
  3. Click Create subscriber.
  4. For Subscriber details, enter the subscriber’s name and (optionally) a description.
  5. For Log and event sources, choose from which sources you want to receive notifications in your previously created Torq webhook (you can choose whether you want to send notifications from all your Amazon Security Lake sources to Torq or select specific sources for each subscriber).
  6. For Data access method, choose S3 to set up data access for the subscriber.
  7. For Subscriber credentials, provide the Torq Account ID and the AWS External ID you got from AWS integration in Torq for AWS account ID and external ID, respectively.
  8. For Notification details, select Subscription endpoint so that your Amazon Security Lake can send notifications through EventBridge to the HTTPS endpoint of the Torq Webhook created previously.
  9. For Service Access, select the IAM role named AWSServiceRoleForAmazonEventBridgeApiDestinations, which is automatically created during the Amazon Security Lake set up process when run from the AWS Console, and which gives EventBridge permission to invoke API destinations and send object notifications to the correct endpoints.
  10. Provide the Torq Webhook integration URL (endpoint) as the subscription endpoint
  11. Choose Create.
  12. Check the configuration of Subscription associated with the Amazon SNS Topic which has been created as a result of the previous steps, and verify that Raw message delivery is enabled for the Subscription. Enable it by editing the Subscription if it wasn’t.

Schematic configuration of Amazon Security Lake subscribers triggering Torq workflows

Depending on the settings you defined in step #5 above (Log and event sources) it might be necessary to define trigger conditions in your Torq workflows triggered from Amazon Security Lake events. Here’s an example of a trigger condition meant to restrict a workflow to be triggered by Route53 events in Amazon Security Lake from a region us-east-1 only:

A Torq workflow trigger condition definition example to restrict a workflow to be triggered only by Amazon Security Lake events for a specific account id, region and data source (such as AWS Route53)

Querying Data from Security Data Lake

The Amazon Security Lake creation and set up process run from the AWS console, automatically registers each Security Lake region as a new Database in AWS Athena.

AWS Athena is a serverless service which allows querying Amazon Security Lake S3 data (with an S3 bucket per region for which the Security Lake has been enabled) using SQL.

Querying Amazon Security Lake from Torq Workflows using SQL through AWS Athena

Querying Amazon Security Lake data from Torq workflows, either automatically triggered from Security Lake events, scheduled to periodically pull notifications of new objects by polling an Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS) queue or run on-demand to search for specific data in the Security Lake, can be easily implemented by using SQL in AWS CLI steps to query Athena’s API.

The following figures illustrates the process of querying Amazon Security Lake from Torq Workflows in 3 steps:

  1. Creating a dynamic SQL query for AWS Athena:
  1. Using AWS CLI to execute the query in AWS Athena:
  1. The result of Athena SQL queries is stored as a csv document in S3 and can be easily pulled into a Torq workflow by using an AWS S3 Read File step, and then the Convert CSV to JSON step from Torq Utilities to simplify data extraction and transformation in later steps in the workflow:

Bringing It All Together

Operationalizing Security Operations with fully automated or human-in-the-loop pipelines using the above “building blocks” is a process consisting of the following phases:

  1. Identifying the relevant security events:

    Torq triggers can be configured with conditions, expected from the delivered event, in order to start performing automatic actions. In some cases, looking just at the event data might not be sufficient to decide whether it requires a certain security follow-up or not. For these scenarios, following up with additional automated enrichment and investigatory steps can be performed with Torq workflow steps.
  1. Defining the required enrichment / hydration data:

    Upon receiving a security event that has a potential for a follow-up, certain parts of it, such as (but not limited to) User Identifiers, Device Identifiers, Network Addresses, etc… should be retrieved for further enrichment with additional systems (IAM, CMDB, Threat Intelligence and more) by introducing initial steps in a workflow triggered by security lake events.
  1. Building the pipelines – what happens when the event occurs:

    Defining the response process can take place in an iterative manner. Main questions that need to be addressed are:
    • What additional information do we need to be able to better classify the event
    • Once classified, are there external notification / orchestration systems that need to be updated with this information
    • If building a human-in-the-loop pipeline, which role-players need to be provided an information about this event
    • If performing automatic remediation actions – what are they and which role-players can approve executing them

Summary

Amazon Security Lake provides a flexible and scalable repository for different kinds of security events. In order to  build flexible and scalable security operations, your teams will require this data to be at their fingertips with the ability to efficiently use it and to trigger processes based on it.

