Certified: The Security+ Prepcast

Security automation offers enormous benefits—from faster response times and better scalability to reduced burnout and tighter compliance. But like any powerful tool, it must be used wisely. Poorly implemented automation can create more problems than it solves. In this episode, we begin a two-part discussion about the considerations every organization should weigh before deploying or expanding security automation. Our focus today is on two essential topics: managing complexity and understanding cost implications.
Let’s begin with managing complexity. It might seem like automating security processes should always make things simpler—but that’s not automatically true. In fact, one of the most common pitfalls in automation is unintentionally building overly complex systems that are difficult to maintain, understand, or troubleshoot.
Security automation often involves connecting multiple tools, APIs, scripts, and policy engines. While these integrations can be powerful, they can also become tangled over time. The more dependencies your automation has, the greater the chance that a small change in one part of the system can break something elsewhere. That can result in missed detections, blocked users, or failed remediations—all of which undermine your security goals.
Let’s walk through a real-world example. A media company creates a series of automated playbooks that respond to high-severity alerts. These playbooks query threat intelligence feeds, initiate endpoint scans, open tickets, send email alerts, and disable accounts if needed. Everything works—until one feed becomes unavailable due to a vendor change. Suddenly, the playbook stalls and stops short of triggering the account lockdown. The result: the detection occurred, but the response failed, and the organization missed its chance to contain the threat.
This kind of failure isn’t always obvious. With manual processes, someone is usually watching. With automation, failures can go unnoticed until it’s too late. That’s why it’s critical to build in monitoring, logging, and fail-safes. You need to know when your automation doesn’t run as expected—and have a process for recovery.
One of the best ways to manage complexity is to design automation with modularity in mind. That means breaking tasks into smaller, self-contained components that can be tested, maintained, and reused independently. A modular approach reduces interdependencies and makes it easier to update or replace individual parts without breaking the whole system.
Another helpful strategy is documentation. Too often, security automation is built quickly, without keeping track of the logic, scripts, and credentials involved. This makes it difficult for new team members to understand—or for existing staff to troubleshoot problems when they arise. Documenting what each script or tool does, how it’s triggered, and what it depends on is essential for long-term sustainability.
Automation should also include manual override options. Not every alert or action should be fully automated. Some situations require human judgment, escalation, or review. By giving your security team the ability to pause or intervene in automated workflows, you prevent cascading failures and maintain flexibility when dealing with unusual scenarios.
Let’s look at another scenario. A government agency builds an automated workflow to disable accounts after three failed logins, under the assumption that multiple failures mean credential misuse. But a system update causes a login module to misfire, and dozens of users are locked out unintentionally. The team has to scramble to restore access manually and delay planned patching. Had there been a safeguard—like a manual review trigger after the first five lockouts—this incident could have been avoided.
The lesson here is that complexity isn’t always obvious at the beginning. Even simple automation can grow over time and become fragile. That’s why every automation initiative should include a plan for regular testing, review, and validation. Automation is not a “set it and forget it” solution. It requires just as much oversight and care as any other system in your environment.
Now let’s shift to the second key consideration: cost implications.
While security automation often promises long-term savings, the up-front investment can be significant. Organizations must evaluate the total cost of automation—including software, infrastructure, integration, training, and maintenance—against the security benefits it delivers. This analysis should be honest, clear-eyed, and tied to business goals.
Automation tools range from simple open-source scripts to full-featured commercial platforms. While open-source options are low-cost or free, they often require more internal expertise and support. Commercial solutions come with technical support, enterprise features, and integrations—but can carry high licensing costs and ongoing subscription fees.
Let’s look at a real-world example. A manufacturing firm is evaluating a security orchestration and automation platform that promises to reduce response time and streamline incident management. The tool would cost over $100,000 per year in licensing and require three months of onboarding. The firm compares this cost to its current staffing model and determines that it would take two years to achieve a return on investment. However, the firm also weighs non-financial factors—such as reduced burnout, audit readiness, and faster reaction to threats. These intangible benefits help justify the expense.
It’s also important to account for hidden costs. Automation may require new infrastructure to support scripts, containers, or cloud functions. It may require consultants or vendor services to get off the ground. And it may lead to unexpected costs if errors go undetected. For example, if a misconfigured script accidentally blocks legitimate traffic, the business disruption could outweigh the security benefit.
That’s why organizations should develop a cost-benefit model that includes both direct and indirect factors. These might include reduced time-to-remediation, fewer helpdesk tickets, lower compliance costs, and improved risk posture. Quantifying these benefits helps security teams make the case for automation and secure buy-in from leadership.
Let’s take another example. A retail company automates patch management for its point-of-sale systems. The automation tool costs $20,000 annually but eliminates the need for four staff members to manually deploy updates. Over the course of a year, the company sees fewer vulnerabilities, improved audit scores, and increased uptime. These benefits—though not always easy to measure—provide real operational value.
Security automation should also be evaluated in terms of risk reduction. If a tool shortens the time it takes to detect and contain a ransomware attack, the cost savings could be massive—even if the tool is never used to full capacity. In cybersecurity, the value of prevention is often only visible in the absence of disaster.
Another cost consideration is skill development. Automation can require scripting, API integration, cloud policy management, and secure coding practices. Organizations must invest in training their teams or hiring individuals with these skills. But this investment also pays off by building long-term capability and resilience.
In short, automation is not just a technology purchase—it’s an operational transformation. That transformation must be resourced, managed, and aligned to business needs.
To summarize, security automation delivers clear advantages—but it also introduces complexity and cost that must be managed strategically. Overly complex workflows can break down, cause disruptions, or become difficult to maintain. Teams must document, modularize, and monitor their automation pipelines to ensure resilience. At the same time, organizations must weigh the upfront and ongoing costs of automation platforms, skills, and support against the expected benefits. This includes both direct savings and broader improvements in risk posture, speed, and team performance.
For the Security Plus exam, expect questions about automation risks, the trade-offs involved in implementing automation, and how to calculate or justify its value. You may see scenarios where cost, complexity, or error handling are at the center of a decision. Review terms like failover logic, automation sprawl, cost-benefit analysis, platform licensing, and scripting support—they’re all relevant to building mature, effective security automation programs.
For more support with your study plan, visit us at Bare Metal Cyber dot com. You’ll find additional podcast episodes, downloadable tools, and our free study-focused newsletter. And when you're ready to pass the exam with confidence, go to Cyber Author dot me and get your copy of Achieve CompTIA Security Plus S Y Zero Dash Seven Zero One Exam Success. It’s the most practical and complete guide for mastering every domain and earning your certification.