Career in Security Operations Center (SOC) Why should you get into Security Operations Center (SOC)? Cyber security breaches are on the rise. Most of these breaches occur due to the lack of a comprehensive monitoring/surveillance strategy and poor implementation of various security controls.
Make Career As Security Operations Center (SOC) Analyst - IISecurity
Mar 11, 2022
Institute of Information Security offers a Certified SOC Analyst training and credentialing program that helps the candidate acquire trending and in-demand technical skills through instruction by some of the most experienced trainers in the industry. The program focuses on creating new career opportunities through extensive, meticulous knowledge with enhanced level capabilities for dynamically contributing to a SOC team.
For more information visit us at : https://www.iisecurity.in/courses/certified-security-operations-center-analyst.php
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Why should you get into Security Operations Center (SOC)?
Cyber security breaches are on the rise. Most of these breaches occur due to
the lack of a comprehensive monitoring/surveillance strategy and poor implementation of various security controls.
WHAT IS a SOC?
A SOC is a centralized hub within an organization consisting of people,
processes, and technology that help in continuously monitoring and
improving an organization’s security posture. A SOC helps in detecting, analyzing, preventing and responding to cyber security incidents.
Think of SOC like a central command centre, collecting and analyzing data
from across an organization’s entire IT infrastructure and assets. SOC
receives logs of from various technologies and creates events based on a set
of pre-configured rules. The SOC must decide how each of these events will be acted upon or managed.
Here are the top responsibilities of a SOC
The primary duty of the SOC is to protect the organization against cyber
attacks. SOC teams must fulfill a number of responsibilities to effectively manage security incidents, including:
Investigating Potential Incidents: SOC teams receive a large number of
alerts, but not all alerts point to real attacks. SOC analysts are responsible for
digging into a potential incident to determine if it is a real attack or a false positive.
Triaging and Prioritizing Detected Incidents: Not all security
incidents are created equal, and an organization has limited incident
response resources. Once an incident has been identified, it needs to be
triaged and prioritized to optimize resource utilization and minimize enterprise risk.
Coordinating an Incident Response: Responding to an incident
requires engagement with multiple stakeholders and the use of a variety of
different tools. SOC analysts must orchestrate this process to ensure that oversights do not result in a delayed or incomplete remediation.
However, the role of the SOC is not limited to incident response. Other SOC roles and responsibilities include:
Maintaining Relevance: The cyber threat landscape is constantly
evolving, and SOC teams need to be able to manage the latest threats to the
organization. This includes keeping up with new and trending attacks and
ensuring that security systems have an updated set of rules to help detect such attacks.
Patching Vulnerable Systems: Exploitation of vulnerabilities is a
common attack vector for cybercriminals. SOC teams are responsible for
identifying, applying, and testing patches for vulnerable enterprise systems and software.
Infrastructure Management: As the cyber threat landscape changes and
the enterprise network evolves, new security solutions are required. SOC
teams are responsible for identifying, deploying, configuring, and managing their security infrastructure.
Addressing Support Tickets: Many SOC teams are part of the IT
department. This means that SOC analysts may be called upon to address support tickets from an organizations’ employees.
Reporting to Management: Security is part of the business, and SOC
teams need to report to management like any other department. This
requires the ability to effectively communicate security costs and return on
investment to a business audience.
Obviously, SOC teams have a wide range of roles and responsibilities. And
If these teams are understaffed or lack sufficient resources, some of these responsibilities may fall by the wayside.
A SOC Analyst’s role
SOC analysts form the backbone of a SOC. While tools and automation drive
most activities in a SOC, the overall management of these tools, telling the
tools what to do, and handling all exceptions and escalations is done by SOC analysts.
The critical tasks for a SOC analyst roles include
Monitoring all perimeter devices
Reporting and most importantly, a lot of learning.
Sometimes, one might have the misunderstanding that the role of a SOC
analyst is a routine job. Especially with increasing automation and the
advancement of technology, there is a false notion that SOC analysts have
lesser work to do. Nothing could be farther from the truth. While it is true
that SOCs are getting more and more automated, the complexity of cyber
threats is also increasing. Also, with the increasing complexity of tools, there
is an increased need for talent to manage these tools. More importantly,
while these tools will manage routine tasks, the exceptions need to be
handled by SOC analysts who have to use their experience and knowledge to deduce aspects about an event that the tools can’t.
So along with the knowledge of the latest in cyber security, network, etc., the following fundamental skills are essential for this role.
1. Keen observation
3. Problem-solving skills
In today’s open-source, digital learning environment, various sources are
available for equipping oneself with the skills required for a SOC analyst. In
addition, there are also various courses and certification programs by
reputed institutions like the Institute of Information Technology that can help you become a certified security operations center analyst.
How to prepare for a SOC Analyst role?
Following are a few steps that can help you in your journey towards becoming a SOC analyst.
1. Check out job descriptions for SOC analyst roles in job searching
platforms like Naukri.com and prepare a learning path.
2. Understand ‘networking’ basics (TCP/IP/switching/routing/protocols)
3. Learn system administration (Windows/Linux/Active
Directory/Hardening)
4. Use of Wireshark to do fundamental analyses of traffic and detect the
vulnerabilities.
like setting up labs, preparing source systems/destination systems, and
capturing/analyzing the traffic.
7. Build your personal brand by writing blogs on case studies you did by
analyzing the traffic in tools like Wireshark.