Implementing Torq workflows, that can be triggered either

  • Manually by security professionals via Messaging / Chat or Web
  • By identifying specific events reaching the security lake
  • By using detections made by 3rd party security products

In these workflows, following capabilities can be delivered to security professionals:

  • Retrieve data from security lake and present it to security role-players in a convenient fashion
  • Enrich operational systems with context from the security lake
  • Process the security lake data to make decisions on severity and priority of different security events
  • Suggest and execute containment and remediation strategies based on processed contextual data

Examples of these and additional scenarios can be found at Torq Template Library.

Turning Intelligence Into Action with Cybersixgill and Torq

No matter the industry, geography, or organizational size, cybersecurity teams are united by their many shared challenges: talent shortages, expanding attack surfaces driven by digitization and remote work, increasing velocity of software development, and the rapidly growing scope and sophistication of global cybercrime. In response, these teams have embraced and incorporated a range of specialized tools within their defensive arsenal in attempt to address and resolve these issues. Threat intelligence and security automation solutions form the front lines of their battle, yet these pillars of the cybersecurity ecosystem are often disconnected, creating a dangerous gap between intelligence and action.

This divide prevents security teams from deriving the full value from their solutions. Non-actionable threat intelligence increases analyst fatigue with yet another stream of feeds and alerts. While automated security playbooks without context-rich threat data lack the means to validate, prioritize and triage threats, resulting in inefficient processes and extending the MTTR.

By integrating actionable, relevant, context-rich threat intelligence within orchestration automation tools and processes, security teams can unlock the full potential of their existing security stacks – saving precious time and resources while streamlining response and remediation

Turning Intelligence Into Action with Cybersixgill and Torq

Cybersixgill and Torq have partnered to bridge the divide between intelligence and action, operationalizing Cybersixgill’s market-leading threat intelligence through next gen security hyperautomation with Torq. With this strategic partnership, we have pioneered end-to-end, no-intervention threat protection, helping to dramatically reduce MTTR  through customizable, automated workflows and playbooks, triggered by context-rich threat intelligence extracted in real-time from the cybercriminal underground.

Using Torq’s library of automation components, organizations can build an automation infrastructure to orchestrate immediate responses to Cybersixgill’s early warnings of potential threats, allowing teams to build automated, alert-triggered playbooks with any other tool in their environment – without writing a single line of code. 

Alerts from Cybersixgill’s rich threat intelligence insights can be programmed to autonomously initiate incident response workflows in Torq to instantly remediate issues at the first indication of a potential threat. Alternatively, security teams can harness Cybersixgill’s rich threat context to create automated threat hunting workflows, triggering data enrichment upon the arrival of an event or signal discovered through any other security tool. 

Torq and Cybersixgill make it easy for teams to turn manual security processes into automated, intelligence-driven workflows within minutes, eliminating reactive processes to build a resilient, proactive cybersecurity posture.

The Benefits of the Combined Solution

Cybersixgill gives users covert access to our complete body of context-rich threat intelligence from the deep, dark & clear web, including limited-access forums and markets, invite-only messaging groups, code repositories, paste sites and clear web platforms. We correlate our threat intelligence with each customers’ defined organizational assets, alerting teams to relevant threats at the earliest indication of risk, enabling preemptive action to be taken before they can materialize into an attack.

Torq’s enterprise-grade security hyperautomation platform unifies and automates the entire security infrastructure to deliver unparalleled protection and productivity. Torq drives maximum value and efficiency from existing security investments. It supercharges security teams with powerful, easy-to-use no-code, low-code, and full-code workflows that reduce manual tasks, freeing security professionals to focus on higher-value strategic activities.

Together, the combined solutions help users:

  • Reduce risk with automated end-to-end intelligence-driven security workflows- Identify, capture and block threats as they emerge with seamlessly deployed playbooks to accelerate Mean Time to Respond and better secure your environment. 
  • Save time and maximize team productivity- Eliminate manual work with automated workflows triggered by actionable and relevant threat intelligence data – built and deployed in minutes with no need for developers, professional third party services or month-long implementation delays
  • Minimize cost and maximize resources- with a consolidated end-to-end no-intervention threat protection solution that allows you to make the most out of your existing security stack, with faster time to value.
  • Optimize operations- by automating repeatable security processes, allowing you to shift valuable resources to higher priority tasks.

Schedule a demo to learn more about Torq Hyperautomation.