What is Cyber Security Operations Center (CSOC)?

The cyber security operations center is the place or facility where the security team is located in any situation that constantly monitors the cyber security status of an institution or organization. The purpose of this center, which must work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, is to protect the institution they work from all kinds of cyber risks and to intervene immediately against risks. SOC infrastructure includes systems such as firewalls, IPS/IDS, DLP, Endpoint Security, and SIEM.

 What are the Functions of the Cyber Security Operations Center?

• To detect cyber security incidents and prevent cyber security incidents through technological solutions
• Analyzing problems
• Solving problems and protecting the company from security breaches
• Monitor and analyze activity on networks, servers, endpoints, databases, applications, websites, and other systems.
• Acting by considering the company’s IT infrastructure
• Ensuring the identification, analysis, investigation, reporting and prevention of cyber security problems
• Collection of data streams, network records, device logs and records deemed necessary according to need (SIEM and SOAR systems) 

While doing this, the first thing they need to do is to configure and learn security monitoring devices and tools, and to establish an unproblematically infrastructure that will send the logs of important information systems to the analysis tools. They issue SOC rules and investigate attack notifications and alarms. They take the necessary steps to identify attack sources and malicious activities with the help of security monitoring devices, and if there is an attack, they conduct investigations and studies. They also follow forensic analysis processes. They take lessons from the attacks and try to create appropriate firewalls for future attacks.

What it needs to create an organization’s cyber security operations center

• Start by defining a strategy that covers all departments of the company.
• Necessary infrastructure should be established to implement this strategy.
• Make sure that physical security is ensured by careful planning.
• The cyber security operations center should be designed to be comfortable and functional.
• For the SOC team to work, it must have the appropriate hardware and software infrastructure.

Benefits of the cyber security operations center

• Early detection of security incidents through continuous auditing and analysis of the cyber security operations center
• Due to the 24/7 operation of the cyber security operations center, institutions have the advantage of defending against attacks instantly.
• While other institutions outsource this service, they can provide protection within their own structure.
• They ensure that the company’s time, money, and reputation are protected.
• They prevent data loss.

Who works in cyber security operations centers?

Cybersecurity operations centers employ security analysts, engineers, and managers who audit security operations. Some of the employees may also be experts in forensic analysis, cryptanalysis, and malware resolution. When a problem is found, the teams responsible for intervening in the events step in. It is very important that the manager of the cyber security operations center is a person who can establish the team and motivate the members.

SOC teams in cyber security operations centers are grouped as level 1, level 2, level 3, and level 4. Apart from these, there is a cyber threat intelligence team.

1) LEVEL 1 SECURITY ANALYST:

That the underlayer security analyst has system administrator competencies, programming, and security capabilities. Their job is to check the accuracy of alarms and prioritize them. Notifying level 2 of alarms signaling an attack, scanning for vulnerabilities and evaluating reports, and managing security monitoring tools.

2) LEVEL 2 SECURITY ANALYST:

Being responsible for what the Level 1 analyst does, in the same way, getting to the root of the problem and managing the crisis processes are their main duties. Evaluating the threat intelligence, determining the affected systems and the extent of the attack, collecting the information on the systems that may be exposed to the attack for future attacks, and making a recovery and recovery plan are among their main tasks.

3) LEVEL 3 EXPERT SECURITY ANALYST:

Level 3 expert security analysts who have comprehensive knowledge of data visualization tools conduct vulnerability assessments and review asset inventory data. Finding methods for detecting hidden threats within the corporate network and finding resilience and vulnerabilities that need to be corrected by performing penetration tests on the systems are their main tasks. Optimizing security monitoring tools is also their duty and responsibility.

4) LEVEL 4 SOC MANAGER:

They are the top tier and have the competencies of Level 1, 2, and 3 analysts. They must also have strong leadership and communication skills. The main task of the SOC manager is to manage the operations and team and monitor the activities of the SOC team. Additionally, it is among the duties of the level 4 SOC manager to organize the necessary training for the team, make the recruitment and evaluations, ensure intra-team communication, publish compliance reports and to review incident reports, and communicate with the company.

5)CYBER THREAT INTELLIGENCE TEAM:

Cyber threat intelligence is a type of intelligence that is used to detect the goals and methods of attackers, and it is a cyber security field that focuses on the collection and analysis of information about current and potential attacks that threaten the security of an institution or entity.

Large SOC teams have a separate person assigned to this role, while small SOC teams are received help from a trusted threat intelligence service provider.

Things to Do When Establishing a Cyber Security Operations Center

When establishing the cyber security operations center, an infrastructure, a team of talented people, and an incident response plan should be established and, security measures should be taken. It consists of 4 steps: analysis, planning, installation, and operation.

1) ANALYSIS:

It is to carry out analysis studies according to the general operating procedures of the SOC. In other words, it is a thorough investigation and examination of the security protocols of the current employees in the institution.

2) PLANNING:

Examining the results of the analyzes and thus making the necessary strategies and plans.

3) INSTALLATION:

An organization is established for information security and necessary training is given on this subject. Security processes are determined and technologies that will provide cyber security are provided.

4)OPERATION:

• Protection: Taking measures to prevent the attacker from entering the system and protect the institution.
• Detection: Detecting attacks on the institution.
• Response: Blocking detected attacks.
• Rollback: To make the system more reliable than before.

The goal of the cyber security operations center is to detect attacks and infiltrations as soon as possible. Therefore, the cyber security operations center detects the systems, software, and hardware owned by the institution and makes a vulnerability assessment. It determines the ordinary and extraordinary movements of the system and uses technologies such as IPS, IDS, DLS to detect infiltration and extraordinary movements. They use SIEM and SOAR systems to intervene and analyze if there is an attack. According to the analysis reports, they take security measures and make the system more reliable.

In the developing and transforming world, connecting all systems to each other via the internet brings with it some cyber dangers. As a company’s cyber structure evolves, the risk of being attacked increases as well. This necessitates the concept of cyber security.  Companies need cybersecurity risk management information to meet their cybersecurity needs. The reason for the emergence of SOC is entirely due to this need.

The cyber security operations center is the primary need of today’s world and, we are ready to guide you for this need.