What is SOC (Security Operations Center)? How Does It Work?

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What is SOC (Security Operations Center)?

A Security Operations Center is a team or a central function responsible for monitoring, detecting, and analyzing cyber threats to protect an organization. To prevent cybersecurity vulnerabilities, it continuously monitors networks, servers, computers, operating systems, databases, and websites. The team sets rules, identifies exceptions, conducts penetration testing, and keeps an eye on new security vulnerabilities.

In today's world, predicting when a cyberattack or security breach might occur is nearly impossible. There is always a high likelihood of a major cybersecurity incident happening. Because of this, SOCs must operate 24/7. To keep up with this demanding workload, IT professionals within an organization work in shifts.

Large-scale organizations operating in multiple countries can also rely on a Global Security Operations Center (GSOC) to protect themselves from global security threats. SOC teams can collaborate with different departments or work with external IT security experts. Before establishing a Security Operations Center, organizations should conduct a thorough assessment. They must evaluate their business goals and challenges to determine whether to establish an in-house SOC or outsource the service to a security provider.

What Are the Objectives of SOC (Security Operations Center)?

• Ensuring security tools are updated, patched, monitored, and managed without delay.
• Regularly monitoring systems to prevent potential issues or quickly addressing any emerging problems.
• Conducting thorough periodic inspections of networks, systems, databases, websites, and infrastructures for suspicious activities or unusual events.
• Performing detailed analyses to determine the origin of an incident or threat, its impact on systems, and the extent of the damage.
• Recovering lost or stolen data, identifying the sources of security breaches, and investigating their causes. Reviewing procedures by monitoring warning tools.
• Effectively managing and controlling an ongoing attack or threat with the help of relevant units.
• Keeping up with industry best practices and federal regulations to stay ahead of emerging threats.
• Conducting penetration tests that simulate cyberattacks. Based on the results, identifying vulnerabilities and refining incident response plans.
• Staying informed about cyber threats and hackers through social media and the dark web, keeping up to date with the latest security measures and technologies.
• Analyzing daily logs for anomalies. Many hackers exploit the fact that companies do not regularly review log data, allowing malicious software to operate undetected for weeks or even months. This makes daily log analysis crucial.

How Do SOC (Security Operations Center) Processes Work?

The Security Operations Center first collects and analyzes daily data. Indicators of an attack may appear in system activity, user interactions, or security alerts. The sequence of events can also be a key factor requiring attention. Quickly categorizing collected data is essential for efficiency. Analysts can prioritize incidents more effectively. If a Level 1 SOC analyst detects a serious breach or vulnerability, they escalate the issue to a Level 2 SOC analyst for further investigation.

The faster a problem is resolved, the easier it becomes to control damage and improve future response times. The remediation process typically includes:

1. Reviewing affected systems, restoring data from backups, and applying necessary updates.
2. Deleting or resetting compromised accounts and reviewing access control lists.
3. Monitoring infected hosts to prevent reinfection.
4. Checking for potential misconfigurations.

Today, the number of modern threats used to attack systems is vast. Attacks are incredibly fast, complex, and diverse, yet the resources available for protection are limited. This forces teams to focus on incidents with the highest impact on business operations.

Some high-priority incidents include:

• Network communication between a local network and known malicious IP addresses.
• Security breaches involving administrative accounts.

To prevent attackers from exploiting vulnerabilities, organizations must identify weaknesses before they are discovered. Conducting regular security vulnerability assessments, reporting results, and reviewing these reports are essential. These scans primarily detect technical vulnerabilities rather than procedural ones, so additional review of SOC processes is necessary to address security gaps.

Steps to Establish a SOC (Security Operations Center)

Building a strong Security Operations Center requires careful planning. Like in any field, setting clear objectives makes the process significantly easier. To define your goals, ask yourself questions such as: What security measures should be improved? What parameters will be used to measure success?

Technology choices are crucial. There are numerous intrusion detection and prevention systems available. You need to determine which ones suit your needs. Ensuring integration between the selected technologies is essential. Identifying the core assets that the SOC will protect, such as applications, databases, and systems, is also critical, as each asset's risk level must be assessed and categorized.

Before establishing a Security Operations Center, budgeting and resource allocation are necessary. Creating a SOC is a time- and cost-intensive process, so verifying that you have the required budget and personnel beforehand is crucial. Workforce considerations are also important. Hiring skilled professionals and ensuring they receive continuous training to stay updated on the latest developments is vital.

Developing a security strategy is one of the most critical steps. Detecting incidents and planning responses accordingly is of utmost importance. You need to decide on the structure of regular security audits. Testing the existing system is also essential. Reviewing reports to identify areas for improvement and subjecting the team to specific simulations are among your options.

In this article, we have explored what a Security Operations Center is and how its processes are managed. Now, you are one step closer to the software industry! To stay updated on new content and keep up with the community, feel free to check out our Discord channel. If you want to benefit from free, certified Bootcamps, visit the Bootcamp section to find one that suits your criteria and apply.