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Everything You Need to Know About the Security Operations Center (SOC)

By January 22, 2020No Comments6 min read
Security Operations Center (SOC)

Data breaches are becoming more common with time. Even big companies like Equifax has fallen victim to the data breaches. The average cost of a security breach is more than $3.75 million than in 2018. Equifax lost over a $1 billion due to data breach. Most businesses are using technology for expanding their business. They are using their customer data for making better decisions. But, cyberattacks are also becoming more complex with time. Hackers are using ransomware attacks for stealing business data. Thus, it is important to protect your company data from attackers.

Most businesses are using cloud technology. There are many benefits of using cloud technology like cost-saving and flexibility. But, cloud security is a challenge for most businesses. Medium and small-sized businesses don’t have an internal IT team for dealing with cloud security. If you don’t have a budget for hiring security professionals, then Security operation centers are perfect for you. It will help you in dealing with security risks. In this article, we are going to discuss SOCs.

What is SOC?

A SOC or Security Operations Center is a team of security experts who will help you in protecting your companies from data breaches. They will also help you in dealing with other cybersecurity attacks. The main of SOC is to detect, monitor, respond and investigate all types of security threats.

They will use various different security processes and solutions for protecting your data. These include firewalls, intrusion detection, breach detection, and SIEM. They will also continuously monitor your network for vulnerabilities and threats. This will ensure that your network is protected from known vulnerabilities. SOC is similar to an IT department whose main aim is to protect your data and network.

Six Pillars of SOC

If you don’t have an in-house IT department, then you can outsource a managed security service provider or MSSP. Most of the MSSPs are offering SOC services to their clients. Thus, even small and medium-sized businesses can protect their companies from attackers. SOC is also the most cost-effective option for medium-sized companies. You can use the six pillars of SOC operations for creating a cybersecurity approach.

  1. Asset Awareness

You should know everything about your IT assets. The technologies, software, hardware, and tools that make up the IT assets will differ according to the company. IT companies will own more IT assets when compared to other normal companies. First, you should create a list of all your IT assets. This will help you in preventing and identifying security threats.

  1. Monitoring

Prevention is always better than cure. Thus, you must try your best to prevent a data breach. Your SOC will monitor your network for vulnerabilities and breaches. This will help them in detecting malicious activities in your network.

  1. Keep an active record of communication and activity

SOC analysts need to retrace the communication and activity in case of a data breach. Thus, you must keep a record of every activity happening in your network. Your IT team can create a log file of all the communications and activities are happening in the network.

  1. Rank Security Alerts

You should assign priority to your security alerts. This will allow SOC to work on the main security alerts. Thus, they can respond to main security alerts before addressing normal security alerts.

  1. Modify Defenses

Cybersecurity is always changing with time. Thus, it is important to do continuous improvement in your cybersecurity approach. A SOC will modify your network defenses according to the latest threats.

  1. Compliance

There are many security compliances that companies need to follow. A SOC will help you in protecting your data from threats. It will also protect your business from legal trouble. They will ensure that your business operations are compliant with the latest regulations.

SOC Best Practices

  1. Focus on Information and data security

Most of the companies are using cloud computing for hosting their applications and data. This has expanded the infrastructure of most of the companies. There are various technological advancements like IoT that is becoming more common with time. Thus, almost all companies are connected to the cloud. However, this has also increased the threat landscape. It is important to secure your new technologies and processes from threats.

  1. Collect more data

If you want to improve your cybersecurity approach, then you must collect more data. This data will help you in taking better decisions regarding network security. You should gather data during a security incident. This will help your SOC team in finding the root cause of the breach.

  1. Better Data Analysis

Companies are using data for making better business decisions. But, collecting data is only valuable when you can analyze it correctly. Thus, you must do a comprehensive analysis of the data that you are collecting. You should focus on analyzing your security data. This will help your SOC team in taking better decisions.

  1. Security Automation

There are various automated tools that you can use for securing your network. You can use vulnerability scanners for scanning your network. Thus, your team doesn’t need to worry about manually finding vulnerabilities. Your team can also use DevSecOps for automating security tasks. This will allow them to focus on more important tasks. Automation is only going to increase with time. Thus, your organization should take advantage of AI and machine learning.

Conclusion

Security threats are only going to increase with time. Thus, it is important to protect your organization from attackers. If you don’t have an in-house IT department, then SOC is perfect for you. They will help you in protecting your company from attackers. You will get access to a dedicated team of security professionals. They will monitor your network for security threats. This will ensure that your data is protected from attackers. Also, they will ensure that you are following the latest security compliances and regulations. If you want more security tips, then you contact Bleuwire.

Contact us today to learn about Bleuwire™  services and solutions in how we can help your business.