Strategy Considerations for Building a Security Operations Center

Data security remains a matter of paramount importance for modern business. Be it from disparate systems, networks, or applications, critical corporate data can be generated anytime and from anywhere. As we witness substantial growth in the number of cyberattacks in recent years, SOC as a service emerges a strong solution to threats and vulnerabilities.

Let’s take an obvious question. A Security Operations Center (SOC) is a centrally located position from where the IT security team monitors and analyzes the organization’s operations from a data safety viewpoint. When your company opts for SOC as a service, the SOC team works on identifying and responding to any potential threats or anomalies by using cutting-edge tools and advanced processes. Risk assessment, real-time communication, and rapid coordination are key characteristics of a SOC.

• Faster response time to deal with malware and other potential threats
• Quick recovery from a malicious attack like DDoS
• Real-time monitoring of processes and log aggregation
• Centralized reporting
• Post-breach analysis

When it comes to deal with budgetary restrictions and resource limitations, many enterprises find it difficult to establish a SOC. In today’s highly complex security scenario, even companies that have established a SOC also face problems in evolving it to the next level.

A reliable SOC service provider can help you provide all services of SOC at a reasonable cost while addressing all your security-related requirements. Here are five key factors to consider while developing SOC for the enterprise.

Availability and reliability of intelligence are crucial whether you want to establish or manage a new security operations center. Intelligence data can be fetched from various internal and external sources. The data can be ranging from user behavior to employee information. We can classify threat intelligence into tactical, strategic, and operational depending on different priorities and requirements of intelligence as per the structure of data.

The SOC team should have clearly defined roles and responsibilities to improve operations on a continual basis. For example, a threat intelligence analyst’s role is to review and categorize the data and events. Services associated with identification, response, escalation, and communication should also be defined to mitigate new issues effectively. Bigger SOC team can manage the roles easily but smaller teams need to take an agile and proactive approach to ensure smooth processes.

A quick decision is a key to minimize the impact of any cyber attacks or potential threats. With the help of certain tools related to asset management, vulnerability management, behavior monitoring, and event management, you can get actionable insights to make informed decisions in real-time. However, a limited budget can remain a big obstacle in getting customized solutions.

You may find it strange, but it’s true when it comes to a SOC! Though globally automation plays a vital role in making the security model more adaptive, we have some examples that show the disruption caused by automation in security operations. On one hand, companies are in search of automated tools for ensuring data safety, and on the other hand, there are incidents in which automation has a negative impact on security because of the unintentional hampering of key applications.

A SOC service provider can plan, document, communicate, and coordinate effectively while keeping all requirements in mind. It is necessary to get the desired output from automation.

Cyber attacks are on the rise, and it is essential for you to give a top priority to identify and respond to such attacks. A SOC should be capable of integrating security with your business to ensure complete protection. Topics like spreading awareness among employees, remaining M&As, and application development should be covered effectively while developing a SOC for your enterprise.

Before moving to the SOC management, let’s go through several types of SOCs.

Traditional SOC- With limited scope, this SOC aims at providing security in the immediate vicinity. It is a smaller and localized version of the global SOC.

Global or Command SOC- Global SOCs are also known as command SOCs as they control other smaller SOCs or traditional SOCs. They operate on a larger scale and provide higher security worldwide.

Cloud SOC- The SOC service provider can also provide the services from a remote location with the help of cloud technology. It is known as SOC-as-a-service. Also, companies who have established a SOC at their workplace may tend to keep some of their operations and information in the cloud.

Dedicated SOC- It is an in-house SOC facility.

Combined SOC- Here a SOC team along with advanced facilities dedicatedly works for monitoring security on a shared network. Virtual SOC- Here, team members are geographically separated and there is an absence of a dedicated facility. The team is managed by the SOC service provider.

SMEs should prefer taking SOC as a service. It is because they may find the establishment and management of a SOC way more challenging than their bigger counterparts. Apart from these types, we have a hybrid model that combines a virtual SOC with some internal SOC duties. Small and mid-size companies can also leverage the benefits of such a hybrid model.

It is better to consult a SOC services provider to get the right SOC model for your company.

You can manage the security operations center in line with your business model and existing structure. Usually, the SOC team consists of the following members.

• SOC Manager- He takes care of the entire operation, budgets, strategy, technology implementation, and meeting SLAs. The SOC manager reports to the CISO or CTO or CIO. It is the manager’s responsibility to analyze the general threat landscape or to respond to incidents as they happen. The manager monitors the activities of several security professionals including

• SOC Analyst- From monitoring the situation to finding the cause of a data breach- all activities are monitored by a SOC analyst. The analyst advises on remedies and decides the course of action for strengthening defenses.

• Threat Hunter- The most important role in the SOC team is of a threat hunter. They keep an eye on various online processes and track down any possibility of an attack. The threat hunter also finds the presence of any malicious actors who remain passive for attacking in the future and isolates new incursions to protect the system.

SOC as a service plays a vital role in ensuring data safety of the organization. Irrespective of your company’s size and business model, the security operations center works continuously to safeguard your valuable corporate data.

At Silver Touch, our experienced IT security professionals can help you get rid of data security concerns by identifying core processes and technologies. If you want to keep your valuable data secure, just drop us a line at info@silvertouch.com. We will get back to you soon.