SOC is a security operations center that monitors the security procedures and systems of organizations and analyzes them. Thus, through their proper analysis, they defend the companies against security breaches. Furthermore, this also reduces the security risks and isolates them to provide a safe workplace.
Therefore, organizations worldwide use security operations centers to make sure that they can work without security threats. Organizational information and data are the key tools for their growth. Therefore, they are always at risk of a security breach. This increases the need to have proper security for these areas.
However, you won’t know whether you need it or not. So how will you determine whether you should spend money here or not? You can Contact a cybersecurity consultant today with one of the Clearnetwork experts to help you determine your SOC needs. Thus, you will have a better idea of your organizational security needs.
Important roles of the SOC
Some of their important roles include;
1. They are the first responders to cybersecurity threats
If your company faces a security breach or a cybersecurity risk, SOC will be the first one to respond. They are the first line of defense and will be on alert all the time. Their team will report all the cyber threats. In addition to this, they will also implement all the changes that will ensure the protection of your organizational data.
Furthermore, they will work in coordination with the engineers of cybersecurity and other security managers. Thus, if there is an attack on your organization, you won’t lose your important information. The security team will respond on time.
2. A team of specialists
The best thing about the SOC is its best team of software and hardware specialists. This specialist won’t only work when there is a security threat but will also work on the regular update of the security system. They will install their security system and will maintain the tools and systems needed for the proper cybersecurity.
In addition to this, their specialist team will be responsible for the documentation of the tasks that they are responsible for. They will provide documents related to the digital security protocols to the other teams if they need them.
3. Proper managerial system
There is not a single entity to work for the SOC. They have a proper team to do the work. Therefore, the senior would be the manager who is responsible for his whole team. The manager will direct the operations and he is the one responsible for proper coordination between the engineers and analysts. In addition to this, he will also manage the hiring of the new staff and their training. Moreover, he will create the cybersecurity strategy and make sure that it is properly implemented and executed.
Besides, his responsibilities also include the proper orchestration of the responses to the security threats. So whichever team is responding to the major security threats, the manager will be planning their response. Thus, he will be the one leading the whole team.
4. Setting up their Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)
Apart from the manager, there is a chief information security officer. His job is the establishment of security strategies. In addition to this, he will plan policies and carry out operations. Therefore, the establishment of the chief is also a key role of SOC. He will work in coordination with the CEO of the company. He will report to the CEO about the management of security and in case of any issues. Thus, the manager will be answerable to him.
5. Managing the incident response
Another responsibility of the SOC is the entitlement to the direction of the incident response. The director is the senior-most position in the security organization. He will be responsible for managing communication within the organization. So if there is an incident or a security threat, he will manage it and communicate with the whole team. Furthermore, he will guide the team to deal with the security breach and take timely measures.
SOC analysts and their responsibilities
SOC analysts are divided into 4 tiers.
- Tier 1 analysts are the frontline workers. They are the ones who will monitor the security risks, prioritize them and investigate them. Furthermore, they will analyze which threats are serious and then will pass them on to the next team.
- Tier 2 analysts are those who get the serious threats that the Tier 1 teams pass them. Tier 2 team members have more experience and they have deeper knowledge about the threats. Thus, they analyze them and also decide the strategy that they will use to deal with them.
- Then comes the Tier 3 analysts also known as SMEs or hunters. They are senior ones and manage the incidents. Furthermore, they are always engaged in hunting the threats and are responsible for their timely identification.
- The last Tier is the analyst of Tier 4. This tier is not the team but only the SOC manager. He is responsible for the recruitment of staff, making strategic plans, prioritizing things and managing the staff under him. In addition to this, he will also deal with major security incidents and breaches.
Final words
To sum up, the key responsibilities of the SOC team include the investigation of threats and dealing with them. They will deal with all the possible threats at different levels and then look for the serious ones. If there is a serious threat, they will forward it to their senior analysts who will deal with it.
Thus, they will triage and prioritize the detected incidents and make sure that there is no serious threat left behind. Furthermore, if there is an attack on the company’s server, they will immediately deal with it and make sure to protect the important information. Despite being in different tiers, the whole team will be in coordination with each other. And then the manager will be managing the whole team to ensure data safety.