Highlights
Detection is not enough. The first minute after an incident matters
In the daily work of a SOC, the greatest challenge is not the number of alerts, but the time between detection and response. Every minute of delay gives an attacker room to escalate privileges, move laterally, and establish persistence. That is why mature teams increasingly talk about “time to first action” not just MTTR. And this is exactly where SOAR automation stops being an add-on and becomes the foundation of operational security.
Sentinel as a response engine, not just a correlation tool
Microsoft Sentinel combines SIEM and SOAR capabilities in a single tool. Playbooks based on Logic Apps enable an automatic transition from detection to response in a fast, controlled, and auditable way. In practice, a playbook is not a script, but an operational SOC process that can be versioned, monitored, and developed along with the team’s maturity.
Importantly, every playbook execution is logged and monitored, allowing the SOC to analyze not only incidents, but also the effectiveness of the automation itself and its impact on response time.
„Automation does not replace the analyst – it removes everything repetitive and time-consuming from their work and leaves what requires thinking.”
When manual handling stops scaling
At around 150 – 200 incidents per month, manual handling begins to break down. Analysts perform the same tasks: verify users, check IPs, update ITSM tickets, send notifications. All of this is simple, but time-consuming – and time is the most valuable resource, the one that determines the effectiveness of the response.
In a SOC project we delivered for one of our clients – a company in the energy sector – automation was a priority and a condition for maintaining operational quality. The environment included:
- 120 users,
- 38 servers,
- 35 network devices,
- an average of 225 incidents per month,
- 24/7 monitoring and ITSM integration.
The security architecture was based on Microsoft Sentinel and the Microsoft Defender XDR suite (Endpoint, Identity, Office 365, Apps).
The use case that defined the SOC automation architecture
In high-criticality environments, not all incidents are equal. Some become reference points for the entire response architecture. In the project for the energy-sector client, this was the scenario of a suspected privileged account compromise.
Why this one? Because in an energy environment, a mistake in the first minutes of response can have consequences not only in IT, but also in operations. At the same time, privileged accounts are the most common targets of lateral movement and persistence attacks.
Starting point: a process that could not work manually
Before automation, the response looked typical: the analyst reviewed the alert, checked the account in Entra ID, login history, IP reputation, created a ticket in ITSM, and contacted an administrator. Even with an efficient team, this took several to more than a dozen minutes. For a high-risk incident – far too long.
A new approach: automation as a response layer, not an operational shortcut
To act better and faster, we designed the playbook according to the principle: automate everything that is repetitive – leave the decision to the human.
The scenario was built in Microsoft Sentinel using Logic Apps and Defender XDR integrations. Each response was tested on simulated incidents and rolled out gradually to avoid the risk of uncontrolled blocks in the production environment.
How this scenario works in practice
- Detectionand correlation
An alert from Defender for identity is sent to Sentinel and receives “High” severity only when risk conditions are met, reducing the number of false reactions. - Automationrule- the first decision gate
An automation rule decides whether the playbook is triggered, allowing rapid modification of response logic without changing the playbook itself. - Enrichment- full Context in Seconds
The playbook pulls data from Entra ID, Defender XDR, and logs, building the context that previously had to be collected manually by an analyst. - Conditional response
At high risk, the account is temporarily blocked, a password reset is enforced, and the session is marked as suspicious. At medium risk, the incident is passed to the analyst with full context – without automatic blocking. Automation handles the first, critical phase of the response, but does not replace full incident handling. - ITSM andcommunication
In parallel, an incident is created in the ITSM system, and the SOC receives complete information without manual data copying. Every step of the response is auditable and visible in platform logs.
The result: a change in how the SOC works
This single scenario became a template for subsequent playbooks (phishing, malware, suspicious logins, lateral activity). The outcome was clear:
- time to first response dropped from minutes to seconds,
- procedures became repeatable and predictable,
- analysts stopped “putting out alerts,”
- automation supported risk reduction of up to 80% across the entire environment.
„This playbook was the moment when the SOC stopped reacting and started acting”.
The SOC of the future responds automatically
A modern SOC does not win by the number of alerts or dashboards. It wins by response time, consistency of action, and operational resilience.
Microsoft Sentinel provides a solid technological foundation, but only the combination of automation, processes, and team experience makes SOAR truly work.
And when it works – the SOC stops being a monitoring center. It becomes a resilience center.
