Ahmad Issa, Regional Vice President, Cloudera KSA explores how Agentic AI is transforming cybersecurity for Security Operations Centers, easing analyst fatigue, and strengthening cyber resilience
Organizations are venturing into uncharted territories, as they seek innovative solutions to combat increasingly sophisticated threats amid the advancing digital ecosystem. Security Operations Centers (SOC) stand at the first line of battle against threats, tasked with the critical role of preventing, detecting, investigating, and responding to threats in real time.
These escalating complexities and volume of cyber threats cover a myriad of environments, including Agentic AI which has added to the stress of SOC teams, including alert fatigue, skill shortages, and time-consuming processes.
This is evidenced in a survey by Trend Micro that reveals 70% of SOC analysts feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of alerts, leading to alert fatigue and hindering their ability to prioritize and respond to genuine threats effectively. Another report from Tines found that 64% of analysts plan to leave their roles due to stress and burnout.
In addition, the shortage of cybersecurity has added to the problem, as it makes it difficult for organisations to scale their teams and maintain strong defenses.
These issues need to be solved. And quickly. So how can agentic AI help with cybersecurity, build resilient security measures, prevent data breaches and ensure compliance?
A New Frontier in Cybersecurity
GenAI, coupled with Agentic AI, offers a promising approach to address challenges concerning shortage of talent and the growing concerns of cybersecurity. The technology can automate repetitive tasks, which enables proactive threat mitigation, and provides actionable insights. AI is changing how we approach SOCs.
SOC Systems can now actively monitor and respond to threats in real-time, automate routine tasks with minimal human intervention, and provide contextual decision-making support, which reduces the cognitive load on analysts. Building upon the capabilities of GenAI, Agentic AI is incorporating a layer of autonomy and proactivity within the cybersecurity ecosystem.
The Role of AI Agents in SOC Transforming
AI agents are autonomous software systems designed to interact with their environments, gather data, and use that information to autonomously perform tasks aimed to achieve predefined objectives.
For SOCs, these agents represent autonomous, adaptive systems capable of perceiving threats and actioning the response in real-time. For instance, an AI agent tasked with threat detection and response might continuously monitor network traffic, analyze security logs, and correlate data from multiple sources to identify potential threats. Upon detecting an anomaly, the agent can assess the severity, suggest remediation actions, or even execute automated responses like isolating affected systems. If the situation requires more nuanced decision-making or is beyond its scope, the AI agent escalates the incident to human analysts with detailed contextual insights, enabling faster and more informed responses.
Integrating AI Agents with Privately Hosted AI Models
Deploying GenAI models in secure environments ensures data confidentiality. An AI Inference service is a cloud-based tool that allows users to run AI models to make decisions based on new data, for enterprises host these AI models on-premises or in the cloud, maintaining compliance and employing the benefits of AI.
AI agents can interact with these models, and all proprietary data resides within the organization’s Virtual Private Cloud. These agents can interact with enterprise tools and environments for further actions and feedback, enabling seamless compatibility with existing networks.
End-to-End Context with Enterprise Integration
Integrating enterprise-specific data, such as historical incidents, network topology, and response protocols, enables the AI model to generate highly relevant insights. This provisional understanding enhances the model’s accuracy and applicability to the SOC’s unique requirements. By leveraging this comprehensive data integration, AI agents can provide more precise threat detection and response strategies, tailored to the organization’s specific environment.
Key Features and Benefits of Agentic AI
Organizations that employ Agentic AI solutions can save hundreds of analyst hours per month, with automated responses addressing up to 40% of repetitive threat scenarios. This efficiency translates into more focused, high-impact work by SOC teams and a stronger overall security posture.
Key features and benefits include:
Summarization of Incident Events: GenAI can process and condense large volumes of event data, providing analysts with concise summaries of incidents. Instead of sifting through logs and alerts, analysts can quickly understand the scope and nature of an event, allowing for faster decision-making.
Proactive Threat Mitigation: Agentic AI leverages predictive analytics to foresee potential attack vectors and suggests mitigation strategies before a threat fully manifests. This capability helps organizations stay ahead of the game when it comes to cybersecurity.
Suggested Remediation: AI-powered assistants can recommend remediation steps based on the analysis of past incidents and best practices. These suggestions can include isolating affected systems, patching vulnerabilities, or updating security configurations, empowering analysts with actionable insights.
Coding Assistance for Analysts: GenAI can act as a coding assistant, helping analysts develop new investigation notebooks and detection algorithms. This feature simplifies the creation of custom scripts and tools, enabling SOC teams to address unique threats more effectively.
The Future of SOCs
As we venture into these new worlds of cybersecurity, embracing innovative technologies like Agentic AI becomes a necessity. Cyberthreats are no longer easy to tackle and continue to evolve as newer technologies are being discovered. Incorporating AI when the need arises becomes essential when the company’s secured data is at stake.
AI in SOC operations is just the beginning of a broader trend that will see AI become an indispensable tool in combating cyber threats. With its ability to automate processes, analyze vast amounts of data, and provide actionable insights in real-time, AI will continue to be a key enabler of innovation in the cybersecurity space.
The possibilities for AI in cybersecurity are virtually limitless. From predictive threat modeling to autonomous incident response, AI has the potential to change every aspect of how organizations defend against cyber attacks. The commitment of technology companies’ to innovation and security will help organizations remain resilient in the face of emerging threats. With the integration of AI agents and private cloud models, businesses can rest assured that their security operations are equipped to meet the challenges of tomorrow.
