Top 5 Tips for building a Security Operations Center (SOC) System

Unfortunately, cyberattacks are increasingly becoming the norm. Keeping up with the growing rate of cybersecurity threats may seem impossible when your business is lacking in-house security resources and staff — so, building a Security Operations Center (SOC) is often the ideal solution. Currently, many enterprises struggle with security threats. In particular, enterprises in industries that have huge amounts of valuable data are prime targets for hackers and cybercriminals. They are always in the search for gaps in the networks and systems of the enterprises, and they won’t even hesitate for a second when they find them. Due to the valuable identifiable personal information, sensitive data, or patented technologies these businesses hold, they often become an interesting part of the cybercriminals’ space. This problem can be solved with Managed SOC. All the enterprises in the world today almost have two or three cyber defenses in place such as a firewall, email filtering, or antivirus. These are the salient tools that once kept you fully protected but are no longer enough to defend against heavily growing cyber threats. Defensive equipment is in place to keep out the things that you have configured it to keep out. But what about the things we really don’t hear about? How do you defend against those? The answer seems obvious, right? You necessarily have a team working around the clock that can keep your security perimeter consistently updated against new and evolving threats. That’s where the Security Operations Center (SOC) plays an important role. But the question is what SOC is? And how to build a SOC System? In this blog, we have gathered the top 5 tips to be considered while building a SOC system. Let’s get started!

First things first, What Is Managed SOC?

Managed SOC offers organizations external cybersecurity experts who monitor your cloud environment, devices, logs, and network for threats. It is dependent on a subscription model system where you can pay a monthly or yearly fee to prevent threats and to make sure that threats are being detected and accordingly responded to. There is continuous monitoring of your IT infrastructure with a managed Security Operations Center, without making a large investment in security software, hardware, security experts, training, and more. You can have quick access and start monitoring cyber threats, which will improve your organization’s security. Click here to know more.

Top 5 Tips for building a SOC System

Choose your SOC team carefully

The benefits of your SOC depend on the team members you have chosen. To keep your system secure and determine which resources are useful, these team members are responsible. You should include members that cover a range of skill sets and expertise while choosing the SOC team members. Team members must be able to:

• Monitor systems and manage alerts
• Manage and resolve incidents
• Analyze incidents and propose action
• Hunt and detect threats

Team members must also have a set of skills including soft and hard to achieve these tasks. Intrusion detection, reverse engineering, malware handling, and identification, as well as crisis management, are the most important among these. When building your SOC team do not make the mistake of only evaluating technical skills. It is required for the team members to work together closely during high-stress situations. Because of this, it is important to select members who can efficiently collaborate and communicate.

Select tools wisely

Having effective or sufficient tools can increase the effectiveness of your SOC system. To gain this advantage, you have to select tools carefully to match your system needs and infrastructure. It is even more important for you to have centralized tools if you have a more complex environment. Your team should not have step-by-step information for analysis or use different tools to manage each device. The information is more likely to be overlooked or ignored if your SOC employs more discrete tools. The information is even more tough to sort through and correlate if security members need to access multiple dashboards or pull logs from multiple sources. While in the process of selecting the tools, make sure to evaluate and research each tool before selection. Security products can be incredibly expensive as well as difficult to configure. It is of no sense to waste your time or money on a product or service that doesn’t integrate well with your system. You need to consider endpoint protection, firewalls, automated application security, and monitoring solutions when deciding which tools to incorporate. Many SOCs make use of System Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions. These tools help in providing log management as well as increasing security visibility. SIEM can also assist in matching up data between events and automate alerts.

Develop a security strategy

When you have decided to build a SOC it is of utmost importance to develop a security strategy. Follow the below steps for that:

• Evaluate your current SOC resources as well as capabilities. You could revamp your IT staff into a SOC, adapt existing processes or optimize your tools.
• Mark the goals of the business for the SOC. For this, understand which systems are important to support operations, so the security team can strengthen their protection.
• Select a proper SOC model for instance hybrid, virtual, or in-house.
• Select the proper technology solution. This can be the difference between productive and overwhelmed staff.
• Building a modern security operations center (SOC) is much more than assembling the latest equipment and then hiring a team of analysts. It’s an ongoing effort to stay on top of threats, be current with emerging technology and trends, and hire and keep the right talent.

Develop an incident response plan

Initiate with setting clear roles and responsibilities for every member of the team by developing an incident response plan. In the lapse of planning who will be doing what, you also need to assess whether that individual has the access and tools to fulfill her or his defined responsibilities. For instance, sometimes the security team needs help from the IT operations team to gain access needed to contain a threat. This comes up with another point: An incident response plan needs to be rehearsed not just with security or IT, but also with other business partners that could potentially be involved in a high severity event. This includes executive leaders, public relations, legal, human resources, the call center, and even third-party partners.

Focus on visibility

Visibility is key to being able to successfully protect a system. Your SOC team needs to be aware of where data and systems are in order to protect them. They need to know the priority of data and systems, as well as who should be allowed access. Being able to appropriately prioritize your assets enables your SOC to effectively distribute its limited time and resources. Having clear visibility allows your SOC to easily spot attackers and limits places where attackers can hide. To be maximally effective, your SOC must be able to monitor your network and perform vulnerability scans 24/7.

Summing Up

Building a security operations center (SOC) can be daunting. After all, it is meant to be the first and last stop when it comes to system security. Despite this, you can create an effective SOC team that meets the unique needs of your organization. It takes time, effort, and careful assessment, but the reward is a confidently secure network. Start by using the best tips outlined above and pay special attention to team selection. The members you choose not only dictate the SOC processes and tools to be implemented but ultimately, the overall effectiveness of your program. Many organizations are opting for Managed SOC services to lessen the workload of their in-house security staff. So, Are you also looking to build a SOC system? But don’t know whom to ask? Well, we are just a phone call away.

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About Sennovate

Sennovate delivers custom identity and access management (IAM) and managed security operations center (SOC) solutions to businesses around the world. With global partners and a library of 2000+ integrations, 10M+ identities managed, we implement world-class cybersecurity solutions that save your company time and money. We offer a seamless experience with integration across all cloud applications, and a single price for product, implementation, and support. Have questions? The consultation is always free. Email [email protected] or call us at: +1 (925) 918-6618.