What is a security operations center (SOC)?

A company hosts their own cybersecurity team.

A security team that works remotely.

Larger, more high-level groups that oversee smaller SOCs.

A company’s IT department teams up with an external SOC vendor to manage security together.

SOC managers lead their respective organization at the top-level, which includes workforce management, budgeting, and setting priorities. They usually work one step below a chief information security officer (CISO).

They react to and analyze security alerts the moment they occur. They typically use a range of monitoring tools to analyze the severity of alerts, and they engage once an alert has been labeled an actionable incident.

Threat hunters proactively search for threats and weaknesses across a network. Ideally, they identify threats and vulnerabilities before they can impact the business.

The analyst who investigates and gathers information after an attack, then preserves the digital evidence for future preventative measures.

They are responsible for escalating potential threats after analyzing all threats and determining the levels of severity.

SOC is responsible for devices, applications, and processes, as well as defensive tools to ensure continued protection.

Responses can be quickly executed, but a well-equipped team still needs to prepare and take preventative measures to ensure cyber resilience.

Monitoring should run 24/7, as abnormalities or suspicious activity can occur any time of the day. A SOC monitoring around the clock can be immediately notified, which gives them the opportunity to respond immediately to incidents. Some organizations deploy monitoring tools such as an EDR and most include a SIEM, both of which have the capabilities to help analyze the difference between normal operations and threat-like behavior.

The SOC is responsible for looking closely at each alert that comes from the monitoring tools. This gives them the opportunity to properly triage threats.

A company needs the least amount of network downtime to maintain operations. The SOC notifies the company of any security breach that could affect the network.

The SOC acts as a first-responder when there has been a security incident. They can perform actions like isolating endpoints, terminate harmful processes, preventing processes from executing, and deleting files. Ideally, the SOC ensures that the security incident causes the least amount of downtime possible.

The SOC will work to restore systems and recover anything that has been lost. Part of this process may include restarting endpoints, wiping endpoints, deploying backups, or reconfiguring systems.

The SOC collects and reviews logs of all network activity for the entirety of an organization. The logs contain data that can indicate a baseline for normal network activity, and what could be indicative of a threat and such data also assists in forensics during the aftermath of an incident.

Post-incident, it is the responsibility of the SOC to research the root cause of a security incident. They can use log data to find a possible source or identify an anomaly, at which point preventative measures can be applied.

Proper security measures require constant vigilance, which includes refinement and improvement of security measures. Plans that are outlined in a security road map are applied, and refinements are constantly added to the road map to improve measures against cyber criminals, who are also always refining their methods.

SOC’s presence for several years has yielded a series of best practices.

A SOC monitors network activity 24/7, which allows for rapid incident response. The moment a threat is detected, the SOC team should respond at an accelerated rate to ensure that the threat is neutralized before it can contribute to any downtime or result in the loss of data or privacy.

Machine Learning systems have the capabilities to monitor logs and watch traffic flows—they function on a trained algorithm that is meant to detect anomalies and immediately report suspicious activity. This can save time and allow security practitioners to focus on patterns and anomalies and work more efficiently.

The cloud has made cybersecurity more tricky, as a series of interconnected devices have created a wider surface area for cyberattackers to penetrate a firewall. All connections of the cloud infrastructure should be analyzed to identify where threats and vulnerabilities could be located.

Cybercriminals are becoming more and more innovative in their attack methods. Cybersecurity teams need to also take an innovative and creative approach to preventative plans in anticipation of ever-evolving threats.

It is essential for an organization to safeguard its data and assets. A SOC can protect a network and ensure that an organization is less vulnerable to attacks, which provides a peace of mind for customers and employees.

All network traffic from both internal and external sources, including servers, databases, and routers.

A network operations center (NOC) focuses on monitoring the uptime of a network rather than cybersecurity threats.

Security information and event management (SIEM) is a network monitoring solution, providing alerts and network usage benchmarks for SOC teams to leverage.