AI Interviewer: Eliminating the Human Delay in SOC Investigations

In security operations, minutes matter. When investigating a potential security incident, every moment spent waiting reduces your chance of containing a threat before damage occurs. One of the most significant bottlenecks in the investigation process is waiting for users to respond to questions that provide critical context. Dropzone AI's AI Interviewer feature directly addresses this challenge by automating user interviews during security investigations, keeping your containment timeline measured in minutes, not hours.

The Critical Bottleneck in SOC Alert Investigations

When a security alert triggers, SOC analysts often need additional context that only the affected user can provide:

• "Did you authorize this login attempt from an unusual location?"
• "Did you share these credentials with anyone?"
• "Were you expecting the attachment in this email?"

Traditionally, getting these answers requires both the security analyst and the user to be simultaneously available—an alignment that rarely happens smoothly. While waiting for responses, analysts typically shift to other tasks, creating context-switching penalties that further delay resolution.

The result? Unnecessary friction and latency that extends your Mean Time to Response (MTTR) and gives potential attackers a wider window of opportunity.

Why Rapid Response Matters: The Coinbase Case

Real-world incidents provide valuable lessons about response time importance. In February 2023, Coinbase narrowly avoided a major security breach when targeted by the suspected 0ktapass threat group. The timeline is instructive:

1. Several Coinbase employees received suspicious SMS messages with login links
2. One employee clicked the link and entered their credentials
3. The attacker attempted to access Coinbase systems using stolen credentials but still needed MFA
4. Approximately 20 minutes later, the attacker called the employee to attempt to get MFA details, impersonating IT staff
5. During this social engineering attempt, Coinbase's security team detected unusual activity and contacted the employee through internal channels
6. The employee terminated communication with the attacker

Coinbase's ability to identify suspicious activity and contact the user within about 20 minutes prevented a potential breach. Not every organization can respond this quickly—but with automation, yours can.

How AI Interviewer Transforms Alert Investigation

Dropzone AI's AI Interviewer eliminates the waiting game by automatically engaging users for context when needed during investigations. Here's how it works:

1. Simple Deployment: Deploy the Dropzone AI Slack application (with Microsoft Teams support coming soon)
2. Automated Outreach: When an investigation requires user input, the AI SOC analyst immediately reaches out to the relevant user through your messaging platform
3. Comprehensive Documentation: The investigation report automatically includes the interview transcript
4. Configurable Controls: Administrators can select which investigation types should trigger interviews and whether these require approval before proceeding

This direct, automated engagement cuts hours or days from your investigation timeline without requiring additional analyst effort.

AI Interviewer is part of Dropzone's AI SOC analyst that autonomously performs alert triage and investigation. The system:

• Has access to all investigation sources during the conversation
• Shows which sources it's querying in real-time
• Provides viewable evidence gathering
• Maintains conversation context throughout the investigation

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Measurable Impact on Mean Time to Conclusion

For security teams, reducing investigation time is crucial to effective threat mitigation. Dropzone AI's automated approach eliminates Mean Time to Acknowledge (MTTA)—typically the largest component of MTTR—by starting investigations the moment alerts arrive.

With AI Interviewer, the most common human-dependent bottleneck is also removed from the equation. The result? Investigations that typically complete within 3-10 minutes, including user context gathering. This makes it possible for security teams to more quickly respond to attacks where minutes matter, such as in the Coinbase security incident detailed above. 

This speed can make the difference between:

• A contained incident and a full breach
• A quick resolution and a prolonged investigation
• A minor disruption and significant business impact

Implementation Without Disruption

For SOC leaders and MSSPs looking to enhance investigation capabilities, AI Interviewer offers several strategic advantages:

1. Resource Optimization: Analysts can focus on high-value preventative security projects rather than waiting for user responses during routine alert investigations
2. Consistent Process: Every investigation follows the same thorough workflow, regardless of analyst workload, ensuring a thorough investigation for even routine low-priority alerts, such as impossible travel alerts
3. Comprehensive Documentation: All user interactions are automatically documented for compliance and review
4. Scalable Operations: SOC teams can handle more investigations without increasing staff in proportion to growing alert backlogs

Beyond Time Savings: Quality Improvements

While speed is the most obvious benefit, AI Interviewer also improves investigation quality by:

• Asking consistent, thorough questions 
• Documenting responses completely 
• Following up on inconsistencies or vague answers
• Gathering context without leading questions or assumptions

Transform Your Alert Investigation Process

If your security team needs to identify and contain increasingly rapid attacks and struggles with investigation delays due to user context gathering, the AI Interviewer feature in Dropzone AI offers a straightforward solution. By automating this critical but time-consuming process, your SOC can achieve the rapid response times needed when attackers aim to use speed to their advantage.

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For organizations looking to ensure 100% of alerts receive thorough investigations in minutes, including comprehensive user context, Dropzone AI delivers measurable improvements to security operations.

Ready to see how Dropzone AI can transform your security operations? Take our self-guided demo to experience the difference in investigation speed and accuracy firsthand.