Alerts never stop, cloud blind spots keep multiplying, and now attackers are using AI to scale faster than human defenders ever could. And so the SOCs are drowning. Traditional SecOps tools and manual triage can’t match the speed and sophistication of modern threats and cloud attacks. To stay ahead, security and SOC leaders need AI-driven cloud detection, response, and mitigation strategies that empower SecOps teams with clarity, context, and automation.
About this blog series
In this blog series, I’ll dive into all things AI across today’s dynamic cloud and SaaS environments, focusing on the rapidly emerging area of AIDR (AI Detection and Response) capabilities that will now frame modern Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) technology and help empower defenders in an age of AI-enabled adversaries.
At Mitiga, our AI-native CDR platform with Helios AIDR helps you defend with AI by using AI for cloud detection and response (the focus of this blog post), defend your AI by using AIDR to protect your critical AI Infrastructure and SaaS services, and defend from AI by using AIDR for AI-Centric and AI-scaled attacks.
Too many cloud threats, not enough clarity
Although the list can be long, SOC teams face a few persistent challenges that legacy and prevention-based tools weren’t designed to handle:
Visibility gaps across cloud, SaaS, identity, and AI layers. Most cloud security teams can’t answer basic questions like who accessed what, when, and from where, especially across often-siloed SaaS apps and cloud services. This has never been more apparent than right now, as hundreds of Salesloft customers continue to fall victim to Salesforce data theft attacks—launched by UNC6395 (ShinyHunters)—who stole Drift OAuth tokens from AWS and used them to pivot to Salesloft’s customer Salesforce environments.
(Watch our 35-minute webcast to go inside the Salesforce breach campaigns here.)
Although legacy cloud security technologies like CNAPPs and CSPMs remain foundational, they are built for risk prevention, not active defense and breach mitigation when attackers do get in.
Skill gaps in cloud-first investigations. Analysts struggle with steep learning curves in the sprawling cloud landscape, including cloud IAM, native and disparate logs, and multi-cloud SaaS forensics.
Inefficient threat detection and incident response (TDIR) workflows. Manual triage. Siloed tools. Long MTTD and MTTR times. These are signs of a SecOps model that wasn’t built for the speed and sprawl of cloud threats and attacks.
AI-powered attackers and outpaced defenders. Attackers use AI for social engineering, malware and ransomware, automated credential stuffing, and to add further scale to their operations. Defenders need AI to level the field.
Beyond Posture: Achieving True Cyber Resilience
Let’s be blunt: prevention-based posture management fails. 90% of attacks involve the cloud. If your strategy ends at CNAPPs and CSPMs, you’re preparing to lose. These days, you have to be on the hunt for the attackers who get through and be prepared to stop them and bounce back – fast.
Getting cyber resilient in modern cloud environments filled with SaaS apps, multi-cloud infrastructure, shifting identity layers, and AI is no longer about adding more configuration and posture management technologies (where 80% of cybersecurity budgets are already allocated). It’s about detecting and stopping the live, in-progress attacks that inevitably will inevitably get through before they become breaches and news headlines. We call it Zero-Impact Breach Mitigation.
Modern SOC teams need a few critical things above all:
- Real-time visibility and context
- Automated workflows and triage
- AI-powered detection and response
5 Best Practices for AI-Powered Cloud Detection and Response
Modern SOCs are adopting and honing these 5 practices above all others as they work to strengthen cyber resilience. Let’s talk through what they are and how Mitiga’s AIDR-powered Cloud Detection and Response platform helps them make it happen.
Prioritize Panoramic Visibility Across Cloud, SaaS, AI, and Identity Layers
Legacy SIEMs weren’t designed to track short-lived workloads, federated identities, and AI services. Mitiga’s AI-native Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) platform with Helios AIDR provides panoramic visibility of every layer in one console. Teams can see who did what, when, and from where with AI-powered, context-aware, and enriched telemetry from our Forensic Data Lake.
Use AI to Cut Through Alert Fatigue and Surface High-Fidelity Threats
More alerts aren’t helping anyone. Your analysts don’t need noise. They need the alert that matters right now. Helios AI identifies and learns normal user behaviors and surfaces only the most critical, high-fidelity anomalies. Automated workflows reduce triage time by up to 90% and accelerate alert closure rates by 70x.
Convert Alerts into Decision-Ready Incident Timelines
Cloud incidents often span dozens of systems, identities, and SaaS applications. Instead of jumping between siloed tools, Helios AI enriches alerts with full history and visualizes anomalies in a single timeline and narrative. SOC teams can move from signal to decision without wasting time.
Automate Cloud Investigations and Root Cause Analysis at Scale
Every day spent on manual investigation is another day attackers move laterally in your environment. That’s not “response.” It’s delay. Mitiga’s AIDR-powered CDR capabilities:
- Use pattern matching across identity behaviors and cloud events.
- Correlate anomalies to detect lateral movement, privilege escalation, and insider threats.
- Automate root cause analysis, reducing dwell times and improving MTTR.
Adopt AI-Drive Cloud Threat Hunting
Attackers use AI to scale, leveraging AI for social engineering, credential stuffing, and AI-fueled attacks. SOCs must hunt proactively instead of waiting for alerts. Mitiga’s Cloud Attack Scenario Library (CASL) and Helios AIDR enable:
- Continuous hunting for advanced attack patterns and anomalies.
- Custom hunting queries tailored to your environment.
- Early detection of threats before alerts trigger.
Cloud Security Teams Need Clarity—Not More Noise
SOCs don’t need more alerts. The future of SOC efficiency and automation is about delivering faster, clearer answers. Mitiga’s AI-native CDR platform with Helios AIDR provides:
- Panoramic visibility across cloud, SaaS, identity, and AI.
- Automated triage and investigation.
- Proactive detection of hidden threats.
- Actionable insights for immediate response.
As attackers continue to evolve, SOC teams and defenders must leverage AI not as a buzzword but as a practical tool to reduce noise, accelerate decisions, and strengthen cloud resilience so you can stop attacks and prevent their impact.
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LAST UPDATED:
October 14, 2025
