SOC as a Service

What is SOC as a Service?

A security operation center (SOC) is an office or group of professional cybersecurity experts who continually monitor your network environment for anomalies. Anomalies could be false positives or an ongoing attack that must be mitigated. SOC providers manually review anomalies and determine the next best steps. Without the right staff, your organization risks being caught unaware in case of an attack. A better solution is SOC as a Service or outsourced SOC where the SOC providers assign an analyst to your company. The analyst acts as a security operations center for continual monitoring and detection of potential threats.

All organizations need security monitoring, but it comes at a high cost that some IT budgets don’t allow for. An in-house IT-SOC security operations center requires the right equipment, tools like logging and analytic dashboards, and staff to effectively detect, prevent, and remediate cyber-incidents. The staff also require specialized training and skills to quickly respond to incidents, mitigate attacks and limit damages.

On the other hand, managed SOC services provide an organization with the expertise necessary to monitor all endpoints, user behavior patterns, and network traffic. They also provide SOC audit with incident response, which is critical to prevent future attacks and limit damages. An information security management system can also benefit from it.

In-Monitoring-Room-Technical-Support-Specialist-Speaks-into-Headset.-His-Colleagues-are-Working-in-the-Background.-808157830_553x311

Why should you use SOC as a Service instead of building an In-House solution?

If you don’t have the expertise to build a SOC and manage it, you could be leaving your organization open to vulnerabilities with little ability to mitigate exploits. Most organizations that realize they have a need for a SOC struggle with the decision to build one on-premises or engage external SOC providers. Having the right infrastructure and staff to manage SOC network security is expensive, but using SOC as a Service brings several advantages.

Advanced Cybersecurity Technology

Knowing the best cybersecurity infrastructure for effective monitoring is a challenge for administrators. SOC providers analyze your current environment and deploy tools and monitoring services specific to your business requirements. They use Socs Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tools to monitor your environment and provide you with the full support necessary to integrate, configure, maintain, and use the software.

Certified and Professional Staff

Most organizations struggle to find analysts who understand the current cybersecurity landscape. Another challenge is determining the number of people needed to monitor and manage the in-house IT-SOC security operations center effectively. Managed SOC services like DIESEC have certified and trained professionals who continually research and stay up to date with the latest security trends. DIESEC will choose the right staff necessary to oversee your infrastructure and ensure that your environment is monitored 24/7/365.

Compliance

Most organizations have to comply with specific regulations, and any errors in your infrastructure implementation can be a costly mistake. Having SOC as a Service manage monitoring and alerts ensures that your business stays compliant with various regulations like HIPAA, SOX, PCI-DSS, NIST, etc. and savin you hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential litigation fees.

What tools do SOC providers use?

DIESEC has several applications in its toolbox that cover all aspects of SOC monitoring and threat prevention. We work with prominent brands and effective open-source products. If you’ve looked into SIEM and other monitoring tools, you know that the right applications make your SOC network security much more effective. Here are a few tools DIESEC uses to manage your SOC monitoring.

SIEM

Every SOC security operations center needs a SIEM tool. These applications collect logs from various infrastructure and endpoints and use advanced analytics to determine if an anomaly needs further manual investigation.

Logging

Logging events is critical in managed SOC services for cybersecurity analytics. Usually, logs are aggregated to one location so that a SIEM can integrate with logging and analyze traffic patterns.

Packet Analyzer

SOC network security tools like packet analyzer “listen” to network traffic and allow analysts to see the requests and responses traversing your network. A packet analyzer will provide insight into possible anomalies that silently exfiltrate data from the network or potential malware scanning resources.

Forensic kits

In the event of a cyber-incident, a forensic kit helps SOC providers determine the severity of a data breach, collect evidence, and preserve it for future investigations and law enforcement in case of litigation.

In-the-System-Monitoring-Room-Senior-Supervisor-Controls-Work-of-the-Operator.-Theyre-Surrounded-by-Monitors-Showing-Relevant-Technical-Data.-949581000_2313x1301

System-Security-Specialist-Working-at-System-Control-Center.-Room-is-Full-of-Screens-Displaying-Various-Information.-808157766_2313x1301

What are the benefits of managed SOC services?

Outsourced SOC provides advanced cybersecurity monitoring and incident response at a fraction of the cost necessary to build a service in-house. You need the real estate, infrastructure, physical security, staff, and maintenance budget to host an IT security operations center within your organization’s offices. Not only is it expensive, but it leaves you with a false sense of security if it’s provisioned and deployed incorrectly. Here are a few more benefits you get by engaging with our DIESEC SOC as a Service.

Faster analyst response

We provide 24/7/365 monitoring in our managed SOC services, so analysts are ready to react at any time for any detected threats. Our analysts also respond quickly to threats that breach cybersecurity controls for better mitigation and remediation.

