Recent research indicates that 51 percent of SOC teams feel emotionally overwhelmed by the impossible volume of security alerts they must deal with, with the stress impacting their home lives.
Increasing the maturity of a SOC allows analysts to stop fighting fires and focus on higher value work. With careful planning and the right combination of automation and standardized processes, a mature, effective, and world-class SOC can be established.
The danger of alert overload
The cybersecurity landscape has become increasingly hostile, and teams must deal with an ever-increasing barrage of security alerts. Teams have reported spending nearly a third of their time simply dealing with false positives, and we have long since passed the tipping point where these numbers can be dealt with on a manual basis.
This is exacerbated by the fact that the on-going skills gap means recruiting and retaining a full team of analysts has become an increasingly costly proposition. Few firms can afford large teams, and even an army of analysts will not be able to comfortably tackle hundreds of alerts a day in addition to their other duties.
In addition to the sheer number of alerts they must deal with, SOC teams are hampered by inefficient processes. Many analysts end up using an ad-hoc suite of security solutions cobbled together from different providers and great deal of time can be wasted every day as analysts swap back and forth between different solutions. There is no easy way to compare data from different tools to identify trends and more complex threats. Uniting solutions under a single management system can help to win back lost time and establish a single view of threat data.
How building a world class SOC can alleviate security team burnout
The Industry Standard, Vendor-Neutral Guide to Managing SOCs and Delivering SOC Services
This completely new, vendor-neutral guide brings together all the knowledge you need to build, maintain, and operate a modern Security Operations Center (SOC) and deliver security services as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible.
Leading security architect Joseph Muniz helps you assess current capabilities, align your SOC to your business, and plan a new SOC or evolve an existing one. He covers people, process, and technology; explores each key service handled by mature SOCs; and offers expert guidance for managing risk, vulnerabilities, and compliance. Throughout, hands-on examples show how advanced red and blue teams execute and defend against real-world exploits using tools like Kali Linux and Ansible. Muniz concludes by previewing the future of SOCs, including Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) cloud technologies and increasingly sophisticated automation.
This guide will be indispensable for everyone responsible for delivering security services―managers and cybersecurity professionals alike.
* Address core business and operational requirements, including sponsorship, management, policies, procedures, workspaces, staffing, and technology
* Identify, recruit, interview, onboard, and grow an outstanding SOC team
* Thoughtfully decide what to outsource and what to insource
* Collect, centralize, and use both internal data and external threat intelligence
* Quickly and efficiently hunt threats, respond to incidents, and investigate artifacts
* Reduce future risk by improving incident recovery and vulnerability management
* Apply orchestration and automation effectively, without just throwing money at them
* Position yourself today for emerging SOC technologies
