5 Automated Workflows to Boost Security in Your Organization

Security has become an essential aspect for employees and organizations alike. Keeping your organization secure from cyber threats has become more important than ever as attack severity grows and data breaches evolve rapidly.

To aid companies and consumers, federal agencies like the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and others recommend four key ways to stay safe online:

• Recognize and report phishing attempts
• Update software
• Turn on MFA
• Use strong passwords
  

While we can hope that employees across companies will be vigilant at enabling MFA and following password best practices, that’s often far from reality. It’s up to security teams to enforce these security basics and mitigate the risk of phishing emails, vulnerability exploits, and password cracking. But for organizations with hundreds or thousands of employees, the task is mountainous. 

Good news – there are automated workflows available to perform these tasks to help save time and boost productivity. Let’s look at five Blink workflows that can help automate basic security tasks.

Phishing Detection & Response

Phishing scams are all too common, with an estimated 3.4 billion malicious emails sent every day. It's crucial to recognize and respond to these threats to protect oneself from fraudulent activities. However, it can be a daunting and time-consuming task to manually identify and respond to suspicious emails. Security automation can streamline the process of detecting and responding to phishing attempts. It can alert users of potential threats, analyze and label emails as spam or safe, and even automatically block unauthorized access. 

A real-world example could be to automate phishing detection and response in Gmail with ease. Below, this Blink automated workflow scans URLs and attachments in incoming emails using VirusTotal. If any malicious content is found, the email is instantly deleted and a notification is sent to your Slack channel. 

Routine Vulnerability Scanning & Patch Management

Vulnerability scanning helps identify and determine whether a specific system or technology creates a threat to your network and data security. Automated vulnerability management scans regularly test for gaps in your organization's security defenses, uncovering critical areas that require specific attention. It’s vital to ensure people and devices in your network have the tools in place to detect these vulnerabilities when they appear.

In the workflow below, every day at 8am Blink will automatically validate that Qualys agents are installed and running on all devices connected to a Google workspace. This includes pulling a list of Google Workspace users, serial numbers, and Qualys host assets. Then, it generates a compliance report with the finding. The findings are then delivered to your Slack channel.

It’s equally important to ensure that applications and devices are regularly up-to-date with the latest security patches. However, patch management is a time-consuming task that is prone to human error. Automating this process frees up your IT team's time, allowing them to address any other important cybersecurity issues. An efficient patch management process can reduce the impact of vulnerabilities in case of data breaches.

The Blink workflow below is simple yet powerful. It will integrate with Microsoft Defense and Azure to validate that the latest OS patches for all virtual machines are applied. The findings are then shared in a report via email.

Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is an excellent password management tool that guarantees user identification by adding multiple factors or layers into account access. It adds that extra layer of security, ensuring authorized access and preventing unauthorized access by malicious parties.

The Blink workflow below strengthens MFA efforts by automatically sending a report via Slack of users in Okta without MFA enabled. By creating gaps variables and pulling Okta user lists, Blink is able to discover which users aren’t currently using MFA, then automatically alerts the security team with findings.

Maintain Password Policies

The security of sensitive data is of utmost importance for any organization. However, manually maintaining password policies can be a daunting task, especially for large organizations with hundreds or even thousands of employees. By implementing automated workflows, organizations can effortlessly ensure that their password policies are consistently enforced across all devices and applications. This not only saves time and effort, but it also significantly reduces the chance of any data breaches caused by weak or compromised passwords.

For example, this Blink workflow will automatically send a report via Slack of any password policy gaps in Okta. This workflow pulls password policies from Okta, finds password policies with no max age, and sends a slack message if the policy isn’t valid.

Your Security Automation Copilot 

Security teams face seemingly endless workloads, and automation can help them focus on the critical tasks that need hand-on attention. Blink is a security automation copilot powered by Generative AI that helps you enforce security basics quickly and easily. From phishing response to vulnerability management and IAM, Blink Copilot can generate workflows in seconds, boosting productivity and improving operational efficiency. With these automated workflows, security teams can streamline processes so they can stay ahead of threats as they appear. 

If you're looking for a way to improve your security team's efficiency and effectiveness, schedule a demo of Blink today.