A security operations center, known as a SOC – pronounced “sock” 🧦 - is a team of experts that proactively monitor an organization’s ability to operate securely.
Members of a SOC team are responsible for a variety of activities, including proactive monitoring, incident response and recovery, remediation activities, compliance, and coordination and context.
Proactive Monitoring
Proactive Monitoring includes log file analysis. Logs can come from end points (e.g., a notebook computer, mobile phone or an IOT device) or from network resources, such as routers, firwalls, intrusion detection system (IDS) applications and email appliances. Another term for proactive monitoring is the threat monitoring. SOC team members work with various resources, which can include other IT workers (e.g., help desk technicians), as well as artificial intelligence tools and log files.
Incident Response and Recovery
A SOC coordinates an organisation's ability to take the necessary steps to mitigate damage and communicate properly to keep the organisation running after an incident. It's not enough to just view logs and issue alerts. A major part of incident response is helping organisations recover from incidents.
For example, that recovery can include activities such as handling acute malware or ransomware incidents.
Remediation Activities
SOC team members provide data-driven analysis that helps an organisation address vulnerabilities and adjust security monitoring and alerting tools.
For Example, using information obtained from log files and other sources, a SOC member can recommend a better network segmentation strategy or a better system patching regimen. Improving existing CyberSecurity is a major responsibility of a SOC.
Compliance
Organisation secure themselves through conformity to a security policy, as well as external security standards, such as ISO 27001x, the NIST CyberSecurity Framework(CSF) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Organisations need a SOC to help ensure that they are compliant with an important security standards and best practices.
Coordination and Context
Above all, a SOC team member helps an organisation coordinate desperate elements and services and provide visualized, useful information. Part of this coordination is the ability to provide a helpful, useful set of narratives for activities on the network. These narratives help shape a company's CyberSecurity policy and posture for the future.
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