8. Build a LinkedIn network & keep yourself updated with the latest trends in the industry.
Technical skills required:
SIEM tools. (Qradar, Splunk, Arc Sight)
Conclusion: Institute of Information Security offers a Certified SOC
Analyst training and credentialing program that helps the candidate acquire
trending and in-demand technical skills through instruction by some of the
most experienced trainers in the industry. The program focuses on creating
new career opportunities through extensive, meticulous knowledge with enhanced level capabilities for dynamically contributing to a SOC team.
Visit: https://www.iisecurity.in/
Cyber security breaches are on the rise. Most of these breaches occur due to
the lack of a comprehensive monitoring/surveillance strategy and poor implementation of various security controls.
WHAT IS a SOC?
A SOC is a centralized hub within an organization consisting of people,
processes, and technology that help in continuously monitoring and
improving an organization’s security posture. A SOC helps in detecting, analyzing, preventing and responding to cyber security incidents.
Think of SOC like a central command centre, collecting and analyzing data
from across an organization’s entire IT infrastructure and assets. SOC
receives logs of from various technologies and creates events based on a set
of pre-configured rules. The SOC must decide how each of these events will be acted upon or managed.
Here are the top responsibilities of a SOC
The primary duty of the SOC is to protect the organization against cyber
attacks. SOC teams must fulfill a number of responsibilities to effectively manage security incidents, including:
Investigating Potential Incidents: SOC teams receive a large number of
alerts, but not all alerts point to real attacks. SOC analysts are responsible for
digging into a potential incident to determine if it is a real attack or a false positive.
Triaging and Prioritizing Detected Incidents: Not all security
incidents are created equal, and an organization has limited incident
response resources. Once an incident has been identified, it needs to be
triaged and prioritized to optimize resource utilization and minimize enterprise risk.
Coordinating an Incident Response: Responding to an incident
requires engagement with multiple stakeholders and the use of a variety of
different tools. SOC analysts must orchestrate this process to ensure that oversights do not result in a delayed or incomplete remediation.
However, the role of the SOC is not limited to incident response. Other SOC roles and responsibilities include:
Maintaining Relevance: The cyber threat landscape is constantly
evolving, and SOC teams need to be able to manage the latest threats to the
organization. This includes keeping up with new and trending attacks and
ensuring that security systems have an updated set of rules to help detect such attacks.
Patching Vulnerable Systems: Exploitation of vulnerabilities is a
common attack vector for cybercriminals. SOC teams are responsible for
identifying, applying, and testing patches for vulnerable enterprise systems and software.
Infrastructure Management: As the cyber threat landscape changes and
the enterprise network evolves, new security solutions are required. SOC
teams are responsible for identifying, deploying, configuring, and managing their security infrastructure.
Addressing Support Tickets: Many SOC teams are part of the IT
department. This means that SOC analysts may be called upon to address support tickets from an organizations’ employees.
Reporting to Management: Security is part of the business, and SOC
teams need to report to management like any other department. This
requires the ability to effectively communicate security costs and return on
investment to a business audience.
Obviously, SOC teams have a wide range of roles and responsibilities. And
If these teams are understaffed or lack sufficient resources, some of these responsibilities may fall by the wayside.
A SOC Analyst’s role
SOC analysts form the backbone of a SOC. While tools and automation drive
most activities in a SOC, the overall management of these tools, telling the
tools what to do, and handling all exceptions and escalations is done by SOC analysts.
The critical tasks for a SOC analyst roles include
Monitoring all perimeter devices
Reporting and most importantly, a lot of learning.
Sometimes, one might have the misunderstanding that the role of a SOC
analyst is a routine job. Especially with increasing automation and the
advancement of technology, there is a false notion that SOC analysts have
lesser work to do. Nothing could be farther from the truth. While it is true
that SOCs are getting more and more automated, the complexity of cyber
threats is also increasing. Also, with the increasing complexity of tools, there
is an increased need for talent to manage these tools. More importantly,
while these tools will manage routine tasks, the exceptions need to be
handled by SOC analysts who have to use their experience and knowledge to deduce aspects about an event that the tools can’t.
So along with the knowledge of the latest in cyber security, network, etc., the following fundamental skills are essential for this role.
1. Keen observation
3. Problem-solving skills
In today’s open-source, digital learning environment, various sources are
available for equipping oneself with the skills required for a SOC analyst. In
addition, there are also various courses and certification programs by
reputed institutions like the Institute of Information Technology that can help you become a certified security operations center analyst.
How to prepare for a SOC Analyst role?
Following are a few steps that can help you in your journey towards becoming a SOC analyst.
1. Check out job descriptions for SOC analyst roles in job searching
platforms like Naukri.com and prepare a learning path.
2. Understand ‘networking’ basics (TCP/IP/switching/routing/protocols)
3. Learn system administration (Windows/Linux/Active
Directory/Hardening)
4. Use of Wireshark to do fundamental analyses of traffic and detect the
vulnerabilities.
like setting up labs, preparing source systems/destination systems, and
capturing/analyzing the traffic.
7. Build your personal brand by writing blogs on case studies you did by
analyzing the traffic in tools like Wireshark.
8. Build a LinkedIn network & keep yourself updated with the latest trends in the industry.
Technical skills required:
SIEM tools. (Qradar, Splunk, Arc Sight)
Conclusion: Institute of Information Security offers a Certified SOC
Analyst training and credentialing program that helps the candidate acquire
trending and in-demand technical skills through instruction by some of the
most experienced trainers in the industry. The program focuses on creating
new career opportunities through extensive, meticulous knowledge with enhanced level capabilities for dynamically contributing to a SOC team.
Visit: https://www.iisecurity.in/
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