Why your organization should optimize its security operations center services

Security incidents are inevitable; it's how you react to them that matters. That's why the security operations center (SOC) plays such an important part in IT strategy. Once the preserve of government and military organizations, it is increasingly recommended for enterprises of all sizes. However, building a dedicated team and facility to monitor threats around the clock is not easy.

That's why many organizations choose to outsource some or all of their security operations (SecOps) to a trusted third party. Yet not all providers can offer the kind of advanced SOC services your organization may demand.

The value of the security operations center

No organization can be 100% breach-proof when faced with a determined adversary and tasked with a large corporate attack surface to defend. This puts more focus on detection and response: finding and resolving incidents before they become serious data breaches. It's the job of the SOC—the centralized function that sits at the heart of security operations.

What is a security operations center?

The SOC is dedicated to finding and responding to security incidents in near real-time, in order to better manage corporate cyber risk. In addition to continuous monitoring and cybersecurity detection and incident response, the security operations center may also be tasked with asset management, security tool maintenance, vulnerability assessments and threat intelligence, as well as remediation, recovery, postmortems and regulatory compliance.

A traditional security operations center will usually feature the following people, processes and technology:

• A full team of analysts, threat hunters and engineers
• Best-practice processes for incident response, threat hunting, vulnerability management and more

• Strong governance and policy management, stakeholder buy-in and continuous improvement processes

• Enterprise technology including security information and event management (SIEM), security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR), user behavior analytics (UBA), endpoint detection and response (EDR), ticketing, and integration of AI-driven solutions
• Strategic, tactical and operational threat intelligence feeds, and security data from other sources including vulnerabilities, access controls and devices—for analysts to ingest and scan for malicious behavior

However, running an in-house SOC has its challenges:

• A lack of sufficiently skilled security operations talent
• Expensive up-front investments in equipment and ongoing maintenance
• Tool bloat and alert overload can overwhelm even experienced teams and make it harder to spot genuine threats
• A lack of automation, orchestration and playbooks to streamline workflows
• Difficulty in generating enterprise-wide visibility and context
• Lack of visibility into threat and attack patterns seen across a broad set of customers

What are advanced SOC services?

Advanced security operations center services go one step further than traditional SOC services. Although there's no single agreed definition, these advanced services could include enhanced customization, visibility, flexibility and domain knowledge:

Customization

A customized SOC is expertly tuned to align closely with your organization and its cybersecurity maturity.

Visibility and intelligence

This includes threat intelligence that goes beyond basic requirements to offer international reach and exhaustive detail. Insight into global network traffic would be an advantage here, as would visibility into dark web chatter and stolen data.

Flexibility

Ensure your organization's unique needs are always met, even as they evolve over time. Advanced SOC services should ideally be vendor-agnostic when it comes to the tools (SIEM, SOAR, XDR, etc.) they use and capable of integrating seamlessly with your organization's own SecOps function and ticketing process.

Domain knowledge

Look for deep expertise in threat analysis, cybersecurity monitoring, threat hunting, programming, pen testing and other key SOC skills. An advanced service provider should have years if not decades of experience operating enterprise SOCs globally.

Why you need advanced security operations center services

The need for advanced security operations center services is particularly acute in light of three overlapping trends:

1. Industry-wide skills shortages

Regarding the number of cybersecurity professionals needed to properly secure organizations versus the number of cybersecurity professionals available for hire, there is an estimated gap of 4.7 million shortfall of cybersecurity professionals globally, including nearly 543,000 in North America.¹ Cloud computing security (32%)² and artificial intelligence/machine learning (28%) are among the in-demand skills most cited by hiring managers.³ This shortage makes it more challenging than ever for your organization to find enough talent to staff a SOC effectively. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools are helping close analyst skills gaps by summarizing and interpreting complex information, but they can only go so far.

2. Threat actors can be agile, determined and resourceful

Your adversaries typically have the advantage of surprise. And they need only to find one weak spot to breach your defenses potentially. They're increasingly doing so with impunity thanks to a cybercrime economy worth trillions annually, where they can source all the tools and knowledge needed to launch effective campaigns. Experts predict AI will help more threat actors to upskill and heighten the global ransomware threat over the coming two years.

