Why an Effective Security Operations Center (SOC) is Essential for Your Organization?

In this technology-driven world, every business, despite the size, make committed efforts to protect their sensitive data from sophisticated and targeted cyberattacks. The probability of a breach has increased, so does the cost to mitigate them. Organizations are ceaselessly working on finding reliable defensive strategies against cyberattacks. This is the point where a Security Operations Center (SOC) comes to the stage.

A Security Operation Center (SOC) is a centralized function within an organization engaging people, processes, and technology to continuously monitor and enhance an organization's security posture while preventing, detecting, analyzing, and responding to anomalous cybersecurity activities. It acts like the hub or central command post, taking in telemetry from across an organization's IT infrastructure such as networks, devices, appliances, and information stores etc.

How a SOC Works?

A SOC is an example for the software as a service (SaaS) software model which operates in the cloud as a subscription service. It provides a layer of expertise to a company’s cybersecurity strategy that ensures networks and endpoints are constantly being monitored 24/7. In case of a vulnerability or when an event is detected, the SOC will engage with the on-site IT team to tackle the issue and examine the root cause.

When talking about SOC functionalities, we identify a core set of operational functions that add value to an organization. Those seven competencies have listed down as below.

• Asset Survey 

An asset survey of a SOC helps to have a complete understanding of what resources they need to protect. It should identify the server, router, firewall under enterprise control, as well as any other cybersecurity tools that use actively. 

• Log Collection

Data is the key factor for a SOC to function properly and logs play a major role as the focal source of information on the subject of network activities. To data is collected in real-time, the SOC should set up direct feeds from enterprise systems. In order to fulfill the duty, log scanning tools powered by artificial intelligence algorithms are so valuable for SOCs. 

• Preventative Maintenance

By being proactive with their processes, the SOC is able to prevent cyberattacks when considering the best possible. Installing security patches and adjusting firewall policies regularly are some instances for such deterrence. A SOC should keep alert on risk within the organization as some cyberattacks can happen as insider threats. 

• Continuous Monitoring

The SOC must be watchful in its monitoring practices to respond to any cybersecurity incident. A few minutes is more than enough to decide whether you can block an attack and let it take down an entire system. SOC tools run scans across the company’s network to recognize those potential vulnerabilities and other suspicious movement. 

• Alert Management

When monitoring tools issue alerts, the SOC is responsible for looking closely at each one, discarding any false positives, and determining how aggressive any actual threats are and what they could be targeting. This helps them to emphasis emerging threats appropriately, approaching the most urgent issues first. 

• Root Cause Analysis

After resolving an incident, the job of the SOC begins. Cybersecurity experts will analyze the root cause of the problem and diagnose the reasons. This feeds into a process of continuous improvement, with security tools and rules are modified to prevent the same incident happens again. 

• Compliance Audits

The SOC is responsible for regularly auditing the systems to ensure compliance with regulations, which may be issued by their organization, industry, or governing bodies. These regulations include GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS. Following the regulations, benefits to safeguard the sensitive data, shield the organization from reputational damage and legal challenges resulting from a breach.

Different SOC models

What SOC is right for your organization? To answer your question, Gartner outlines five models of SOC that can be chosen according to the organization’s expectations.

• Virtual SOC

This model consists of decentralized security technologies with a virtual team. This can be improved through automation, SIEM technology, and analytics, and mostly reactive model.

• Multifunction SOC/NOC

Multifunction SOC has a dedicated team, facility, and infrastructure, unlike in virtual SOC that does more than security, including IT operations, compliance, and risk management.

• Co-managed SOC

A usual co-managed SOC is delivered for mid-sized to large companies whose core expertise is not IT or security operations. It conducts 8 to 5 operations with 24x7 monitoring. Key drivers for this model of SOC are resource constraints and budget limits.

• Dedicated SOC

This is a centralized SOC that has a dedicated infrastructure, team, and processes. It is self-sustained for continuous operations which include 5-8 security experts at various levels for 24x7 monitoring and operations. It is best suited for large enterprises and government agencies who are constantly under attack.

• Command SOC

Global 2000 companies, large telecom providers and defense organizations are the target audience of this model as it has multiple SOCs distributed in many locations. Such a SOC normally controls other SOCs and is more focused on managing threat intelligence and situational awareness than day-to-day operations.

What Kind of Benefits You Gain from a SOC?

If your organization has an on-board SOC, it can proactively fight against cyber attackers. The team can have significant impacts on business outcomes.

A SOC follows a centralized approach. The SOC team comes into the picture within the first minute when any breach or incident occurs. The team offers real-time services by maintaining smooth operations. SOC team helps to maintain client and employee trust by preventing data loss, thus, maintaining brand integrity. When a website or application goes down, a SOC minimizes the effects and shortens the time to incident resolution. We can’t trust even the most reliable uptime monitoring tools, so having a SOC builds redundancy into your network. The internal staff has various competing priorities that it might be beneficial to outsource cybersecurity activities to a SOC.

Cutting the Long Story Short

A security operations center (SOC) is a command center facility for a team IT professional with expertise in information security who monitor, prevent, detect, investigate, and respond to cyber threats around the clock. Many global giants have also interested in establishing a SOC in their own companies. So why not your organization? If you are interested in what's really happening in a SOC, just have a quick look on this video.

References

• https://www.mcafee.com/enterprise/en-us/security-awareness/operations/what-is-soc.html

• https://digitalguardian.com/blog/what-security-operations-center-soc

• https://www.varonis.com/blog/security-operations-center-soc/

• https://blog.eccouncil.org/what-is-a-security-operations-center-and-why-do-you-need-it/

• https://arcticwolf.com/resources/briefs-2/security-operations-center-models-2