AS-301h · Module 1

Containment Automation

3 min read

Manual containment takes minutes. Automated containment takes seconds. When a prompt injection is detected, the containment action — blocking the session, revoking credentials, increasing guardrail sensitivity — should execute automatically. The analyst is notified that containment has already occurred, not asked to decide whether to contain. The decision was made when the playbook was written. The automation executes the decision.

Do This

  • Automate containment actions for high-confidence detections — when the SIEM confirms the pattern, containment executes immediately
  • Keep human approval in the loop for medium-confidence detections — automated containment with manual confirmation within 15 minutes
  • Test containment automation monthly to verify it executes correctly — a containment script that fails silently is worse than no automation

Avoid This

  • Require human approval for every containment action — the 3 AM incident waits for someone to wake up and approve
  • Automate containment without alerting anyone — the human needs to know what happened even if the machine handled it
  • Deploy containment automation without rollback capability — a false positive that triggers automated containment needs fast reversal