What Is a Security Operations Center (SOC)?

The digital environment is becoming the most vulnerable space for businesses as many work processes are transferred to it. Essential information that was previously stored in a safe under lock and key can now be easily accessible to experienced hackers if its protection turns out to be simpler than their talents. The Security Operations Center (SOC) is a team of professionals that no hacker or unscrupulous employee will pass by. By monitoring the digital environment of your business 24 hours a day, SOC is both a deterrent to insider attacks and a strong defense against outside intrusions.

The Mission of SOC in the World of Digital Interactions

The cyber security operations center provides comprehensive protection for businesses and any other organizations against:

• Encroachments on transmitted and stored information.
• Intrusions into the digital space of a business to change certain information blocks.
• Cyber attacks carried out for the purpose of extortion and other reasons.

Business Security Outsourcing: Can You Do Without It?

The successful implementation of these tasks requires:

• An integrated approach
• The latest hardware and software
• Experienced employees who can not only witness the very fact of a cyber attack but also prevent it

It was the need for such a focused specialization that led to the idea of ​​creating a SOC as a service. Since the professional approach implies that employees must be prepared for the most unexpected steps of fraudsters and cyberterrorists, they must constantly expand their knowledge in the field of their specialization and learn how to use the latest software, which is always ahead of the attackers. The creation of an outsourced SOC made it possible to set up ideal conditions in which the three main components guarantee the success of fighting cyber threats:

1. The latest and most powerful equipment needed for comprehensive monitoring.
2. The most advanced software that will reliably protect any business or organization.
3. Talented and professionally erudite employees who will cope with any task.

Within the framework of business companies, the creation of an IT security operations center would require too much expenditure on all three components: equipment, software, and the intellectual potential of employees. That is why the use of SOC as a service is an ideal solution for a rational business, which is well aware that the more successful it becomes, the more likely cyber attacks are directed against it.

Key Functions Supported by the Security Operations Center

To reliably protect any business, the SOC team implements three main functions using the best software:

1. Monitoring the network information environment of the business and identifying all kinds of anomalies. It is carried out in relation to user behavior to detect atypical patterns, network traffic to detect bursts of activity, and endpoints.
2. Manual analysis of identified anomalies to determine their nature and find the best solution to neutralize them. Analytical work allows not only giving the best response to the current threat but also developing a set of measures that will help to avoid it in the future.
3. Response to cyber threats involves choosing and implementing the best steps to neutralize the actions of intruders and expose them for further work by law enforcement agencies.

Security Operations Center Effective Structure

A cyber defense system will work perfectly only if all its structural elements are optimally matched to each other. For example, a businessman may buy the most advanced software but not have employees who can handle it. Or, on the contrary, to have the most highly qualified IT specialists on staff but hesitate to buy the necessary expensive equipment. In this regard, the structure of the SOC providers is ideal and includes the following components:

• Specialists who can handle the toughest challenges
• Advanced tools like SIEM, Logging, Packet Analyzer, and Forensic kits
• Processes that ensure the interaction of all elements of the system for protection against cyber threats. They include not only competent and timely interaction of employees with programs and among themselves but also the interaction of programs with each other. This is especially important in a situation where multiple software is being used.

Security Operations Center Typical Job Roles

By contacting the German expert in the field of cybersecurity DIESEC, your company can count on a full range of SOC services for its information protection. A whole team will work on the implementation of this task, which includes the following positions:

• Analysts: specialists who are directly involved in monitoring network processes and identifying anomalies as well as evaluating them.
• Engineers monitor the quality work of both hardware and software. They regularly update all programs and introduce new equipment as it appears on the cyber services market.
• Managers ensure the coordination of all processes and the development of a cybersecurity strategy for each specific client. They also provide a company’s response to identified threats.
• The head of the security operations center is responsible for the complex coordination of the work of all departments and for the qualitative implementation of the mission of the center. He/she is the representative of the SOC services in the business world and forms a strategic vision for the future and current tasks of the center.

Automation of possible routine processes, coupled with manual analysis where necessary, guarantees the optimal number of employees of the SOC and the efficient distribution of labor.

To ensure the reliable protection of its customers, DIESEC implements two mandatory tasks on an ongoing basis:

1. Invests in the development and acquisition of the latest technologies that are sensitive to all the latest cyber security challenges.
2. Trains its employees to work with this software. Since the cyber market is actively responding to emerging new threats, the permanent professional development of employees is one of the key features of DIESEC’s work.

Today, most large companies have at least one effective security operations center. The largest corporations even have several SOCs. However, less affluent firms cannot afford to support the operation of such a resource-intensive center. For them, outsourced SOC is the best choice that allows them to build reliable personalized protection around their information space with a small payment for the SOC as a service.