What Is A SOC In Cybersecurity And Why You Should Know About It

What can be deduced as a typical today-trend is technology decentralization, with cloud-based communications, addictive manufacturing, data driven decision making, seen as vivid examples.

But in all of these, in the case of cybersecurity, the opposite might suffice, which is why it is expedient for every serious organization to invest in an SOC.

Before we go further, we need to define the two terms, SOC and Cybersecurity

What is SOC itself?

SOC is an acronym for Security Operations Centre.  We have to thus define what a Security Operations Centre connotes.

A Security Operations Centre known popularly as SOC is a facility team that comprises of an information security crew that is responsible for monitoring, analysing and managing the security posture of a firm or organization on a consistent basis.

In simpler terms, the SOC team helps protect company assets like business systems, business and personal data, as well as intellectual property and brand integrity. 

Security Operations Centre is a centralized command post for cyber security operations with the mandate to monitor, detect, investigate and respond to cyber security threats. The SOC team helps protect company assets like business systems, business and personal data, as well as intellectual property and brand integrity.  

Businesses and organizations prefers centralized operations as a central point of collaboration between different roles in cyber security terms gives more security and organization as they look to monitor asses and defend against cyber attacks and possible breaches.

The Security Operations Centre is moulded in what is known as a hub-and-spoke model, a process data from different security feeds are collected and stored in a centralized system.

What is Cybersecurity? 

Cybersecurity in simple terms is the protection against the criminal or illegal use of electronic data and the accompanying measures taken to achieve the safeguard of electronic data.

In broader terms, Cybersecurity is a practice by which computers, servers, mobile devices, electronic systems, networks and user or company data are defended from malicious attacks. The term cyber security may be applicable to a variety of concepts as it can be from business to private mobile computing.

Cybersecurity can be divided into 6 categories which are Network Security, Application Security, Information Security, Operational Security, Disaster recovery and business continuity and End-user education.

Linkage between SOC and Cybersecurity

With the definition of the two terms, it can be seen that the two are intertwined and work hand in hand in context and the former is a term that defines a team that protects the latter. It can hence be deduced that an SOC is made up because of cyber security concerns.

Functions of an SOC in Cybersecurity

Part of the functions of an SOC in cybersecurity includes: 

• Stock taking of available resources and assets like devices, applications and processes, and the availability of safety tools. 
• Preventative maintenance and preparative security measures such as educating team members, developing a security roadmap, and keeping company software updated. 
• Monitoring around the clock using specialized tools with immediate reporting. Some advanced systems can actually “learn” threat behaviours and proactively inform experts of impending breach. 
• Recovery of lost or compromised data which includes deploying backups, wiping and restarting endpoints, or reconfiguring systems in case the worst should happen. 
• Investigation of security threat/ breach and the root causes with the use of a log data that helps in future prevention. 
• Threat response to incidents such as shutting down endpoints or ending harmful processes and deleting files. 

From the above, it is obvious that the role of SOC in cyber security is vital in the protection of large organization’s data security and integrity. The SOC team boasts of well trained, professionals who see robust and perfectly managed systems as worthwhile investments.

The SOC team configuration

The SOC as a team has the following members which include a Manager, Analyst, Investigator, Responder and an Auditor.

The roles of the members are highlighted below:

• Manager: this is the leader of the group and thus coordinates operations. He is required to step into any role as the situation demand, while overseeing procedures and security systems.
• Analyst: The function of the analyst is to compile and analyse data immediately after a breach has been discovered. He/ she will take in the data breach; analyse form a period of time like for example the previous quarter.
• Investigator: The role of the investigator is to find out what happened and why once a security breach has been confirmed. The personnel is to investigate the remote and long term cause of the breach. He or she will then work closely with the responder to begin the process and recovery.
• Responder: The role of this person is to respond to issues brought to the fore by the investigator with the aim of resolving them. He or she performs the major recovery task for the electronic crisis. The individual in this role s indispensable and very vital.
• Auditor: The auditors reviews and verify the various data dropped by the analyst, investigator and the responder. He or she ensures compliance mandates and makes sure the organization meets and keeps up with the stated requirements.

It should be noted that one person may combine more than one role, depending on the size of the size of an organization.