All You Need to Know about Security Operation Center & Its Importance

Data security and online vulnerabilities related concerns loom large with the growing reliance of companies on technology. When it comes to cybersecurity and elimination of vulnerabilities against any cyberattacks, Security Operation Center (SOC) remains a viable option for modern business. Here we will have a closer look at how SOCs can assist small, medium, and large companies to secure their systems and networks from threats.

Before discussing the benefits and importance of SOC solutions for your business, let’s go through some quick facts regarding data breaches and cyberattacks.

• Around 60% of small and mid-sized businesses shut down after six months of cyberattacks- National Cyber Security Alliance
• Over 70% attacks target small enterprises- National Cyber Security Alliance
• 1.1 Billion identities have compromised through data breaches until 2016- Symantec
• The average cost of a data breach is $3.86 million in 2018- Ponemon report

Let’s start with an introduction of SOC.

A Security Operations Center consists of a team of cybersecurity experts who dedicatedly work on preventing data breaches and cybersecurity-related threats. The SOC monitors, detects, and responds to all sorts of cyber threats on a 24/7 basis to ensure data safety.

Team members of the SOC keep on performing vulnerability scans of a network and address the weakness promptly to avoid any serious consequences. Simply put, SOC is an IT department for focusing on data security only. The team uses various cutting-edge tools and latest techniques to monitor the network continuously.

Enterprises can leverage the benefits of SOC either by establishing a Security Operations Center in-house or taking SOC services from a reliable security services provider. When it comes to startups and small-scale industries, it is better to outsource SOC services as they lack resources and infrastructure to meet the needs of a SOC.

Six mainstays of SOC services are-

1. Asset awareness- The first objective of the SOC team is to define the digital assets like software and hardware available to monitor and prevent data security-related issues.

2. Monitoring and Prevention- The SOC team does not respond to threats as they come. Here experts do preventive monitoring of a network on a 24/7 basis.

3. Record of activities- SOC analysts record activities and communications while going through the log management of the network. It enables them to find out the error in the incident of a data breach.

4. Classify alerts- Whenever there is an occurrence of a breach or cyberattack, the incident response team measures the severity to assist the SOC to prioritize their focus on critical alerts.

5. Defense modification- Cybersecurity is an ongoing process and needs to bring changes in techniques to deal with ever-changing types of cyber threats. SOC solutions can continuously modify the network’s defenses on an as-needed basis.

6. Regulatory measures- The year of 2019 have brought many regulatory norms and mandatory measures for cybersecurity. Apart from threat management, the SCO has to protect the business from any legal trouble by meeting regulatory requirements.

As mentioned above, the SOC team pays attention to any vulnerabilities and data threats. The best practices of SOC are-

• Expanding the scope of data security
• Increasing data intake
• Improving the analysis of data
• Exploiting security automation

Six Benefits of SOC Solutions

1. Centralization

SOC aims at establishing a centralized approach to monitor the entire network and any potential threats. Cybersecurity professionals can store and share the relevant information quickly thanks to log management. In a way, they can respond better to any vulnerability or breach attempts and develop advanced techniques to identify them in advance.

2. Cost-effectiveness

Startups and SMBs find SOC solutions highly cost-effective as they need not hire resources or maintain the cutting-edge tools to remain resilient against any potential attacks. As compared to other cyber-security techniques, SOC is more powerful and reasonable for the business. Here, the entire team of experts stays at one location that saves operational expenses and enhances the team’s efficiency.

3. Monitoring and Reporting

SOCs monitor your business network on a continual basis with the help of sophisticated detection tools. They are equipped to recognize and respond to threats by identifying potential vulnerabilities in advance. Also, the centralized SOC can give response swiftly to the threat report because the entire team stays at a single location. These benefits give SOC solutions an edge over decentralized strategies for securing corporate data.

4. Collaboration

The team members of SOC can readily collaborate and coordinate because they are together. They can develop customized solutions to meet the company’s diverse data security requirements and protect the entire network. Also, they are fully aware of the assigned tasks and activities of every member that enables them to ensure an optimum result.

5. Expertise

Experienced and expert providers offer SOC services for your company. You can readily leverage the benefits of the latest tools and years of experience of cybersecurity experts by assigning the data security to the SOC. With diverse skill sets, all the members of SOC dedicatedly work to achieve a common result- the safety of your company’s data.

6. Quick response

Data threats and vulnerabilities need prompt and proper action. SOCs have gained ground in the corporate world for this reason. SOC solutions ensure quick response to any identified threats. Proactive measures to neutralize the vulnerability can also be taken with continuous monitoring of the network through advanced equipment. As a result, the possibility of a data breach reduces significantly.

These days, enterprises across various industry sectors rely more on cloud technology and tend to provide their services online. This trend leads to the need for establishing a SOC to ensure the safety, confidentiality, and integrity of valuable corporate data. Though various industrial sectors can leverage the benefits of SOC solutions, data-driven sectors like E-governance, banking & finance, education, defense, and healthcare can remain the biggest beneficiaries.

Do you want to reduce the vulnerabilities of your business and enhance the security of workflow? We can provide you a SOC Prevention Posture Assessment. Having years of experience in providing enterprise-grade security solutions for online platforms have enabled us to address every aspect of data safety and probable cyber attacks. Just send us an email at info@silvertouch.com and move toward complete data security and peace of mind!