What is Security Operations Center (SOC)?

To create an efficient SOC; a strategy must be developed, the right tools and personnel must be invested, the SOC must be tailored to specific needs and risks. What is needed in the process of creating an efficient SOC should be well determined and a strategy should be applied accordingly. The SOC to be created must have access to anything that can affect its security status. The right tools and services for the SOC must be selected and invested in. Especially; Security information and event management (SIEM), Endpoint Protection Systems, Automatic Application Security, Firewall, Asset Discovery System, Data Monitoring Tool, Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) System, Vulnerability Scanners and Penetration Testing, Log Management System services and tools should be used. In the recruitment process, talented and self-developing personnel should be selected. After the staff is included in the team, necessary investment should be made in training to develop staff skills. Top security analysts in the SOC team; Must have Ethical Hacking, Forensics (Digital Forensics), Reverse Engineering, IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) Expertise skills. Different options should be considered when creating an SOC. It is important to choose the most appropriate type of SOC for the organization. Internal SOC with full-time staff and physical room on-premises, Virtual SOC consisting of part-time staff working in coordination to resolve issues as needed, Outsourced SOCs where some or all functions are managed by an external Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) can be considered as an option for the type of SOC to be used.

SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) in Turkish, “Security Information and Event Management” collects and organizes data from all sources on the network and provides data so that SOC teams can quickly detect attacks and take action, simplify threat management, and minimize risk. SIEM is critical for SOC tasks such as monitoring, incident response, log management, compliance reporting. SIEM helps the SOC automate aggregation of logs and create rules that can greatly reduce false alerts. For these reasons, SIEM makes SOC more effective in securing organizations.

While SOC focuses on monitoring, detecting and analyzing the security status of an organization, the main purpose of NOC (Network Operation Center) is to monitor and analyze network performance, network speed and downtime in the network and solve any problems that arise. . SOC teams analyze the security status of the system and take necessary action before an organization's data or systems are compromised. NOC teams look for issues that could slow down network speed or cause varying downtime. Both examine issues in real time to prevent them from impacting customers or employees, and continually seek ways to make improvements so that similar issues don't recur. SOC and NOC Teams must collaborate to resolve major incidents and crises in enterprise systems with the best efficiency.

5 key things your SOC will do: Proactive detection of malicious network and system activity. Instead of waiting an average of 206 days for their companies to detect a violation, you want to be notified as soon as possible to minimize the impact of the violation. Being able to reconfigure the defense configuration before the threat hits you with Threat Awareness See what could be compromised against new threats in your network thanks to Vulnerability Management Awareness of hardware and software assets running in your network; be aware of what kind of threats you are exposed to your assets Having the ability to complete forensics to you and any authority if you are exposed to a security incident or unauthorized access through Log Management These are the main functions you want in your SOC such as compliance monitoring and others. There is no question that they are all critical functions to ensure your company is protected.