3. Your attack surface continues to expand

The above challenges would be tough enough to deal with on their own. But thanks to digital transformation programs, expanding supply chains and human error, a growing attack surface arguably makes them far more dangerous. According to the Verizon 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR):

• Most (68%) breaches now involve a "non-malicious human element," meaning someone made an error or fell victim to a social engineering attack. That figure is virtually unchanged from a year ago.⁵
• Stolen/compromised credentials were the top initial action type in data breaches, accounting for a quarter (24%).⁶
• There's been a 68% annual increase in data breaches via the supply chain so they now account for 15% of the total breaches. This includes third-party software which could contain malware and vulnerabilities, and individuals outside the company such as contractors, who may have access to corporate networks.⁷

The business benefits of advanced SOC operations

With a trusted third party to help your organization with advanced SOC operations, you might benefit from:

• Boosting security operations capabilities, including broadened and deepened threat visibility
• Gaining access to industry-leading experts
• Faster post-breach reaction times, which could help preserve corporate reputation and help mitigate costs that could otherwise result from regulatory fines and class action suits
• Enhanced SecOps maturity and more optimized use of existing talent
• Improved cyber resilience—by identifying and remediating vulnerabilities and misconfigurations actively being exploited
• Money saved on expensive CapEx investments in SOC technologies like SIEM and hiring and training staff
• Improved customer and partner loyalty, which could be realized by being trusted on cyber and data protection

What to look for in an advanced SOC partner

Consider the following capabilities when choosing a SOC provider to partner with:

Hybrid operating model

This adaptable service lets you choose whether to manage your own SIEM platform and other capabilities in-house or outsource them to the provider. Skilled third-party analysts work hand-in-hand with your own team for the best outcomes, sending regular alerts and remediation advice to boost protection.

State-of-the-art multi-vendor technology

This includes SOAR, SIEM, EDR and ticketing systems for faster detection, response and mitigation, and incident/change management.

Cybersecurity monitoring

Regional SOC analysts provide 24/7, near real-time cybersecurity monitoring, and detection from analysts across the globe to provide coverage to reduce visibility gaps. Tier III analysts help to resolve complex and escalated alerts.

Security information and event management engineer

A SIEM engineer focuses on specific tasks like use case customization, refinement, tuning and more.

Global threat intelligence

A continuously updated view of the threat landscape should include:

• Strategic intelligence for high-level risks and implications
• Operational intelligence for insight into adversarial capabilities
• Tactical intelligence to support threat hunting
• Technical intelligence for attack IPs, malware hashes, phishing domains and other potential threats

Flexible pricing

In a “pay-for-what-you-use” model, pricing is based on your desired business outcomes and the average volume of monthly alert monitoring.

Beyond the SOC: Cybersecurity incident response

Your organization needs to be able to respond quickly to any cyber-attacks. Engaging on a cybersecurity incident response team (CSIRT) can help create a detailed and proactive security plan that employs security best practices and innovative tools to help deal with attacks.

Features and benefits of employing a CSIRT include:

• Incident analysis can help you improve policies so you can be better prepared for future incidents
• Flexibility to accommodate the integration of your existing security services with CIRT services
• Customizable so that you can leverage the right level of expert support for your unique security needs
• Lifecycle management can help you boost support from planning through development and incident response

Beyond the SOC: Tailored security engagements

Even if your organization decides not to choose a third party to provide SOC services, it can boost its cybersecurity operational posture with tailored security engagements. An improved SecOps function should have a beneficial knock-on effect on the business.

Tailored security engagements may focus on:

• Aligning risk and security operations to ensure greater coverage of current threats
• Improving your SIEM by identifying missing capabilities and fine-tuning it
• Evaluating security response processes and procedures to identify possible improvements
• Categorizing SIEM rules based on industry standards and identifying opportunities for use case content management and development
• Providing actionable recommendations to improve the effectiveness of your SecOps

Additionally, our cybersecurity incident response team services can help your organization by leveraging our team’s knowledge and capabilities to help keep your network secure. Learn how Verizon's Advanced SOC Services could transform your organization's SecOps posture.

The author of this content is a paid contributor for Verizon.