Reduce cybersecurity risks

Every environment has risks associated with it, but the goal of cybersecurity infrastructure is to reduce that risk as much as possible. Our external SOC audit significantly reduces the risk of a data breach and the associated incident expenses such as litigation fees, compliance violation fines, customer compensation, brand reputation recovery costs etc.

Faster scaling of digital resources

Before extending infrastructure or adding endpoints, it is critical that the proper cybersecurity controls are in place, including event detection and monitoring. A SOC as a Service has all the right tools in place to so that you can scale across your environment more rapidly.

FAQ

What does a security operations center do?

The security operations center (SOC) is tasked with protecting the organization from cyber-attacks. Unlike IT consultants or IT security providers, the IT security operations center performs its duties perpetually. Some of these duties include but are not limited to proactive prevention of cyber-attacks, detection of new cyber threats, and most importantly, dealing with uncovered threats as soon as possible. Security operations centers strive to protect all IT assets that the company or organization possesses, such as network, system infrastructure, data within the systems, brand integrity and reputation.

What are the types of security operations centers?

The methods, tasks, and composition of security operations are different for most companies. Numerous types exist, which can be classified using several criteria:

Ownership - In-house SOC is fully operated and created internally while SOC as a service is provided by external SOC providers.
Governance - Dedicated SOC is a service offering that gives you access to an exclusive team of security analysts while co-managed SOC is a collaboration between your internal resources and external team
Duties - You can prioritize SOC network security by choosing a Network Operations Centers (NOC) which is a specialized type of SOC.

What is the primary goal of the security operations center?

The primary goal of an effective SOC is to monitor, investigate, and manage any threat to your company’s cybersecurity. Its goal is achieved by utilizing a combination of elements, such as:

Investment in the latest cybersecurity technologies to detect a broader range of threats more accurately
Training employees on how to use these advanced technologies.

The secondary goals of any SOC are different for each company, but they normally serve the same ends – making the cybersecurity of the company impervious to all future cyber-attacks. To achieve its secondary goals, security operations centers sometimes have to rely on external help. Employing red teams, subscribing to cutting-edge pentesting tools, and collaborations with other experts are fairly common.

What is the difference between NOC and SOC?

SOC network security can encompass an overwhelming number of tasks, in which case they can be delegated to two teams – NOC and SOC. The network operations center(NOC), is tasked with the detection and proactive protection against threats. It monitors and partially manages the network services of the organization, its firewalls, routers, etc. On the other hand, the security operations center (SOC), continuously searches for threats, submits frequent reports, and analyzes new threats. It also collaborates with the NOC in efforts to strengthen the defenses, create contingency plans, and work on cybersecurity countermeasures.

The main differences between NOC and SOC can be characterized by their different natures. NOC needs to ensure the IT infrastructure is intact and functional; SOC needs to ensure that the entire system is shielded from cybersecurity threats.

What are the three components of SOC?

The three main components of SOC include monitoring, analysis, and response to cyber threats. Through continuous monitoring, you can uncover majority of the threats in time. Analysis of each threat is required before executing remedial action. The response component includes threat neutralization, discovering the most vulnerable aspects of the infrastructure, the search and implementation of tools suitable for advanced threats, and more.

Additional elements of every SOC system include the implementation of incident and log management tools. By keeping track of which threats have endangered the system and in which measure, the security operations center will be better prepared for future attacks.

Which certification is best for SOC analyst?

How many companies have a security operations center?

It is estimated that the majority of large enterprises and corporations have at least one SOC. It is not uncommon for very large brands to have multiple security operations centers that collaborate with each other to ensure that all assets of the organization are secure.

However, many companies do not have an SOC for various reasons. One is the challenge of meeting compliance to laws. Some companies also find it too expensive to run an in-house team and rely on third party SOC providers to manage their SOC for them.

It is estimated that the vast majority of organizations and companies that have broader reach(especially international) require a security operations center.

What is the SOC framework?

A SOC framework is the overall system architecture that defines the people, tools, processes and other components delivering SOC functionality. It defines how these components interoperate to more effectively protect the entire organization from the latest cyber threats.

Your SOC framework needs to be thoroughly defined and backed by a forward-thinking strategy. The fundamental aspects of any SOC framework need to be implementable and the strategies suitable for your specific security requirements. Monitoring and analysis-based automation is one of the most important pre-requisites of a smart SOC framework, followed by staff augmentation when necessary.

Get Started with an Effective SOC

DIESEC has professional staff familiar with numerous cyber-threats in the wild ready to help you monitor resources and more effectively stop attacks. Contact our IT security consultants to get started or fill out the form to send us a message about your specific business needs.