There are several ways to prevent cyber attacks from harming an organization. Most of the solution includes implementing a particular set of software that would cure the organization that has already been attacked by an outside virus.
But in today’s article, we are going to talk about a system that if implemented properly, can prevent the viruses from attacking in the first place.
Table of Contents
What is a Security Operations Center?
A security operations center (SOC) is a structure that contains an information security team that is in charge of continuously monitoring and assessing an organization’s security posture.
The purpose of the SOC team is to use a combination of technical solutions and a robust set of procedures to identify, evaluate, and respond to cybersecurity problems. Security analysts, engineers, and managers who supervise security operations are usually found in various types of security operations centers. Staff from the SOC collaborate closely with organizational incident response teams to ensure that security vulnerabilities are handled as soon as they are discovered.
Networks, servers, endpoints, databases, apps, websites, and other systems are monitored and analyzed by security operations centers, which check for unusual behavior that might indicate a security incident or breach. The SOC is in charge of properly identifying, analyzing, defending, investigating, and reporting possible security events.
What does a Security Operations Center Do?
The SOC team is responsible for the continuous, operational component of business information security, rather than defining security strategy, building security architecture, or implementing protective measures. Security analysts work together in the security operations center to identify, evaluate, respond to, report on, and prevent cybersecurity problems. To examine incidents, some SOCs have extensive forensic analysis, cryptanalysis, and malware reverse engineering capabilities.
The first stage in building an organization’s SOC is to identify a strategy that takes into account business-specific goals from multiple divisions, as well as management involvement and support. After the plan has been defined, the infrastructure that will support it must be put in place.
Firewalls, intrusion prevention systems (IPS/IDS), breach detection solutions, probes, and a security information and event management (SIEM) system are all part of a typical SOC infrastructure, according to Bit4Id Chief Information Security Officer Pierluigi Paganini.
So that data activity can be connected and evaluated by a Security Operation Center specialist, technology should be in place to gather data via data flows, telemetry, packet capture, Syslog, and other ways. To secure sensitive data and comply with industry requirements, the security operations center routinely monitors networks and endpoints for vulnerabilities.
Advantages of Security Operation Center Services:
The enhancement of security incident detection through constant monitoring and analysis of data activity is a fundamental benefit of having a security operations center. Security Operation Center Operators are crucial for ensuring rapid detection and response to security issues by evaluating activity across an organization’s networks, endpoints, servers, and databases around the clock. A SOC’s 24/7 monitoring offers businesses an advantage in defending against events and intrusions, regardless of source, time of day, or kind of assault. In Verizon’s annual Data Breach Investigations Report, the gap between attackers’ time to compromise and businesses’ time to discovery is widely documented, and having a security operations center helps organizations bridge that gap and keep on top of the dangers facing their environments.
5 Important Members of a Security Operations Center
Both the security technologies (e.g., software) and the individuals that make up the SOC team provide the “foundation” for your security operations.
A SOC team consists of the following individuals:
- Manager: A Security Operations Center Manager is capable of filling any function while also monitoring the security systems and processes as a whole.
- Analyst: Analysts assemble and evaluate data from a certain period (for example, the preceding quarter) or after a data breach.
- Investigator: After a breach, the investigator works closely with the responder to figure out what happened and why (typically, one individual serves as both “investigator” and “responder”).
- Responder: Responding to a security breach entails a variety of responsibilities. During a crisis, someone who is conversant with these criteria is essential.
- Auditor: All current and future law has compliance requirements. This position maintains track of these standards and ensures that your company satisfies them.
Best practices for running security operations center services
To “evaluate and mitigate threats directly rather than relying on a script,” many security leaders are focusing more on the human factor than the technological one.
SOC operatives are constantly managing known and current dangers while also looking for new ones. They also work within their risk tolerance level while meeting the demands of the organization and customers. While technological tools such as firewalls and intrusion prevention systems can prevent simple assaults, significant occurrences require human analysis.
To achieve the greatest outcomes, the SOC must stay current on threat intelligence and use it to strengthen internal detection and defensive processes. The SOC consumes data from within the business and connects it with information from a variety of external sources to provide insight into risks and vulnerabilities, according to the InfoSec Institute.
