SOC Security Functions

SOC security functions are critical for businesses of all sizes. They help protect against cyber attacks, data breaches, and other online threats. But what exactly is a SOC security function? And what do they do? In this blog post, we’ll answer those questions and more. We’ll also provide an overview of the different types of SOC security functions and how they can benefit your business. So if you’re looking to improve your cyber security posture, this blog post is for you.

Creating an inventory of resources

The SOC is in charge of processes, devices, and applications that need to be protected and defensive technologies that can assist accomplish this protection.

SOC teams cannot safeguard data or devices that are not visible to them. Without control and visibility from the device to the cloud, there will be gaps in the network security posture that attackers may identify and exploit. The SOC strives for a holistic picture of the organization’s threat landscape, which includes networks, endpoints, apps, and servers. This view should cover traffic between these assets and third-party services as well.

SOC teams must also be able to use all available cybersecurity technologies, as well as appropriately execute all security procedures and best practices, in order to optimise agility and effectivity.

Preparation and Preventative Maintenance

Even the best-equipped and most fast response approach cannot prevent problems from occurring in the first place. The SOC employs two types of proactive actions to thwart cyberattacks before they occur:

• Preparation—team members must stay current on the latest security advances, cybercrime patterns, and the creation of novel threats. This study may assist establish disaster recovery strategies to lead the company in an emergency and provide direction for future cybersecurity endeavours.

• Preventative maintenance entails any steps that might make it more difficult for cyberattacks to succeed, such as frequent system updates and maintenance, patching vulnerabilities, changing firewall policies, whitelisting, blacklisting, and hardening IT system.

Monitoring constantly

The SOC employs technologies to continually monitor the network and alert any suspicious actions or irregularities. Monitoring the network around the clock alerts the SOC to new dangers, allowing it to mitigate or prevent assaults in their early phases. Endpoint detection and response (EDR) and security information and event management are examples of monitoring technologies (SIEM). Advanced technologies use behavioural analysis to understand the difference between typical everyday operations and true danger behaviour, reducing the amount of triage and analysis required by people.

Management of Alerts and Prioritization

When monitoring technologies generate alerts, the SOC must carefully review each one, eliminate false positives, and determine how severe any genuine threats are and what they could be targeting. The SOC is in charge of sorting alerts, determining which are likely to be true security events, and researching them in order to respond quickly.

Threat Reaction

When the SOC team detects an event, they act as first responders, isolating or shutting down infected endpoints, interrupting dangerous activities, eradicating malware, and other tasks. The goal is to reduce the threat while causing the least amount of disturbance to the organization’s continuity.

Rehabilitation and Remediation

A SOC manages the actions performed in the aftermath of an attack, ensuring that the organisation effectively mitigates the danger and communicates with those affected. It is not sufficient for SOC teams to send alarms and review logs. Assisting companies in efficiently recovering from an incident is a critical component of incident response. Recovery may include, for example, removing ransomware or malware from afflicted systems, resetting passwords for compromised accounts, and wiping and reimaging infected endpoints.

Log Administration

The SOC should collect, retain, and evaluate logs of all network communications and activities throughout the whole enterprise on a regular basis. This data serves to build a baseline for routine network activity, can highlight dangers, and can be utilised by IT and security professionals for forensics and incident response. A SIEM is used by many SOCs to correlate and aggregate data streams from firewalls, operating systems and endpoints, and applications, resulting in a centralised store of security data.

Data-driven analysis

This assessment assists an organisation in fine-tuning security monitoring and alerting solutions as well as addressing vulnerabilities. A SOC team, for example, might propose an enhanced network segmentation plan or patching regime based on information acquired from log files and other sources. A SOC’s primary mission is to improve existing cybersecurity.

Root Cause Analysis

Following an event, the SOC must determine exactly what occurred, why, how, and when. Throughout this inquiry, SOC teams depend on log data and other facts to determine the root of the problem, which will assist them in preventing similar problems in the future.

Enhancement of the Security Process

To keep one step ahead of defences, cybercriminals constantly modify their strategies and tools; thus, the SOC must continuously improve. Post-mortem studies of events to see how the SOC team may have done better are one technique to improve the security process. Another option is to hold realistic practice sessions, such as war games with blue and red teams.

Management of Compliance

Organizations defend themselves by adhering to security policies and adhering to external security requirements. ISO 27001x, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the NIST Cybersecurity Framework are examples of external standards (CSF). Organizations require a SOC to ensure that they are adhering to essential best practises and security standards.

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