When it comes to automation everything counts— whether that’s being a master of coding or the jedi of drag and drop SOAR objects. In the end what matters is to be fast on using API endpoints instead of clicking shaded buttons. If you agree with this, BigID’s API documentation is here to save your day. Everything you can do through the UI, can be done by calling directly what is behind the veil.
By leveraging BigID’s API with a SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), Security Orchestration, Automation, Response (SOAR) platform, and case management, we can have the best of all worlds, and enjoy the magic of the automations.
Automating IR Processes with BigID
In today’s day and age, automation for Security Operations and Incident Response teams is absolutely critical. With data security on the rise for many organizations, it is pivotal that we can develop automations to better protect your sensitive data. BigID’s API is essential for automating tasks that are usually performed manually through the user interface. This automation significantly boosts companies’ overall workflow efficiency. The REST API endpoints enable straightforward integration into the existing applications, automating various processes and providing access to external data sources seamlessly. Ultimately, using the API enhances the applications’ functionalities by enabling smooth communication with other services. BigID has a comprehensive list of integrations that fits most of the use cases.
Before trying automation, we need to ensure that we have the proper technologies to alert and give us the telemetry needed to execute the automation. When looking at data that has public access or attempted exfiltration, it is imperative that the correct technologies are in place before building the playbook to ease our lives from manual tasks.
Leveraging SOAR and SIEM
Starting with an SSPM solution, we send alerts related to our SaaS environments and store them into our SIEM, in a dedicated index. The idea of this is basically to have not only a single destination of all vendors’ alerts, but a single source of alerting truth and correlation, before triggering our SOAR platform.
When the SOAR platform is actioned, we use it not only to create a chain of events into our case management platform, but to collect more context about the initial alert. And it is here where BigID’s platform enters the game, by providing the needed and updated context about some alerts, like “External Access”, where an internal file is shared with someone outside of the company domain, “Abnormal number of files deleted” where it is detected that someone deleted an abnormal number of files from cloud storage or “Exfiltration of data”, where an alert is triggered when an abnormal number of corporate files are downloaded. For each use case, BigID can for example help with:
- External Access
- Validate what kind of data is inside the permissive object
- Determine who it was shared with
- What information did the files include
- Calculate the unique hash of the files
This added context enables security teams to better assess and respond to actual threats, thus minimizing false positives.
Because we agree that security teams need fast actions, BigID’s cloud security team creates ephemeral resources, like platform scans, data sources and even dedicated scanners using our API. This helps us to scan just the assets that were present in the SSPM alerts, with dedicated resources, to avoid falling in queued events. Because let’s be real, security teams can’t justify assigning someone to build assets manually every time an alert triggers or wait for someone’s scan to finish for us to grab the needed context. After pulling the information we require and sending it to our case management system, we can simply destroy them tidily to avoid additional cloud costs. Automation is the key.
Elevate SecOps with BigID
More context is always great, but at some point the right confidence is enough to remediate a threat. Still cooking inside the SOAR playbook, we can trigger everything that falls into the BigID’s Marketplace using our powerful API capabilities. Delegation of the remediation, labeling, access removal and data deletion are just few examples of what can be done.
The power to elevate your Security Operations lies not just in sophisticated tools, but in connecting them effectively. BigID’s comprehensive API provides the crucial link, transforming manual data discovery and context gathering into automated, efficient workflows. By integrating BigID with your SSPM, SIEM, SOAR, and case management platforms via its API, you move beyond clicking buttons to orchestrating rapid and informed responses. This API-first approach is the enabler of dynamic scanning, precise context enrichment for alerts like external sharing or data exfiltration, and even automated remediation, ultimately allowing your security team to act faster, reduce false positives, and focus on genuine threats with greater confidence.
Don’t let manual processes bottleneck your incident response— book a 1:1 BigID demo with our security experts today.
Frequently Asked Questions About Automated Incident Response
What Role Does an SSPM Platform Play in Incident Response?
An SSPM platform monitors SaaS environments and generates alerts about events such as external file sharing, unusual deletion activity, and possible data exfiltration. Sending these alerts to a SIEM allows security teams to centralize and correlate information before a SOAR platform triggers the appropriate investigation or response workflow.
How do DSPM and SSPM platforms handle scanning for flagged assets without causing performance bottlenecks?
Rather than repeatedly scanning the entire environment, the SSPM and DSPM workflow can concentrate resources on assets associated with a specific alert. BigID uses API-driven orchestration to launch dedicated, temporary scanning resources for the affected data. This helps security teams obtain the necessary context promptly without adding scans to existing workloads or retaining unneeded cloud infrastructure.
How Does BigID Add Context to Security Alerts?
BigID can examine the data associated with an alert to help determine what information an affected file contains, who it was shared with, or whether downloaded or deleted files contained sensitive data. This added context helps security teams understand the potential impact of an event and distinguish genuine threats from lower-risk activity.
How Do SIEM and SOAR Platforms Work Together During Incident Response?
A SIEM collects and correlates alerts from security tools, creating a centralized source of information about potentially suspicious events. A SOAR platform uses those alerts to trigger automated playbooks, gather additional evidence, update case management systems, and initiate response actions. Together, they reduce manual work and help security teams respond more consistently.
What Incident-Response Actions Can Be Automated Through BigID?
BigID’s API and Marketplace integrations can support automated actions such as gathering data context, applying labels, delegating remediation, removing inappropriate access, and deleting data when authorized. Connecting these capabilities to SIEM, SOAR, SSPM, and case management platforms allows security teams to build coordinated response workflows instead of performing each step manually.
Author
