Abstract Security Wants to Kill Latency—and the SIEM Tax With It

In an industry obsessed with data, speed has often been an afterthought. Security operations centers (SOCs) have been drowning in logs, combing through mountains of telemetry long after attackers have slipped through the cracks. Now, Abstract Security is trying to hit the reset button on how—and when—we detect threats.

The company’s new “Shift Left” strategy doesn’t just nudge detection closer to the source of the data. It shoves it upstream—into the stream itself.

“Every minute of delay in detection isn’t just lost time — it’s lost ground,” said Abstract CEO and co-founder Colby DeRodeff. “In security, timing is leverage, and most systems are giving it away.”

Abstract’s bet: if detection logic can run while data is still in transit—before it lands in a SIEM or data lake—it can cut hours of lag time down to seconds, neutralizing threats before attackers have a chance to pivot laterally inside a network.

Real-Time, Rewired

At its core, Abstract’s approach rewrites the rules for modern SOC architecture. Instead of shipping logs to storage and processing after-the-fact, their platform correlates telemetry from endpoints, cloud workloads, SaaS platforms, and identity systems in the stream. That includes real-time threat intel and asset context.

And the performance gains are bold: the company claims up to a 70% drop in SIEM ingestion volumes and 4x faster detections—all without waiting on a tuning cycle or retroactive queries. It’s a direct challenge to the status quo, where vendors have monetized log volume while defenders foot the bill.

“Today’s SOCs are buried in data, but still blind to threats until it’s too late,” said Chris Camacho, Abstract’s COO and former financial services CISO. “We’re moving detection to the point where data is created, not hours after it lands in storage.”

Detection-as-Code, Meet DFIR-as-Code

Fueling this shift is Abstract’s in-house detection team—ASTRO—which pushes continuous logic updates and threat intel as code. But they’re not stopping at detection. Their platform also enables live forensic analysis and automated response directly in-stream. Think DFIR that doesn’t wait for storage to catch up.

No stale enrichments. No hunt delays. No toggling between dashboards.

This concept borrows heavily from modern software development—version-controlled detection logic, automated playbooks, and instant response execution—without requiring the user to be an engineer.

A Modern ROI for Modern SOCs

Beyond speed, Abstract is pushing for better economics in detection. The company positions its approach as a cost-saver—especially for teams frustrated by ballooning SIEM bills and diminishing returns on retroactive alerting. In a time when budget scrutiny is high and attack timelines are shrinking, that’s a compelling pitch.

“This visibility is what modern security demands,” said Aqsa Taylor, Abstract’s Senior Director and a veteran of cloud-native security. “It’s time to Shift Left in Security Operations and take back control.”

Incremental Disruption

What’s notable about Abstract’s strategy is that it doesn’t force organizations to rip and replace their existing stack. Instead, it inserts earlier—right into the data stream—without asking security teams to abandon their current tools.

It's the kind of low-friction disruption CISOs crave: a chance to modernize detection without a complete teardown.

And with customers like Juul Labs already on board, Abstract’s vision isn’t just theoretical—it’s operational.

The Bottom Line

For years, security teams have accepted lag as a cost of doing business. Abstract Security is trying to turn that assumption on its head: if you can act before the logs are written, maybe you don’t need to chase threats in the rearview mirror.

In a world where attackers move in minutes, and defenders often move in hours, maybe it’s time the network caught up to the fight.