Security operations center (SOC)

What is a SOC?

A SOC is a centralized facility that monitors and analyzes an organization's security systems and data to detect, investigate and respond to security threats. SOCs are staffed with security analysts who use a variety of tools and technologies to monitor for suspicious activity, investigate security incidents, and take action to mitigate risks.

SOCs play a vital role in protecting organizations from cyberattacks and data breaches. By providing a centralized view of an organization's security posture, SOCs can help organizations to identify and respond to threats more quickly and effectively.

What does the SOC do?

• Security monitoring: SOC analysts monitor an organization's security systems and data for suspicious activity. This includes monitoring for unauthorized access, malware, and other threats.
• Security incident response: SOC analysts investigate security incidents and take action to mitigate risks. This includes containing the incident, eradicating the threat, and restoring normal operations.
• Security threat analysis: SOC analysts analyze security threats to identify trends and patterns. This information is used to improve the organization's security posture and develop new security strategies.

What are the SOC’s challenges?

SOCs face a number of challenges, including:

• The increasing volume and sophistication of cyberattacks: SOCs are constantly bombarded with a high volume of security alerts, making it difficult to identify and prioritize the most critical threats.
• The shortage of skilled security analysts: SOCs are often understaffed, making it difficult to keep up with the demands of monitoring and responding to security threats.
• The lack of visibility into all attacker activity: SOCs sometimes lack necessary visibility, such as within applications, which makes it difficult to detect and respond to application-layer attacks.
• The need to comply with complex security regulations: SOCs are challenged with the need to  comply with a complex and ever-changing landscape of security regulations.
• The need to stay ahead of the curve on security threats: SOCs must constantly stay on the cutting edge by keeping up with the latest attack techniques and trends.

What is Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)?

SIEM is a software solution that helps organizations collect, aggregate, and analyze security-related data from a variety of sources, such as network devices, security appliances, and applications. SIEM solutions provide a centralized view of an organization's security posture, enabling security analysts to identify and respond to security threats more quickly and effectively.

SIEM solutions typically include the following features:

• Log collection and aggregation: SIEM solutions collect and aggregate security-related data from a variety of sources, including network devices, security appliances, applications, and operating systems.
• Log normalization: SIEM solutions normalize log data to make it easier to analyze and correlate.
• Event correlation: SIEM solutions correlate security events to identify potential threats.
• Incident management: SIEM solutions provide tools to help security analysts investigate and respond to security incidents.
• Reporting and compliance: SIEM solutions provide reporting and tools to help organizations meet their security and compliance requirements.

What is the difference between SIEM and SOC in cybersecurity?

SIEM is a tool used to gather, analyze, and correlate security event data, while a SOC is a team or facility that uses tools like SIEM to manage and respond to security incidents.

SIEM technology provides real-time monitoring, correlation of events and logging for security data. It collects and aggregates log data generated throughout an organization’s IT infrastructure, analyzes it, and generates alerts based on predefined security rules. The main purpose of SIEM is to detect potential security threats by correlating and analyzing data from various sources (firewalls, antivirus software, servers, etc.) and providing reports or alerts for further investigation. It’s a tool used to manage and analyze security alerts from various systems to detect unusual activity, potential attacks or breaches. 

SOC is a team or facility where security experts monitor, detect, analyze and respond to cybersecurity incidents. It involves both people and processes dedicated to protecting an organization’s assets. The SOC is responsible for managing and responding to alerts generated by systems like SIEM, as well as other monitoring tools. It operates 24/7, ensuring continuous security monitoring, incident response and threat analysis. A SOC focuses on actively investigating and responding to security events and incidents using tools (like SIEM) as part of its workflow. 

What are some SOC challenges when working with a SIEM?

When a SOC team works with a SIEM system, several challenges can arise. Some common ones include:

• Alert fatigue: SIEMs generate a large number of alerts, many of which are false positives or low-priority events. SOC teams often face “alert fatigue,” as they must sift through an overwhelming volume of alerts to identify the real threats. This can lead to critical alerts being missed or delayed in their response due to the volume of less important or irrelevant alerts. 
• Tuning and fine-tuning rules: SIEMs rely on predefined rules to detect and flag anomalies or threats. However, improper or inadequate tuning of these rules can lead to too many false positives or negatives. If not properly configured, SIEMs can either flood the SOC team with unnecessary alerts or fail to catch actual threats, reducing the effectiveness of the system. 
• Integration complexity: SIEMs need to integrate with various data sources like firewalls, intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS), endpoint detection and cloud platforms. Ensuring seamless integration across different environments and tools can be technically complex. Poor integration can result in incomplete data collection, making it harder for SOC analysts to get a comprehensive view of the organization’s security posture. 
• Skilled resource shortage: A SIEM system is complex and requires skilled personnel to manage and operate it effectively. SOC teams often face a shortage of qualified analysts capable of interpreting SIEM outputs and adjusting rules as needed. Without skilled analysts, the SOC’s ability to respond to incidents in a timely and accurate manner is diminished, increasing the risk of undetected threats. 
• Cost and maintenance: SIEM systems can be expensive, both in terms of initial implementation and ongoing maintenance. This includes the costs of hardware, software, licensing and personnel. High operational costs can become a barrier to using the SIEM effectively or scaling it as organizational needs grow. 
• Evolving threat landscape: Cyber threats are constantly evolving, and SIEMs need regular updates to their detection rules and logic to stay current with the latest attack vectors. Failing to keep the SIEM up-to-date can result in it missing new or sophisticated threats, leaving the organization vulnerable. 

