24/7 SOCs – Constant Security for a Constant World

With the ever-rising number of cyberattacks, modern organizations cannot afford to run their IT operations without a dedicated security operations center (SOC). The primary purpose of investing in a competent SOC team is to manage all security incidents by fulfilling a wide range of responsibilities. This includes identifying and mitigating potential threats. But what exactly is a SOC?

What is a Security Operations Centre (SOC)?

A SOC refers to a centralized unit of an organization that focuses on detecting, analyzing, and preventing cyber threats. It is part of the company security team focusing on implementing procedures and technologies that continuously monitor and improve your business’s security posture.

The size of SOC teams varies from one organization to another. Regardless, these teams share similar responsibilities, including:

Threat Detection and Prevention

Like any other security operation, prevention is always better than damage limitation when it comes to cyber security. Rather than waiting to respond to threats as they materialize, a SOC focuses on monitoring your network 24/7. That enables your security teams to detect any suspicious activity before it arises and causes damage to your business.

Threat Investigation

Unfortunately, identifying cyber threats is not enough – so the work of your SOC team will not stop at detection and prevention. Once your security analysts detect a threat, the next step involves investigation and analysis. This step aims to ascertain the nature of the threat and the consequences if it materializes. These security experts will employ a wide range of cyber security tools, such as identifying areas of exposure and key indicators, to understand how the attack might unfold.

Incident Response

Once your SOC analysts collect enough cyber threat intelligence, it’s time to respond to security threats accordingly. The response phase involves many actions, including terminating harmful processes, deleting files, and isolating endpoints. In other words, its primary goal is to contain, eradicate, and mitigate a threat before the business suffers damage.

Benefits of 24/7 SOCs

24/7 Security Monitoring

While you prioritize your company’s security, you’ll never know when a data breach or any other cyberattack will occur. Most cybercriminals launch their attacks during after-hours or on the weekends when your cyber defenses are at their most vulnerable state. With that in mind, security monitoring during business hours alone is not enough for an effective security strategy for your business.

Luckily, having 24/7 SOC services ensures continuous security monitoring, event management, and incident management. That equips your company with the oversight it requires to minimize security threats that could bring irreparable damage to your business.

Centralised Visibility

Many organizations today have adopted remote work and bring-your-own-device policies designed to increase productivity in the workplace. Unfortunately, these digital transformations have introduced new and unique vulnerabilities to the company’s network, which requires new security approaches and solutions.

A 24/7 SOC service is the perfect solution for businesses looking to secure such a diverse network. It features a wide range of tools that enable your business to achieve complete visibility into its network infrastructure. These tools enable you to collect log data and fend off potential attacks before they materialize.

Improved Collaboration

Another significant benefit of a 24/7 security operations center is better collaboration. To ensure effective incident detection and response, it is mandatory to ensure all departments are working together towards the same goal.

A SOC outlines clear procedures for cyber threat identification, analysis, and response. With such an approach, your company can minimize any delays between identification and response, which often gives an attacker a longer window to achieve their objective.

As mentioned in the definition, SOCs also provide a centralized unit for all your business’s security services. With such a tight security structure, you can ensure your security resources are put to effective use, making it easier to achieve the business’s cyber security needs.

Although most people might prefer an in-house SOC team, it is advisable to outsource SOC and immediately access the benefits of an already established service. With a third-party SOC provider, you can save money since you don’t have to recruit a team or buy the equipment they will need to do the job. Additionally, you can avoid all the SOC challenges, such as false positives, that often result from a shortage of cybersecurity skills.