A SOC provides visibility and accessibility to cybersecurity experts during a talent shortage. Having security experts on a streamlined team prevents multiple groups or departments from duplicating efforts when handling cybersecurity incidents.
SOCs monitor for vulnerabilities around the clock because attacks don’t follow a 9 to 5 office schedule. This continuous monitoring decreases the time an attacker can lurk within a system and minimizes monetary losses.
Cost-Effectiveness
A SOC is a command center that helps your business monitor and mitigate threats on a 24/7 basis. This is a complex task that requires the expertise of trained security professionals. In addition, the tools and technologies involved in the process are expensive. However, the benefits of a SOC are well worth the investment.
The main objective of a SOC is to look for cyber threats and attempted attacks to ensure that an organization’s data or systems are not compromised. A SOC operates around the clock, preventing attackers from progressing before detection and response.
SOC teams rely on cybersecurity tools to alert them of any suspicious activity. Then, the team analyzes this information to determine if it’s an actual threat or a false alarm. They also use the analysis to improve their monitoring and response processes, policies, and workflows.
Another key benefit of a SOC is the speed at which it detects and responds to threats. This enables them to minimize the damage from the attack and reduces the risk of future incidents.
A SOC can also help a company demonstrate its commitment to security and privacy. This can increase customer confidence in sharing data with the business and lead to increased recommendations from existing and prospective customers.
Real-Time Monitoring
A SOC Network can provide a centralized real-time view of how your business’s network is performing from a security perspective. This enables your organization to detect, identify, and respond to threats faster. This can help to reduce the risk of a cybersecurity breach and improve customer trust.
Using SIEM tools, a SOC monitors all log data in real-time for any anomalies. The tools look for any activity that deviates from your network’s normal behavior and alert the team immediately. This enables the SOC team to respond to a threat before it can escalate or cause a breach.
SOC teams can also use the same tools to monitor and analyze data from your network’s devices for potential vulnerabilities. Whether the tool is an SIEM or another solution, this analysis provides an opportunity to take preventative measures before an attack happens.
SOC/NOC integration ensures the two teams work together on trouble tickets, alerts, and other security-related incidents. It also demonstrates to employees, customers, and other stakeholders that the company takes its data security seriously. This can increase trust and drive more recommendations from existing clients and prospects.
Scalability
A SOC’s mission is to protect a company’s infrastructure, from its corporate network and cloud environments to endpoints, the devices that access them, and the data they hold. This includes a company’s internal systems supporting business operations and applications and Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices like kitchen microwaves, warehouse scanners, etc.
To do so, the SOC team must be able to detect threats, respond quickly, and prevent breaches. Often, this involves using tools that scan the system continuously and look for anomalies in traffic patterns. These tools can help detect attacks in their earliest stages when they are most effective.
When the tool issues alerts, the SOC team must examine each one closely and discard false positives. This ensures the team addresses actual threats, allowing them to rank each threat’s severity so they can allocate resources accordingly.
Upon discovering an incident, SOC analysts will act as first responders, shutting down or isolating affected systems, terminating harmful processes, deleting files, and more. These actions are designed to minimize damage and the impact on business operations.
Creating and maintaining a SOC takes time and specialized talent. It also requires a high-performing team that can work 24/7, year-round. This makes it difficult for smaller MSPs to create and operate a full-scale SOC or to maintain a dedicated team when cyberattacks happen.
Assurance
The SOC team’s job is to scan for threats constantly. They look through telemetry, logs, and more to identify potential attacks. They then take steps to address those threats, either by blocking them or implementing mitigations to keep them from spreading and potentially causing a cyber incident. This is a constant process because hackers constantly refine their tools and tactics. The SOC team needs to be able to find and analyze the latest information quickly to minimize risk.
The team also analyzes current and past data to look for anomalies or deviations from what is expected. This process is known as threat hunting, and it can involve examining everything from the technology stack to individual user behaviors. By continuously looking at the organization’s technology infrastructure, SOC teams can identify and prevent many cyber incidents before they occur.
A well-run SOC demonstrates to employees, customers, and third-party stakeholders that the organization takes security seriously. This can increase their confidence in sharing data and improve business reputation, resulting in increased recommendations from current and prospective clients. Whether an organization decides to incorporate SOC functionality into its NOC or opts for a managed security service provider, there are benefits to both choices that can save organizations money and help them establish a more robust cybersecurity posture.
