What are the steps to designing an effective security operations center (SOC)?
Learn from the community’s knowledge. Experts are adding insights into this AI-powered collaborative article, and you could too.
This is a new type of article that we started with the help of AI, and experts are taking it forward by sharing their thoughts directly into each section.
If you’d like to contribute, request an invite by liking or reacting to this article. Learn more
— The LinkedIn Team
A security operations center (SOC) is a team of experts who monitor, analyze, and respond to cyber threats in real time. A well-designed SOC can help an organization protect its data, systems, and reputation from various attacks. But how do you design an effective SOC that meets your specific needs and goals? Here are some steps to follow.
Before you start designing your SOC, you need to understand your current security posture, risks, and gaps. You can conduct a security assessment to evaluate your existing tools, processes, and capabilities. You should also identify your key assets, vulnerabilities, and compliance requirements. This will help you define your scope, objectives, and budget for your SOC.
-
Abhishek Narula
CTO (SOAR Business) at Fortinet
An example of assessment includes having an inventory of your assets including endpoints, servers, websites with their owner information.
-
Thota Nadh
Global Technology, Innovation, Digital Transformation Sales Leader with 34,000+ followers (Ex-Synaptics, Wistron, Wipro, Tata Elxsi, TVS), 2 million Content impressions
Here are some effective SOC design tips: 1. Define your scope and objectives. What are the primary functions of your SOC? What threats and risks are you trying to mitigate? What are your security goals? Once you have a clear understanding of your scope and objectives, you can start to design a SOC that meets your specific needs. 2. Identify your data sources. What data will you need to monitor and analyze in order to detect and respond to threats? 3. Choose the right tools and technologies. 4. Design for scalability and resilience. 5. Automate as much as possible. 6. Hire and train the right people. 7. Establish clear processes and procedures. 8. Test and improve your SOC regularly.
There are different ways to implement a SOC, depending on your resources, expertise, and preferences. You can choose to build your own in-house SOC, outsource it to a third-party provider, or use a hybrid approach that combines both options. Each model has its pros and cons, so you should weigh them carefully. For example, an in-house SOC gives you more control and customization, but it also requires more investment and maintenance. An outsourced SOC can save you time and money, but it also involves less visibility and integration.
-
Vamsi Krishna GV
Vice President @ QuisLex | Securing IT & Digital Infrastructure
1. It's all depends upon how quickly you onboard the SOC. I would recommend going with a MSSP model with stringent agreements and SLA's. 2. Identify a Third-party vendor who understands and deliver SOC as a service rather just focussing on a specific product. 3. Asses third-party vendor's ability to detect fast, contain and recover from a security incident which covers 360 degree of organizations attack surface. 4. Define data localization, retention, SLA's for MTTD, MTTR requirements based on business objective, regulatory and legal requirements. 5. Agree on an integrated approach where MSSP can become an extended function of the organization to closely work with internal teams for effective collaboration and speedy remediation etc.
(edited) -
Rahul Gajbhiye
Senior Sales Manager
Whether a SOC is built in-house or SOC services are availed through a third party, time to market is the key here. Hackers will not wait for your SOC to come up before they attack.
Your SOC team is the core of your security operations. You need to select qualified and experienced professionals who can perform various tasks, such as threat intelligence, incident response, forensics, and reporting. You should also define their roles, responsibilities, and workflows. A typical SOC team consists of analysts, engineers, managers, and coordinators. You may also need to train and certify your team members to ensure they have the necessary skills and knowledge.
-
Rahul Gajbhiye
Senior Sales Manager
With 500+ OEMs in the market, it is humanly impossible for a SOC team to get certified or become an expert in all the technologies.
Your SOC tools are the instruments that enable your team to monitor, detect, and respond to cyber threats. You need to deploy the right tools that suit your needs and goals. Some of the essential tools for a SOC include security information and event management (SIEM), endpoint detection and response (EDR), network security monitoring (NSM), and threat intelligence platforms (TIP). You should also integrate your tools with each other and with your existing systems to ensure data consistency and accuracy.
-
Abhishek Narula
CTO (SOAR Business) at Fortinet
Typically we see SOC tools and process helping us in three aspects, namely Prevention, Detection and Response. SOAR (or Security Orchestration Automation and Response) are integral part of your SOC which helps in streamlining case management and accelerated response using automation.
-
Rahul Gajbhiye
Senior Sales Manager
With all these tools and technologies in place, why are organizations still being hacked? It is because most of these tools do not communicate or share information with each other, leaving a huge gap for an attack to go undetected for days. Global average for an undetected attack is 210 days.
Your SOC processes are the procedures that guide your team to perform their duties effectively and efficiently. You need to define your processes for each stage of the security operations lifecycle, such as identification, protection, detection, response, and recovery. You should also document your processes and policies clearly and consistently. Some of the important processes for a SOC include incident management, escalation, communication, reporting, and auditing.
-
Abhishek Narula
CTO (SOAR Business) at Fortinet
Similarly, SOC teams also have defined process or SOP (standard operating procedures) for responding to Specific type of threats such as phishing
Your SOC performance is the measure of how well your team and tools are achieving your security objectives. You need to evaluate your performance regularly and continuously to identify your strengths and weaknesses. You can use various metrics and indicators to assess your performance, such as detection rate, response time, resolution rate, and customer satisfaction. You should also collect feedback from your stakeholders and customers to improve your service quality and value.
-
Temi A.
Head of Security Solutions Architecture at Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Define Objectives and Scope • Establish Stakeholder Alignment • Define Roles and Responsibilities • Select Technology Stack • Implement Incident Response Processes • Define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) • Testing and Simulation