What is a Security Operations Center? And why do you need it?

In this technology-driven world, every business, regardless of the size, make dedicated efforts to protect their sensitive data. This data could be about the staff, clients, business partners, internal operations, and more. But with the rise of sophisticated and targeted cyberattacks, it has become challenging to secure the infrastructure. Even the possibility of falling prey to an attack has increased over the past few years. As per Ponemon’s 2019 Cost of Data Breach Report, the average cost of a data breach has increased by 12 percent globally (in comparison to the last five years). It has reached to $3.92 million. The probability of a breach has increased, so does the cost. In light of these studies, businesses constantly work to find reliable defensive strategies against cyberattacks. A few rely on advance security solutions while some outsource cybersecurity services. Another effective practice could be to integrate a Security Operations Center (SOC).

All you need to know about Security Operations Center (SOC)

Security Operations Center (SOC) is a centralized unit dealing with high-quality IT security operations. It works as the first line of defense. The team is responsible for detecting cybersecurity threats and preventing incidents from happening. They also work with the incident response team to provide suitable solutions. The ability to monitor all the security systems in a real-time environment around the clock makes this team unique and more desirable from others.

Responsibilities of SOC with prompt member roles

The SOC team identifies possible threats and incidents. After this, they analyze and investigate them to find the appropriate solutions.

1. Implementation and Management of Various Security Tools

A skilled SOC team understands the tool requirements. From basic security tools, such as firewalls, IDS/IPS, DLP, to enterprise forensic tools, even considering the SIEM solutions, the team knows it all.

2. Analyze Unusual/Suspicious Activities

By using monitoring tools, the SOC team looks for suspicious activities within the system. Their activities depend upon the alerts generated by SIEM.

3. Maintains Network Downtime and Ensures Business Continuity

Organizations need minimal or no network downtime to keep their businesses afloat. To manage the same, SOC notifies the stakeholders during any security breach.

4. Checks Regulatory Compliance

The team audits the security infrastructure to check whether it meets all the applicable regulatory compliance.

Check out this detailed video by Paul Brettle, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise R&D Security Specialist, explaining how a SOC team interacts with a SIEM system. It also helps you understand the role of SOC members:

The team that constitutes a security operations center are stated below –

Team Member	Role
SOC Manager	They are responsible for managing the personnel and budget required for security solutions. They also coordinate with the legal department whenever needed.
Incident Responder	These professionals are the first ones to respond to any security incident.
Forensic Investigator	The specialists trained to analyze the attack by gathering and preserving the pieces of digital evidence.
Compliance Auditor	The experts monitoring the activities of the staff and check whether they comply with the pre-defined procedures.
SOC Analyst/Cybersecurity Analyst	These members escalate the potential threats after analyzing and ranking them on the severity level.

Why do you need a Security Operations Center (SOC)?

Organizations with an on-board SOC can proactively fight against cyber attackers. The team can have significant impacts on business outcomes. Here are the primary benefits of having a security operations center –

Centralized Approach

The SOC team comes into the picture as soon as any breach or incident occurs. They offer real-time services by keeping all the processes and software in one place, thus, maintaining smooth operations.

Maintain Client and Employee Trust

Customers and employees trust the organizations to keep their data safe from the outside world. SOC team helps in preventing data loss, thus, maintaining brand integrity.

Maximum Awareness and Minimum Costs

It increases the ability to reduce the potential losses due to security breaches, contributing to high ROI. With the integration of the SOC team, firms can save money on recoveries from data theft.

The security operations center helps the organizations to build a sound preventive layer. The team continuously monitors and analyzes the security posture of the organization. These professionals serve as the first line of defense to prevent destructive security incidents. To get started as a SOC Analyst, take up our Certified SOC Analyst (C|SA) training and credentialing program. It is designed to produce Tier I and Tier II SOC Analysts. Under this program, the attendees will learn to manage various SOC processes and how to collaborate with different departments. Learn significant SOC skills to kickstart your career as a SOC Analyst.

Source: eccouncil.org