Security teams rarely struggle to spot something suspicious. The real slowdown happens after that. Files get pulled out of the SIEM, uploaded into external tools, reviewed in isolation, and then stitched back into an investigation. That back-and-forth costs time and often delays response.
ArmorPoint is trying to remove that friction with Sandbox Detonation, a new capability built directly into the ArmorPoint SIEM platform. The intent is to help teams verify what a file is doing and decide what to do next without leaving their workflows.
What It Replaces and What It Doesn’t
Sandbox Detonation is designed to replace the manual steps that slow investigations down.
Jacob Johnson, CISO at ArmorPoint, told MSSP Alert, “The ArmorPoint Sandbox is designed to replace the manual context-switching and ad-hoc file analysis workflows that typically slow down an investigation.”
That includes exporting files out of the SIEM and uploading them to public or unmanaged sandboxes. “Analysts no longer need to export suspicious files from the SIEM and move them to public or unmanaged sandboxes, which often poses a data privacy risk,” Johnson said. It also removes the need to hunt for second opinions on common file types. “By integrating the sandbox’s detection engines directly into the portal, the need for second-opinion scanning for common executables, Office documents, and PDFs is eliminated.”
Because reports live inside the ArmorPoint portal, teams no longer need to attach external PDFs just to keep investigations documented. Johnson also highlights that this does not replace every external sandbox. “Files exceeding size limits or highly specialized formats, and investigations that require custom OS images or hands-on interaction, may still require a dedicated malware lab sandbox,” he noted.
How It Changes Daily SIEM Workflows
The bigger shift is how Sandbox Detonation changes what the SIEM is used for. Johnson describes it as moving beyond alerts alone. “The integration transforms the SIEM from a notification engine into a unified execution environment,” he said.
Analysts can submit a file for detonation directly from an alert and keep working while the analysis runs in the background. “With an average analysis time of five minutes, the workflow shifts from a wait-and-see approach to a verify-and-act cycle,” Johnson explained. Results are stored alongside submission details, creating what he calls “a permanent audit trail within the SOC tools.”
Using It at MSSP Scale
For MSSPs handling high alert volumes, Johnson stresses that Sandbox Detonation should be used selectively. “To prevent bottlenecks, MSSPs should treat the sandbox as a targeted surgical tool rather than a carpet-bombing filter,” he said. He recommends focusing on files that bypass initial signature checks but still behave suspiciously, such as documents with macros that static tools have not flagged.
Because analysis runs in parallel, analysts do not have to wait for results before moving on. “Submit the file and continue investigating other telemetry rather than waiting for the status to change,” Johnson said.
Built for Multi-Tenant Environments
Sandbox Detonation also reflects the realities of multi-tenant SOC operations. “ArmorPoint was built for multi-tenancy,” Johnson said, noting that analysts select the specific organization when submitting a file so intelligence stays properly scoped.
He also points to required descriptions and severity scoring as ways to reduce noise. “By requiring a description, analysts can quickly search past detonations and avoid redundant work,” he said. And with a clear 0–100 severity score, “the sandbox filters out suspicious-looking but benign files and removes the ambiguity that leads to analysis paralysis.”
