Stop Wasting Good Analysts On Clean Files

The mission of a SOC is clear: stop real threats before they cause real damage. But in reality, far too much time is spent chasing shadow alerts that lead nowhere, incidents that aren’t incidents, and files that look risky but turn out to be perfectly clean.

This kind of noise doesn’t just waste time, it erodes focus. It stretches analysts thin, floods dashboards with non-events, and delays response to the threats that actually matter. And one of the biggest culprits? File-based false positives. A flagged spreadsheet. A macro-heavy document. A harmless PDF caught up in quarantine.

These aren’t edge cases; they’re everyday distractions. And the worst part? They’re entirely preventable. When files are treated as threats after they enter your environment, your SOC is already behind. It’s time to flip the model: stop the distraction at the door, and let your team focus on what actually matters.

The Real Cost of False Alarms

False alarms may seem a minor inconvenience until you add them up. Every unnecessary alert eats into analyst time, slows down response workflows, and piles on operational overhead. But the real damage isn’t just time lost, it’s attention diverted. Let’s look at how false positives, especially those triggered by files, drain your team’s capacity and compromise focus where it’s needed most.

Alert Fatigue Isn’t a Metaphor—It’s a Bottleneck

Alert fatigue is a real and growing problem. Up to 30% of SOC time is spent on false alarms, many triggered by file-based events, such as suspicious attachments, macro-enabled spreadsheets, and documents from external sources. Most turn out to be clean, but still consume time and attention.

This constant triage slows response, drains focus, and burns out analysts. When every unknown file becomes a manual task, teams are forced to choose between speed and thoroughness. The result? Delayed decisions, missed signals, and a SOC stuck reacting instead of protecting.

Quarantines and Manual Reviews Add Drag

Every file flagged for review doesn’t just affect the SOC. It slows down the entire business. Sales teams can’t send proposals. Legal teams are left waiting on contracts. Customers don’t get the files they need. A single quarantined document can stall workflows across multiple departments, creating frustration and lost momentum.

According to an IDC white paper: Security staff spend an average of 30 minutes addressing each actionable alert, with about 32 minutes lost chasing false leads.

Meanwhile, your security analysts are stuck reviewing what are often perfectly safe files, approving attachments, chasing down false positives, and logging non-events. And every minute spent clearing a harmless document is a minute not spent tracking lateral movement, investigating a breach, or responding to an active threat.

File Threats Can—and Should—Be Neutralized at Entry

Reducing alert volume starts with eliminating the source, not just managing the outcome. Many alerts flooding SOC dashboards come from one predictable vector: file-based threats. These are among the most common and most avoidable drivers of unnecessary triage. Addressing them before they trigger detection logic or reach the endpoint can significantly lighten the load on your analysts. Here’s how early intervention reshapes everything that follows.

CDR Stops File Threats Before They Become Alerts

Most file security tools wait until a threat is visible after it’s triggered a scan, raised a flag, or reached an endpoint. Votiro works earlier in the process, where the impact is greatest. Using Content Disarm and Reconstruction (CDR), Votiro removes embedded threats, malware, macros, and scripts before a file has the chance to be opened, scanned, or investigated. No alerts. No tickets. No noise.

The result is a clean, usable file delivered immediately with no review queue, no escalation path, and no workflow interruption. It’s protection that happens behind the scenes, allowing your SOC to stay focused on genuine threats, not the artifacts that never should have been flagged in the first place.

No Noise, No Disruption, Just Results

Votiro CDR quietly removes threats from incoming files, meaning those files never generate alerts in your SIEM or XDR. The result is a meaningful drop in alert volume, achieved without losing visibility or compromising control.

Going beyond traditional CDR (levels 1 and 2), Votiro delivers files ready for use—functional and threat-free—without introducing risk or delay. That kind of precision strips out the distractions and clears the path for what really matters.

The Outcome: Focused Analysts. Better Security.

In most SOCs, high alert volume is still mistakenly equated with strong security. But more alerts don’t mean better protection; they mean more noise. And when that noise overwhelms your team, even the most dedicated analysts struggle to separate signals from distraction.

Also according to IDC: Over 23% of all alerts in companies with more than 500 employees are ignored or not investigated.

This is the result of “too much noise, too little time,” where teams forgo manual inspection either in the hopes that malware doesn’t exist or that one of the many tools they’ve already employed has mitigated the anomalies for them. 

Effective security isn’t a stacked infrastructure or a reactive posture—it’s preventative, automated, and intelligent. It’s not about racing to respond to every potential threat; it’s about eliminating entire risk categories before they require attention. That’s exactly what Votiro does. By neutralizing file-based threats at the point of entry, Votiro removes one of the most persistent sources of noise in the SOC.

The result is a rare combination: fewer alerts, less noise, and more confidence. Analysts stay focused on high-value threats. Response workflows get faster and cleaner. And your security posture improves not by doing more but by doing less of what doesn’t matter. That’s smarter protection. And it’s the outcome your SOC actually needs.

Give Your SOC Time Back with Votiro CDR

True file sanitization doesn’t require attention. It doesn’t generate noise. It just works quietly, consistently, and at scale behind the scenes. That’s what makes it such a powerful tool for security teams stretched thin by too many alerts and too few clear signals. With Votiro in place, analysts spend less time cleaning up and more time actually securing the organization.

Stop chasing false positives. Let Votiro neutralize file-based noise so your SOC can focus on what matters. Book a demo today.