In-Depth Investigations with Agentic AI
Investigations take time for an SOC to conduct operations, as it often requires sifting through logs, correlating events, and reconstructing attack narratives, and while agentic SOC platforms still require review and edits from analysts, they can help with investigations by autonomously performing deep investigations and delivering well-structured reports.
Prophet Security's capabilities reflect the criteria of an agentic SOC platform, automating alert triage and investigation with accuracy. Upon triggering of an alert, Prophet's AI agents sift through logs, perform memory forensics, analyze URLs, and gather endpoint data to examine the threat's scope and impact. The report contains very structured responses that include a verdict indicating maliciousness, root cause analysis, and prescriptive next steps for remediation. This focus allows SOC analysts to continue with tasks like threat-hunting and strategic rather than repetitive data collection.
Agentic platforms are also uniquely suited for complex multi-step investigations. For example, Intezer’s Autonomous SOC integrates with SIEMs and EDRs for recursive analysis that assesses compromised accounts or systems across the environment. Since these forms of agentic platforms maintain state across investigative steps, no unwelcome detail can be omitted, even in extensive enterprise networks. The use of natural language processing also enables systems to be interrogated conversationally for more meaningful analysis.
Automated Workflows for Operational Efficiency
Automation powers today's SOC; however, most traditional SOAR platforms are limited by static playbooks that hinder adaptable collaboration. Agentic SOC platforms avoid these issues, allowing for orchestration of workflows that are dynamic and contextual allowing the practice to scale around the enterprise. They can automate the repetitive and mundane tasks—triaging alerts, phish responses, incident containment—so the security analysts can focus their efforts on higher-value tasks.
Most of this is demonstrated through Torq's Multi-Agent System, which allows for agents to specialize in different tasks, (e.g., data enrichment, code generation, case summarization). As an example with a phishing incident, the Torq platform can autonomously analyze the phishing email's content, check the IOC reputations and conduct environment-wide sweeps to determine which users may have been affected by the phishing attack. Automated containment steps such as blocking domains or terminating sessions—are initiated automatically so the analyst can complete other higher value tasks. As a result, containment time is dramatically reduced.
Human-in-the-loop workflows allow for accountability because analysts can review actions taken by an automated workflow before they are executed. We have seen platforms like Hunters' Pathfinder AI combine agentic automation with guided investigations through workflows, suggesting next steps and refining detections from applicable real-world context in real time. This combination strikes the right balance between getting the most out of automation and human input, taking precaution in not leaning into completely agentic automation in high-stakes situations.
In the diagram below, we see how an Agentic SOC self-manages phishing threats. After identifying a phishing email, the AI agents will analyze the content of that email and extract any indicators of compromise (IOCs). The agents will then determine which customers are affected by creating the appropriate quantities of tickets and take the first steps to contain that threat. A user analyst will then review and approve before the incident response has been completed and logged, allowing for quick resolution, yet with human oversight.
Fig. 2 Automated Workflow for Phishing Incident
Challenges and Considerations
Although Agentic SOC platforms have the potential to be significant disruptors in the way the security industry operates, there are some challenges that come along with them. The inherently probabilistic aspects of LLMs give choice and variability to the deployments, which raises questions around reliance on the outcomes those agents will produce when these systems are deployed to production level use. Red Canary has identified that fully autonomous agents typically reduce the accuracy of workflows that require near-perfect accuracy, and to mitigate that require a full structured transparency and explainability of the platform to pursue documentation around any eventual decision-making process for the analyst to entrench a level of confidence.
Integration is also a significant hurdle. Agentic platforms have to link to different tools that already exist (SIEMs, EDRs, CMDBs, etc.) to provide value, and poor integration means an agentic platform could leave the user with just partial data, which negates the point of the platform. Intezer believes that AI agents should be equipped with the best possible supporting tools they can leverage for evidence collection, such as memory forensics collection, and reverse engineering for example, which would provide the investigator with a more robust evidence collection.
Additionally, scalability and cost should be taken into account. Agent platforms can decrease manual workloads, but because they produce high computational requirements across the organization, it requires an infrastructure that can handle them (e.g., IT / Cloud platform such as Microsoft Azure / AWS). Organizations must do a cost / efficiency assessment, and we must recognize that this can be more difficult for smaller SOCs with smaller budgets.
The Future of Agentic SOC Platforms
The future of agentic SOC platforms is very promising, as developments in large language models (LLMs), multi-agent orchestration, and domain-specific intelligence will continually advance. Gartner forecasts that by 2026, AI will enable SOCs to work 40 percent more efficiently and that security analysts will return to their traditional oversight roles over AI and the professional training of AI. The following notable trends are emerging:
Fig. 3 Emerging Trends of Agentic SOC Platform
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Multi-Agent Collaboration: Agent orchestration platforms, e.g., agent at Aisera allow agents to collaborate across departments e.g. across HR, IT, security etc. thus, moving more smoothly through complex workflows.
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Domain-Specific Intelligence: Hyper-specialized versions of LLMs always create more precise answers than general purpose LLMs, increasing accuracy in industries like banking and healthcare.
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Graph-Based Threat Mapping: Agentic platforms will move beyond list-based Security Information Event Managers (SIEMs) to build a multidimensional graph database to visualize and neutralize complex forms of attack.
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Responsible AI: Transparency, human oversight, and bias mitigation will play a critical role in the ethical deployment of agentic systems.
Companies such as Drop zone AI and Arcanna.ai are very innovative in applying agentic technology to next-generation SIEMs and hyper automation platforms, to name a few. As these technologies become more ubiquitous, we can expect SOCs to make the shift from reactive or preemptive to proactive, predictive operations to stay one step ahead of adversaries.
Summary: Evolving to Autonomous SOCs
Agentic SOC platforms fundamentally reshape how cybersecurity is executed, providing SOCs with an innovative alternative to traditional SOAR and SIEM systems. These platforms offer advanced data exploration, proactive detection and response capabilities, deep dive investigations, automated workflows, and other use cases enabling SOCs to triage and respond effectively to emerging and contemporary threats.
Solutions like Torq, Prophet Security, Hunter’s Pathfinder AI, and many more, highlight just how autonomous AI agent technology can facilitate and assist security operations while caring for far deeper utilization of the data they need to secure their environment against constant threat vectors. This technology reduces burnout for analysts while remediating and in security operations keeping threats under control.
With the case for adopting agentic SOC platforms sitting at the forefront of the latest burgeoning technologies, organizations are well past the point of an option; investing in agentic SOC platforms is now a requirement. Organizations wanting to maximize their investment in agentic SOC platforms need to ensure organizations maximize integration and transparency with associated decision intelligence processes and workflows. In summary, as hacking and other cyber technological threats become fisher and more challenging, the future of the means and methods as noted in agentic SOC platforms revolves around autonomy, agility, and intelligence.