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Staying Ahead of Evolving Threats with SecOps and SOAR Breadcrumb Home Insights Blog Staying Ahead of Evolving Threats with SecOps and SOAR June 02, 2025 Modern security operations are under increasing pressure from the rapidly evolving threat landscape, and traditional security operations (SecOps) are struggling to keep pace with modern threats. To stay ahead, organizations must adopt strategies that bridge talent gaps, integrate tools effectively and advance their security maturity. Security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) platforms play a pivotal role in enabling this transformation. Prefer to watch? Find this SecOps and SOAR discussion, featuring Optiv’s Kyle Speck and Jeremy Welch, by visiting the link below. SecOps and SOAR: How to Stay Ahead of Evolving Threats Why Traditional SecOps is Falling Behind Traditional SecOps frameworks rely heavily on siloed tools and human triage to manage an overwhelming flood of alerts. This approach is increasingly unsustainable in the face of modern threats that are faster, more automated and more sophisticated. Attackers today are leveraging AI to enhance their capabilities, turning unskilled adversaries into threats. This explosion in attack sophistication and volume results in alert fatigue, false positives, outdated playbooks and limited visibility for analysts. Plus, every time a new tool is introduced, it brings a new set of data, a new presentation of this data and a new schema that your analysts have to be able to understand. Security teams are drowning in complexity. Security analysts are spending more time navigating disparate systems (“swivel-chairing”) than performing proactive threat hunting. The result is burnout, turnover and a persistent skills gap within security operations centers (SOCs). In this environment, legacy processes and disconnected tools simply do not scale. Modern SecOps demands automation, real-time correlation and contextual awareness. Continuous adaptation is no longer optional—it's essential. The Role of SOAR in Modern Security Operations SOAR platforms are powerful automation engines that streamline incident response by orchestrating processes from end to end: triage, enrichment, contextualization, baseline analysis, and even remediation and response. By automating routine and data-heavy tasks, SOAR enables analysts to focus on what only humans can do. For example, in the enrichment phase, SOAR can aggregate threat intelligence from multiple sources into a single, contextualized view. This not only accelerates triage but also enhances decision-making quality. While AI embedded in SIEM platforms can enrich data and provide recommendations, it lacks the full orchestration and case management capabilities of SOAR. AI typically enriches based on its training data, which may not include proprietary or in-house tools. SOAR, on the other hand, acts as a central control plane that integrates across the entire security stack, automates remediation and manages workflows with visibility and auditability. Critically, most organizations still require a human in the loop for high-impact decisions, such as quarantining endpoints or disabling accounts, due to the inherent risk. AI can assist, summarize, and even suggest playbooks, but human oversight remains essential. Avoiding Common Pitfalls in SOAR Adoption One of the most common missteps organizations make is attempting to implement overly complex use cases as their first push into SOAR. The result is frustration and delayed ROI. The better approach is incremental, starting with simple, utility-driven use cases that provide immediate value and build stakeholder buy-in. A great starting point is automating case assignments. Although it may seem mundane, automating this process can significantly reduce the administrative burden on analysts and demonstrate tangible value. Once adoption is established, more complex use cases can be introduced iteratively. Enhancing Threat Management and Hunting SOAR is particularly effective in improving threat management by automating data-focused, repetitive and error-prone processes. This automation accelerates the identification of real threats and provides faster paths to containment and remediation. Beyond reactive responses, SOAR enables proactive capabilities. Integrated with CMDBs and threat intelligence feeds, SOAR can automatically identify assets vulnerable to newly published CVEs even before they’re weaponized. It can trigger remediation workflows or generate tickets for manual intervention, shifting the organization’s posture from reactive to preventive. SOAR also enhances threat hunting programs by providing fast, orchestrated access to data across the security stack. This reduces the manual effort of correlating indicators and identifying affected systems, allowing analysts to hunt threats more effectively and at scale. Accelerating Security Maturity To realize the full value of SOAR, organizations must align technology with people and processes. Successful programs incorporate several strategic principles: Proactive Operations: Moving from alert response to proactive detection and prevention is critical. Automation frees up analysts to focus on strategic threat hunting and continuous improvement Standardized Processes: Consistent, documented and measurable processes for triage, escalation, containment and review help organizations mature beyond basic knowledge Outcome-Oriented Integration: Rather than focusing on siloed technologies, organizations should integrate tools around business outcomes. This includes addressing organizational silos and aligning teams toward shared goals Human Augmentation: Automation and AI are not replacements for human expertise. Instead, they act as force multipliers, enabling analysts to work more efficiently and focus on high-value activities Measuring What Matters: Metrics are essential for evaluating effectiveness and guiding improvements. While SIEMs often fall short in this area, SOAR platforms can provide detailed operational metrics — including time and cost savings Building an Effective SOAR Strategy A successful SOAR implementation begins with a clear vision and a phased strategy. Identifying high-impact, low-complexity use cases provides a solid foundation. These should be mapped against business goals, time investment and expected ROI. Equally important is ensuring that frontline analysts — those who will be using SOAR day-to-day — have a voice in the process. Involving them early and often ensures that the platform addresses real pain points and gains long-term adoption. Some SOAR platforms even provide reporting features that quantify time and cost savings, helping justify continued investment and demonstrating value to stakeholders. Tailored Support for SOAR and SecOps Modernization Organizations don’t have to tackle SOAR implementation and SecOps transformation alone. Expert partners can offer tailored solutions, whether it’s deploying and managing SOAR, augmenting internal teams with co-managed services or accelerating implementation with prebuilt playbooks and proven frameworks. By continuously aligning services to business needs and holding regular reviews to assess performance and opportunities for improvement, managed service providers can help organizations maximize the impact of their investment and accelerate their security maturity. Whether building from scratch or modernizing an existing SOC, support from a trusted partner can significantly reduce time to value and enhance long-term outcomes. If you have any questions about your organization can leverage SecOps and SOAR to face the challenges of the current threat landscape, Optiv experts are here to help. By: Jeremy Welch Principal Consultant – SOAR By: Kyle Speck Practice Manager – SOC Technology Share: SOAR SecOps security orchestration automation and response (SOAR)