SOC-ing Out Threats: How a Security Operations Center Keeps Your Business Safe

Protecting against potential cyber attacks requires constant and quick monitoring and response as the cyber threat landscape is evolving rapidly. The potential expense and damage to the organization is greater as longer as a cyber security incident goes before it is remediated. It is the responsibility of the Security Operations Center (SOC) of an organization to address these threats. The SOC should ensure continuous monitoring for cyber threats and provide the ability to engage immediately in incident response.

Even though all SOC teams may differ a bit from one another, most of them have almost the same roles and responsibilities. It requires an executable plan of action and foresight to build an effective SOC. The foremost step in determining if you have the security you need to protect the data used and stored by your business successfully is to understand the roles and responsibilities of your cybersecurity team.

You must be wondering what SOC is? How has SOC evolved? What are the benefits of SOC? No worries! This blog is all about SOC. So be with us and get the answers to all your questions.

Let’s get started!

What is SOC?

A team of IT security professionals that safeguard enterprises by continuously monitoring, detecting, analyzing, and investigating cyber threats is called a security operations center, or SOC. Networks, servers, computers, endpoint devices, operating systems, applications, and databases are continuously examined for signs of a cyber security incident. The SOC team analyzes feeds, establishes rules, identifies exceptions, enhances responses, and keeps a lookout for new vulnerabilities.

For modern enterprise technology systems to run 24/7 to ensure a rapid response to any emerging threats, SOCs usually function around the clock in shifts.

SOC Evolution

Anciently, a traditional network operations center (NOC) has focused on incident detection as well as response with availability as the primary objective in the past. Network device management and performance monitoring are the key responsibilities of a NOC.

SOCs were established for government and defense organizations originally. Ensuring threat alerts, detecting intrusions and responding to incidents were the major responsibilities of an early SOC. Huge organizations and banks started implementing similar monitoring operations after 2000.

In 2005, the Information Security Management Standard was released and rules & regulations were added to the SOC’s objectives. For monitoring and response, dynamic packet filtering firewalls, antispam and vulnerability management, and intrusion prevention were added in SOC.

The era between 2007 and 2013 was the golden age for SOC evolution. Various key security solutions that are important for security monitoring, for instance, data leakage prevention (DLP) and security information and event management (SIEM), included in the cybersecurity ecosystem during this time.

Next-gen SIEM entered the security ecosystem and operations journey in the evolution of the SOC. SIEM is based on Machine Learning (ML) which is a subset of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and it is also referred to as user entity behavior analytics (UEBA).

Security operations driven by threat intelligence, reverse engineering and AI/ML-based monitoring technologies have changed next-generation SOCs. During this time, the hybrid SOCs were deployed and operated on a customer’s premises by an MSSP. Hybrid SOCs are also referred to as remote SOCs.

The Benefits of an Effective SOC

When we see theoretically, without an effective SOC, an enterprise can protect itself seamlessly. But this is complicated and prone to failure, in practice as it will leave an organization vulnerable to cyber threats. Organizations can enjoy multiple benefits with an effective SOC such as continuous network monitoring, centralized visibility, reduced cyber security costs, as well as better collaboration.

24/7 Monitoring

Cyber attackers will never take a break so it is necessary to have continuous monitoring. While a company may observe standard business hours, it is not necessary that attackers will do the same. It is possible that in order to maximize the chances of success, cyber criminals will commonly perform their attacks after hours or on weekends.

Thus, in order to reduce the cyber security risk, it requires continuous monitoring of the organization’s IT infrastructure and data. This means that to ensure the continuous monitoring of your organization’s sensitive data, you should have SOC analysts and incident responders available all the time.

Centralized Visibility

The networks of most of the organizations are growing more complex. The deployment of cloud computing and Internet of Things (IoT) devices has derived due to Digital transformation initiatives, while the growth of remote work and bring your own device (BYOD) policies has spurred the connection of remote and mobile devices to the corporate network.

Because of this, it has become even more complicated to maintain visibility and security across the organization network. Technologies that work on one platform may not be effective on another, and new technologies introduce unique vulnerabilities and security requirements that require new security solutions.

Reduced Cyber Security Costs

It is super expensive to maintain a strong corporate cyber security. In order to achieve clear visibility and protection against cyber threats, a company may require multiple platforms and licenses. This cost can be reduced with the help of a centralized SOC by sharing them across the entire organization. Even the additional overheads caused by duplication and redundancy can be reduced by elimination of departmental silos.

Apart from this, in the long run, an effective Security Operations Center (SOC) helps an enterprise to save money by reducing cyber security risk. A ransomware attack when carried successfully can cost in terms of downtime and system recovery heavily and a data breach can easily carry a price tag in the millions of dollars. A SOC that blocks even a single cyber attack before the damage is done has already demonstrated a significant return on investment.

Better Collaboration

In order to have effective incident detection and response, a good collaboration is necessary. The probability that the cyber criminals will gain their objective increases and makes the attack even more difficult to eradicate its effect completely, if an organization does not have clear processes in place for identifying, reporting, and responding to a cyber security incident.

A SOC centralizes all of an organization’s security resources and personnel within a single team that supports the entire organization. This tight-knit structure supports collaboration between team members and makes it easier to meet the cyber security needs of an organization, such as 24/7 network monitoring and rapid response to potential security incidents.

Why Choose Sennovate’s SOC?

Sennovate provides Modern Security Operations Center solutions to reduce CAPEX and OPEX for clients every day. Sennovate has partnered with Stellar Cyber, a leading Open XDR platform delivering Detection and Response for your Teams which is like security cameras for your organization. It provides comprehensive visibility into your organization’s security posture, allowing you to identify and resolve threats. Our SOC solutions help reduce noise and give you the peace of mind that your organization is protected. Contact us to get access and enable SOC capabilities for your organization.

Wrapping Up

If you need a Security Operations Center to be proactive threat hunters within your system, consider Sennovate’s SOC team.

We install and monitor the top-of-the-line, and we have a 24/7 monitoring service with advanced network analytics, data forensics capability, and a defined threat remediation process.

And we always make time to get to know your company. To check in frequently. To gain a thorough understanding of your organization in order to protect and serve you better. Want to know more about the SOC team? Sennovate’s experts are here to help you.

Having any doubts or want to have a call with us to know more how SOC can help your company?

Contact us right now by clicking here, Sennovate’s Experts will explain everything on call in detail.

You can also write a mail to us at [email protected] or call us on +1 (925) 918-6618.

About Sennovate

Sennovate delivers Social Engineering Defence (SED) services, Managed Security Operations Center (SOC), custom Identity and Access Management (IAM) 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.