Playbook for Child Security Incident Automation

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Playbook for Child Security Incident Automation

    The Child Security Incident Automation playbook is designed to streamline the management of duplicate security incidents, known as child security incidents, by automatically consolidating unique data from these child incidents into a parent security incident. This automation reduces the investigation and closure time for duplicate incidents by rolling up key artifacts such as observables, affected users, and configuration items (CIs) to the parent incident, and managing the lifecycle of child incidents in relation to the parent.

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    Key Features

    • Automatically advances child security incidents to the Analysis stage when applicable.
    • Identifies and eliminates duplicate affected users and configuration items from child incidents before rolling up unique items to the parent security incident.
    • Collects and consolidates unique observables from child incidents into the parent incident.
    • Posts automated worknotes on both parent and child incidents to document the roll-up actions.
    • Closes or cancels child security incidents automatically when the parent incident is closed.

    Implementation and Usage

    To utilize this playbook, users require the snsi.admin role and access to the Flow Designer, with the Security Operations Spoke installed.

    Users can optionally customize the playbook by copying it within Flow Designer and modifying it to meet specific organizational needs before activation.

    The playbook triggers when a child incident has a parent security incident assigned and the parent is in Draft, Analysis, Contain, or Eradicate states.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Improves efficiency by automating the consolidation of duplicate security incidents, reducing manual effort.
    • Ensures comprehensive and accurate aggregation of affected users, CIs, and observables, enhancing incident context.
    • Maintains clear documentation through automated worknotes, aiding audit and review processes.
    • Supports better incident lifecycle management by automatically closing child incidents when their parent is resolved.

    Duplicate security incidents are categorized as child security incidents and are rolled up to the parent security incidents.

    The Child Security Incident Automation playbook helps reduce the time required to investigate and close duplicate security incidents. This playbook automatically rolls up specific unique artifacts of the child security incident (observables, affected users, CIs) to the parent security incident.

    Prerequisites

    Role required:
    • sn_si.admin
    • flow_designer

    Spoke: Install Security Operations Spoke (sn_sec_spoke)

    Key capabilities

    The Child Automation playbook covers the following capabilities:

    1. Moves the security incident to the Analysis stage.
    2. Eliminates duplicates and adds (rolls up) the affected users and CIs to the parent security incident.
    3. Adds observables from the child incident to the parent security incident.
    4. Closes or cancels the child security incident when the parent security incident is closed.

    Capabilities required

    For more information, see the ServiceNow store.

    Security analyst experience

    To understand how to resolve security threats in a step-by-step manner, see Resolve security threats with the playbook.

    Deeper understanding of the Child Security Incident Automation playbook with Flow Designer capabilities

    Getting Started
    1. Login as a user with sn_si.user and flow_designer roles.
    2. Navigate to Flow Designer > Designer and select the Failed Login playbook.
    3. Make a copy of the Child Security Incident Automation playbook and make the necessary modifications. (This is an optional step. Follow this step only if you plan to customize or make specific changes to the flow).
    4. Make the necessary modifications according to your requirement. (This is an optional step. Follow this step only if you plan to customize or make specific changes to the flow).
    5. Activate the playbook.
      • Activate the main flow to use the playbook available with the base system.
      • Activate the copied flow after making any modifications according to your requirements.
    The following image shows a copy of the Child Security Incident Automation playbook. Review the steps below to get an understanding of the various actions in the playbook.
    Child Automation Flow:Overview
    This playbook is triggered when:
    • The parent security incident field isn’t empty.
    • The parent security incident is in Draft, Analysis, Contain, or Eradicate state.

    The following steps walk you through the actions and tasks that are available in the Child Security Incident Automation playbook.

    1. When the playbook starts executing, in Step 1, if the security incident is in a Draft state, it’s updated and set to the Analysis state.
    2. In steps 2 and 3, affected users for the security incident are retrieved and rolled up to the parent security incident. Any duplicate users are eliminated.
    3. In steps 4 and 5, configuration items associated with the child security incident are retrieved and unique CIs are rolled up to the parent security incident.
    4. In steps 6 and 7, observables associated with the child security incident are retrieved and unique observables are rolled up to the parent security incident
    5. In steps 8 and 9, automated worknotes are posted to the parent and child security incidents indicating that the affected users, configuration items, and observables have been rolled up from the child to the parent security incident.