What is Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR)?

SOAR is a software platform that helps organizations automate and orchestrate their security operations. SOAR platforms integrate with a variety of security tools and technologies, such as SIEM, EDR and threat intelligence platforms, to automate security workflows.

SOAR platforms typically include the following features:

• Automation: SOAR platforms can automate a variety of security tasks, such as incident triage, threat hunting, and response actions.
• Orchestration: SOAR platforms can orchestrate the actions of multiple security tools and technologies to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of security operations.

SOAR platforms can help organizations to:

• Automate security tasks: SOAR platforms can automate a variety of security tasks, freeing up security analysts to focus on more strategic tasks.
• Orchestrate security tools and technologies: SOAR platforms can orchestrate the actions of multiple security tools and technologies to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of security operations.
• Improve incident response: SOAR platforms can help organizations to improve their incident response time and effectiveness by automating tasks and orchestrating the actions of multiple security tools and technologies.

What is the difference between SOAR and SOC in cybersecurity?

In short, SOAR is a technology/tool, while SOC is made up of people and processes.

SOAR is a software platform that helps organizations automate and orchestrate their security operations. SOAR platforms integrate with a variety of security tools and technologies for automation and orchestration.

SOC is a centralized facility that monitors and analyzes an organization's security systems and data to detect, investigate, and respond to security threats. SOCs are staffed with security analysts who use a variety of tools and technologies to monitor for suspicious activity, investigate security incidents, and take action to mitigate risks. SOCs typically perform functions such as security monitoring, security incident response, security threat analysis, security compliance, and security awareness training.

SOAR and SOC are both important components of an organization's security infrastructure. SOAR platforms can help organizations to automate and orchestrate their security operations, while SOCs can help organizations to monitor and analyze security events and respond to security threats.

What is extended detection and response (XDR)?

XDR is a security solution that integrates multiple security technologies, such as endpoint detection and response (EDR), network traffic analysis (NTA), and user behavior analytics (UBA), into a single platform. XDR provides a unified view of an organization's security posture, enabling security analysts to detect, investigate, and respond to threats more quickly and effectively.

How does XDR work?

XDR works by collecting data from a variety of sources, such as endpoints, networks, and cloud applications. This data is then analyzed by XDR's machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) engines to identify potential threats. XDR also uses behavioral analytics to detect anomalous activity that may indicate an attack.

What are the benefits of XDR?

XDR offers a number of benefits over traditional security solutions, including:

• Improved threat detection: XDR's integrated approach to security provides a more comprehensive view of an organization's security posture, making it more difficult for attackers to evade detection.
• Faster incident response: XDR's centralized platform enables security analysts to quickly and easily investigate and respond to security incidents.
• Reduced complexity: XDR consolidates multiple security tools into a single platform, reducing complexity and making it easier for security teams to manage their security operations.

Who should use XDR?

XDR is a valuable security solution for organizations of all sizes. It is particularly well-suited for organizations with complex IT environments or those that are looking to improve their security posture.

How does XDR security affect the SOC?

XDR security has a significant impact on the SOC by:

• Improving visibility: XDR security provides a unified view of an organization's security posture, making it easier for security analysts to identify and respond to threats.
• Automating tasks: XDR security can automate a variety of security tasks, such as incident triage and threat hunting, freeing up security analysts to focus on more strategic tasks.
• Enhancing threat detection: XDR security uses a variety of detection techniques to identify threats that may be missed by traditional security tools.
• Improving incident response: XDR security can help organizations to improve their incident response time and effectiveness by automating tasks and providing a centralized view of security events.

Specific ways in which XDR security will affect the SOC include:

• Reduced alert fatigue: XDR security can help to reduce alert fatigue by correlating alerts from multiple sources and identifying the most critical threats.
• Improved threat hunting: XDR security can help security analysts to hunt for threats more effectively by providing a centralized view of security events and a variety of detection techniques.
• Faster incident response: XDR security can help organizations to respond to incidents more quickly and effectively by automating tasks and providing a centralized view of security events.
• Improved compliance: XDR security can help organizations to meet their security compliance requirements by providing a centralized view of security events and automated reporting.

Overall, XDR security will have a positive impact on the SOC by improving visibility, automating tasks, enhancing threat detection, improving incident response, and improving compliance.

Benefits of Contrast ADR for SOCs

SOCs require the right combination of people, processes and technology to protect the organization's assets. Most SOCs lack visibility into the application and application programming interface (API) layer. Threat actors inside the application and API layer can bypass other controls, get access to vulnerable data and launch devastating attacks.

How Contrast ADR helps:

• ADR automatically generates detailed, real-time security blueprints of every application and API, including how they connect with each other. These blueprints help teams ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and enable effective security governance across the organization.
• ADR extends visibility to the application and API layer, providing detailed context of anomalous behavior throughout the entire software stack.
• Contrast ADR identifies anomalies that indicate security incidents.
• With ADR, analysts can track lateral movement from its point of origin — in applications and APIs — and stop the incursion before it becomes persistent.
• ADR automatically takes action to mitigate threat and/or provides information so the incident response team can do it.