The cost of cybercrime by the year 2015 will be $ 3 trillion worldwide — by 2025, estimates have lowballed it at a whopping $10.5 trillion. This represents the greatest transfer of economic wealth in the history of mankind. Cybercriminals today are making bank, getting huge profit margins from their activities. They invest in cutting-edge tech, intel, and multiple other ventures because they get huge returns. Who much? Estimates say that for every dollar they spend, they get over $2035 back — no other business, today, get you that ROI. That’s why having a SOC team and understanding what a SOC team does as well as how a SOC team is structured might be one of the most important tasks a business leader can invest in right now.
What is a SOC team?
A SOC team is a team that is responsible for monitoring and protecting an organization’s IT infrastructure. It is also known as the Security Operations Center. A SOC team is crucial for organizations to be able to effectively manage their cybersecurity risks. A team of this magnitude doesn’t prevent you from being in the crosshair of digital bandits, what they do is safeguard you and make it extremely challenging for cybercriminals to attack — to the point where hackers start to lose interest in your company and decide to focus their attention on someone else.
Another key feature of SOC teams, and why they are fundamental to your organization, is that statistically speaking, despite how many safeguards you might have in place, you will eventually be breached. 93% of all companies, regardless of their size and various defenses, are struck by a cyber-attack at least once a year. Ransomware attacks, for example, are growing more than 350% annually. IoT attacks are up by at least 6005 since 2019. The world economic forum has rated cyber-attacks as the fifth largest threat to a company since 2020. Why? Because right now there is a perfect storm of elements that are driving the industry.
- The growing market of start-ups has seeded the industry. Now, more than ever there are millions of new businesses coming online.
- The COVID pandemic changed consumer habits — today, everyone shops, does their chores, and everything else on the web. That translates to hundreds of millions of new victims cybercriminals can attack.
- The COVID pandemic also shifted company attitudes overnight — businesses that were wary of going digital, or simply didn’t have the time to make the transition, had no other choice but to finally take the plunge. In many cases without fully understanding the risks inherent to the venture.
- IoT — today, thanks to WiFi devices everything, including your toaster and your fridge, is connected to the net. This means that hackers have multiple new entry points to exploit.
- Supply chain attacks are growing — your vendors, your third-party suppliers are working against the clock to meet demands. This means that sometimes they aren’t as cautious when it comes to their software’s security features. Sometimes, the breach, the malware, might infect your organization thanks to a “trusted” service provider.
All of this translates to the fact that you will continually be harassed. And, that one of those attacks is – statistically – liable to breach your defenses. When that occurs, it’s important to have a backup plan. A protocol in place will enable you to decrease your company’s downtime and continue operating while you deal with the fall-out of the attack. 78% of the monetary damage experienced by companies during an attack is linked to their downtime — to how long the attack prevented them from selling their wares, services, and meeting demand. A SOC team’s structure – and its staff – understand this pivotal point and they create “break in case of emergency” procedures – with continually updated backups and systems in check – for such an eventuality.
What does a SOC team do?
The SOC team monitors the network, computer systems, and other devices to identify any potential threats or vulnerabilities. The SOC team also detects any cyber-attacks that are happening on the network or computer systems. The SOC team then responds to these incidents by taking measures to prevent future attacks from happening. These measures may include blocking access to the network or computer system, notifying the appropriate personnel of a potential attack, and reporting incidents to law enforcement agencies.
SOC team structure
A SOC team is a group of people who are responsible for monitoring and defending the company against cyberattacks. A SOC team is usually structured into 4 main categories – CISO, analysts, engineers, and managers.
CISO
A CISO or Chief Information Security Officer is the head-honcho that defines the overall operations of your team. They are tasked with creating benchmarks, understanding criteria you have to meet, and conceptualizing the dynamic, continually updated, procedures that guide your security platform.
Security Analysts
Analysts are in charge of collecting data on cyberattacks and figuring out how they were executed. They also provide technical support to internal teams that are in charge of fixing the vulnerabilities that led to the attack. Each one of these departments is compromised by a myriad of members and AI technical support. Let’s dig into every one of them that way you have an in-depth explanation of the roles of these departments and how they are integral to your organizations.
Security Engineers
Engineers are responsible for developing new security measures to prevent future attacks from happening again. One of their tasks is to build security infrastructures and liaison with outside developers and vendors.
Manager
Managers have many responsibilities, including overseeing all aspects of the SOC team’s operations, such as personnel and budgeting decisions — they also create new policies and procedures based on trends.
The team as a whole takes into account multiple factors and metrics, including risk management, stands and best practices in the industry, compliance issues, history of cyber threats, and insurance requirements.
Investing in a SOC team
Whether it is in-house or outsourced an organization must have a well-defined cyber-security team in place. Today, given the level of threats and risks coming out of the woodwork, and constantly evolving and organization without a policy and a team to enforce said policy under their wing is exposing themselves to huge liabilities and gigantic profit losses.
