An introduction
In today’s digital and globalized world, businesses must be available to their employees and customers at all times, irrespective of where or even when they require to use their services.
While contemporary technology makes this connectivity simple to deploy and retain, the same tools and corporate requirements have facilitated cybercriminals to search for vulnerabilities and obtain illegal access to company systems at any time and from any part of the globe.
Because of these competing forces, organizations should monitor their devices and networks for threats to their assets and data with a security operations center (SOC) and the security experts that manage and operate them, called SOC analysts.
So, what are the essential tasks of a SOC, and how can you lay the groundwork for an efficient enterprise center?
An understanding of Security Operations Centers
A security operations center is a group of security specialists who are in charge of the following:
- Monitoring a sensor network and security technologies 24/7 to predict possible cybersecurity attacks.
- Analyzing and ranking discovered abnormalities based on their magnitude and probable impact.
- Isolating situations and putting procedures in place to prevent repeat occurrences.
SOCs are typically handled by SOC analysts, malware analysts, network engineers, and other cybersecurity specialists who are expert at using business and network-based monitoring technologies. Larger organizations may structure SOC analysts into groups, enabling them to delegate more complicated technical hurdles to more experienced specialists.
5 Key components of a Security Operations Center
1. Detection
Network monitoring operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, looking for suspicious activities through security features monitoring network traffic and unit activity. This includes:
- Intrusion prevention systems (IPS)
- Data loss prevention systems (DLP)
- Security incident and event management (SIEM)Â
- Antivirus prevention
If a strange activity benchmark is surpassed or an odd event log is discovered, the SOC staff will be automatically notified to investigate and triage the situation. The occurrence can then be categorized as regular operation or security risk behavior.
2. Response
If your organization were to be targeted tomorrow, making the call and gathering a skilled team to prevent bleeding would require significant effort on your behalf. With consolidated information access, there is the opportunity for IR to be organized using the same automated pathways that are clearly defined and easily comprehended by all parties involved.
The SOC should follow the incident management procedure when an event is identified. This procedure will involve the following components:
- Documentation: Acquiring information that helps define the occurrence’s extent and nature.
- Corrective action-isolating: By removing the risk, you can reduce the adverse effects of the occurrence and strive to keep it from happening again.
- Investigation: Identifying the underlying reason for an incident to determine its origin and implement the appropriate procedures to close any security holes.
- Closure-verifying: It indicates that the incident was adequately documented and resolved and that any practical performance or controls have been modified to avoid it happening again.
3. Containment
Problem management involves the process that aims to better plan and monitor the underlying fundamental causes of occurrences to avoid future problems. It employs a systematic approach to removing service-impacting issues and assists the SOC in preventing issues from occurring. These activities assist the company in continually improving and remaining vigilant in its security posture.
4. Eradication
This component offers a centralized, accurate perspective of business devices and their security status. A security operations center (SOC) can collaborate with endpoint and network device security mechanisms to:
- Detecting and preventing issues
- Deploy patches and updates
- Perform remote device administration
- Adjust configurations and rules
These procedures aid in keeping enterprise equipment current on security protocols and ahead of developing threats.
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5. Recovery
A SOC monitors the actions done in the aftermath of an attack, ensuring that the company effectively alleviates the threat and interacts with those affected. Supporting organizations in smoothly recovering from an occurrence is a critical component of incident response.
Recovery may include, for example, removing ransomware or malware from afflicted systems, wiping and reimaging infected endpoints, and resetting passwords for compromised accounts.
Engaging with stakeholders, relevant parties, and third-party providers to establish and maintain security features and fulfill compliance criteria is part of this function. Among the most important actions are:
- Virus definitions or configurations must be updated and tested
- Putting new security measures or tools through their paces
- Taking corrective measures in response to firewall or intrusion detection system alarms
Advantages of The Security Operations Center
The primary advantage of keeping a security operations center is improving security issue detection through continuing analysis and constant activity monitoring. SOC teams guarantee fast detection and reaction to security issues by monitoring this activity across an organization’s endpoints, networks, servers, and databases 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As a result, organizations depend on their SOC to safeguard them from security events and intrusions, irrespective of the time of day, style, or source of the attack.
According to numerous studies, the average time to identify and respond to a violation is more than 100 days. A SOC improves an organization’s capability to detect and respond to threats in a timely fashion, eliminating or reducing the catastrophic consequences of cyber assaults.
Dive more into the best practices of SOC!
This article merely scratches the surface of what the SOC accomplishes for a company’s cybersecurity and how to create one.
Fortunately, companies can draw on a wealth of proven accelerators, resources, and tools to improve their knowledge of SOC solutions and guide them through creating and managing one. The Open Web Application, Security Project’s Security Operations Centre Framework Project, is among the most extensive (OWASP).
Whatever approach your organization adopts to fulfill SOC responsibilities, taking a strategic and holistic approach to safeguarding organizational assets, data, and customers will only grow more critical as organizations rely increasingly on technologies and interconnection.
