Closing the Skills Gap in Incident Response with Cado’s Automation

The cybersecurity skills gap is one of organizations' most significant challenges. According to (somewhat controversial…) industry studies, there are millions of unfilled cybersecurity positions globally, leaving companies scrambling to find skilled personnel to handle complex security operations. Regardless of the actual numbers, forensics and incident response (IR), especially in cloud environments, require specialized knowledge, and as threats become more sophisticated, the shortage of skilled professionals is becoming more problematic.

The Cado platform addresses this issue head-on by empowering security teams through automation. With its cloud-native, automated investigation and response capabilities, Cado enables less-experienced analysts to handle more advanced investigations, while senior analysts can focus on higher-level tasks. Let’s take a closer look at how Cado Security is helping to close the cybersecurity skills gap.

The Growing Challenge of Cloud Forensics

Traditional incident response processes are slow, manual, and resource-intensive. They require deep expertise, particularly when dealing with cloud, container, and serverless environments, which introduce new layers of complexity. Investigations across multiple cloud environments often demand specialized skills.

For example, analysts need to manually collect data from various cloud resources, cross-correlate events, and build timelines to understand the full scope of an attack. This requires not only knowledge of traditional forensics, but also an in-depth understanding of cloud-specific artifacts, such as cloud logs, container memory, and ephemeral serverless functions.

Given the shortage of skilled professionals, many organizations struggle to perform these tasks efficiently, leading to longer response times and higher costs as they rely on external service providers to fill the gap.

How Automation Levels the Playing Field

Cado Security’s platform helps close this gap by automating many of the complex tasks that traditionally require a high level of expertise. From data collection and processing to root cause analysis, Cado leverages the power of cloud automation to streamline the entire investigation and response process.

One of the most impactful ways Cado accomplishes this is by enabling junior analysts to perform tasks that would typically be reserved for more experienced professionals. For instance, Cado’s automation capabilities allow novel analysts to handle tasks such as analyzing disk images, processing cloud logs, and identifying suspicious activities—tasks that would typically require weeks of training and hands-on experience.

By automating these steps, Cado reduces the amount of manual work required, allowing analysts to focus on more strategic decisions rather than spending time on tedious, repetitive tasks. This not only increases efficiency but also builds confidence in junior analysts, enabling them to grow into more advanced roles over time.

Empowering Senior Analysts to Do More

While automation is a huge help for junior analysts, it also improves the productivity of senior security professionals. Experienced analysts often find themselves bogged down by the sheer volume of data and manual tasks involved in incident response. With the Cado Platform, much of the repetitive, manual work such as building a full forensic timeline, parsing system logs, and applying threat intelligence is done automatically.

This allows analysts to spend more time on critical tasks such as threat hunting, strategic planning, and refining the organization's overall security posture. Moreover, by automating routine tasks, the Cado platform enables senior analysts to take on more cases simultaneously, improving overall SOC efficiency.

Accelerating Mean Time to Respond (MTTR)

One of the most significant benefits of the Cado platform is the reduction in Mean Time to Respond (MTTR). By automating the data collection and analysis phases of an investigation, Cado drastically cuts down on the time it takes for security teams to respond to incidents. This is particularly important in cloud environments, where resources can be ephemeral, and timely data capture is crucial for successful investigations.

In fact Cado has found that organizations using its platform have seen up to a 6X reduction in investigation times. This means security teams can resolve incidents faster, minimizing damage and reducing the overall cost of a breach.

A Repeatable, Scalable Process 

The Cado platform doesn't just automate incident response. Cado builds a repeatable, scalable process that can be applied across a range of use cases. Whether it's investigating a cloud breach, handling a business email compromise, or performing triage acquisition from endpoints, Cado enables security teams to standardize their processes, making them more efficient and effective over time.

This approach ensures that as organizations grow, they can handle more incidents without needing to continually increase headcount. It also means that teams with varying levels of expertise can all contribute to the incident response process, reducing reliance on outside consultants or service providers.

The cybersecurity skills gap is not going away any time soon, but by automating key aspects of the investigation and response process, Cado enables security teams to work more efficiently, empowering both junior and senior analysts alike. If you want to see what the Cado platform can do for your organization Contact us to schedule a demo.