Newsfeeds, signature updates, incident reports, threat briefings, and vulnerability warnings are all examples of external cyber information that help the SOC stay on top of changing cyber threats. To stay current with threats, Security
Operations Center Vendors must regularly feed threat data into SOC monitoring systems, and the SOC must have protocols in place to distinguish between true threats and non-threats.
Security automation is used by truly successful SOCs to become more effective and efficient. Organizations may boost their analytics capability and better fight against data breaches and cyber threats by combining highly experienced security analysts with security automation. Many businesses that lack the necessary in-house capabilities resort to managed security service providers that provide a Security Operations Center as a service.
Top six SOC Service tools
- SolarWinds Security Events Manager:
SolarWinds Security Event Management is a SIEM that includes a log manager and supports HIPAA, PCI DSS, SOX, GLBA, and NERC CIP compliance.
The log manager collects log messages from across your system, combining the many forms in which they are written so that they may be stored and searched together. The dashboard displays all occurrences in real-time on the screen, and an analytical tool allows you to browse through saved log files for relevant security information. With a file integrity monitor, the log manager protects log files against manipulation.
- CrowdStrike Falcon:
CrowdStrike Falcon is a security product range from CrowdStrike. CrowdStrike’s systems are available in a variety of bundles, allowing you to select a package that includes all of your Security Operations Center Requirements in one place.
CrowdStrike Insight is the most popular CrowdStrike security service. This is built on Falcon Prevent, an EDR that is deployed on all endpoints. Every Falcon Prevent installation on a site gets a cloud-based coordinator with the Insight system. Falcon Insight, similar to a SIEM, aggregates activity information from all Falcon Prevent instances. The endpoint modules can also receive response actions from the console.
- LogRhythm XDR Stack:
LogRhythm XDR is a SaaS solution centered on a SIEM. Because the SIEM’s processing module is hosted in the cloud, the security operations center services require local parts to collect and upload log data. The notion of a stack is born from this structure.
SIEM systems combine the analysis of log files with real-time network monitoring. The method is designed to detect unusual activity in network traffic or on endpoints. UserXDR is the endpoint agent that collects logs and uploads them to the LogRhythm server, while Network XDR is the network monitor.
- Rapid7 Insight Platform:
Rapid7 Insight is a security system package that includes a full suite of Security Operations Center Responsibilities. The SIEM system InsightIDR, which is provided via the cloud, is at the heart of this bundle. Incident Detection and Response (IDR) is an acronym for Incident Detection and Response. Agents must be deployed on-site for the system to collect log messages and upload them to the Rapid7 server.
InsightIDR gathers log messages and organizes them into a common structure. It then uses UEBA to track usual activity patterns on the observed machine. Deviations from the usual generate red flags, prompting further investigation of a user account, a device, or traffic from a specific IP address. Attack Behavior Analytics, a database of known hacker attack tactics, is also used by the system (ABA).
- Trend Micro XDR:
TrendMicro offers a suite of security operations center services focused around a SIEM system. The SIEM is cloud-based, but also contains local modules that capture and upload data. These on-site agents are also in charge of responding to incidents. If you utilize cloud services, TrendMicro XDR also has a module that installs on your cloud server account and safeguards it.
The data collection agent collects log messages and aggregates information on system activity whether it is running on your site or in your cloud account. These data feeds are combined and transferred to the TrendMicro server to offer a data source for the SIEM.
- Exabeam:
Exabeam offers a security operations center (SOC) software solution based on a cloud-based SIEM. Its bundle, like the other SIEM-based SOC solutions on this list, combines off-site processing with onsite data collection. Because the Exabeam system handles log messages, it also functions as a log manager, which aids data privacy standard compliance reporting by establishing an audit trail. Exabeam offers a log archiving system as an optional supplementary service to manage the massive amounts of log data that your system will create.
The Exabeam Data Lake contains all of the data that the on-site modules submit to the Exabeam server. The Exabeam Advanced Analytics module uses data from the Data Lake as its starting point. This is the SIEM’s threat hunting component. It uses UEBA to keep an eye out for unusual activity. The Exabeam Data Lake may also be examined manually using the Exabeam system console’s analysis module. You may sort, organize, and filter records for your evaluations using this method.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we would like to say that, with the increasing use of the internet, although cyber threats have increased, at the same time Security Operation Center Vendors are also doing their best to prevent any kind of damage to the targeted organizations.
