As data is increasingly digitized, cybercrime is likely on the rise hitting small and large organizations. For most organizations, SOC analysts play a key role in monitoring and safeguarding their existing systems and networks to prevent disastrous breaches and cyber attacks. A security operations center analyst has important responsibilities, including monitoring the network, analyzing systems, and responding to security issues.
Please read more about the cybersecurity team structure on our website to find out all the information on how a professional cybersecurity team is formed.
If you want to find out all about the different responsibilities of a SOC in cybersecurity teams, read this article. We’ve provided all the information for you to give you full insight into how SOC analysts help organizations and what benefits they bring into a business.
We’re going to provide helpful answers to the following questions in the next sections:
● Who is a security operations center analyst?
● What are the essential skills for SOC analysts?
● Can my organization have an outsourced SOC service?
● What are the differences between a SOC analyst and other job positions in a cybersecurity team?
● Is a SOC analyst a senior-level job in the cybersecurity team?
● What certifications and courses are required to become a SOC analyst?
● How many technical skills does a SOC analyst need to join a professional team?
● Are non-technical skills essential for a SOC analyst?
Security Operations Center Analyst: A Quick Look
| Security Operations Center Analyst | |
| Academic Degree Required | At least a bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related field |
| The Main Technical Skills | ● SIEM technology ● In-demand programming languages, including JS, C++, and Python ● TCP/IP, computer networking ● Vulnerability testing ● Penetration testing ● Firewall and intrusion detection ● Operating systems ● Antivirus and anti malware |
| The Main Non-technical Skills | ● Critical thinking ● Communication skills ● Teamwork ● Ability to work independently ● Willingness to learn |
| Certifications Required | ● Security+ ● CEH ● CASP ● GIAC ● CISSP |
| The Main responsibilities | ● Investigating suspicious activities ● Maintaining secure monitoring tools ● Reviewing and reporting on processes ● Keeping programs and procedures up to date |
| The Main Challenges | ● Too many alerts ● Too many false positives ● Poor visibility environments ● Too much time needed for ordinary tasks ● Limited budgets ● Compliance issues |
Actions Speak Louder Than Words: They’re Silent, But Influential
As an expert SOC analyst, you should work on a cybersecurity team to prevent attacks on a network that can hit your organization. A SOC analyst is also responsible for monitoring a company’s systems vigilantly, and developing auditing plans is one of the primary responsibilities of professionals who work in this job position.
● It’s clear that a security operations center (SOC) analyst is a central role in cybersecurity teams, and it can be considered a managerial and senior-level role from a higher point of view. In other words, security operations center analysts are on the front line of cyber defense in small and large organizations to detect and respond to cyber threats at the right time before they can take root and leave significant damage.
● SOC analysts work closely with other security team managers and directors, and they usually report only to the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) or SOC managers in a cybersecurity team.
● Therefore, SOC analysts are experienced professionals who have a wealth of experience and expertise, and they are familiar with different cybersecurity practices, rules, and technologies.
● The level of responsibility for security operations center analysts typically depends on the size of your organization and its infrastructure.
Eagle-Eyed Investigators: What Does a SOC Analyst Do?
SOC analysts are the first to respond to cyber-attacks, and they play a crucial role as they report on cyber threats and implement any changes required to fill security gaps in an organization.
Here are the main job responsibilities of a security operations center analyst:
● Analyzing threats and vulnerabilities in the current systems and networks
● Investigating, documenting, and reporting on any abnormal activity and security issue
● Analyzing and providing helpful plans for previously detected hardware and software vulnerabilities
● Preparing disaster recovery plans based on the current digital assets
Apart from these critical responsibilities, a security operations center analyst must have good collaboration with other departments of a company, such as human resources and IT development teams. This will ensure that their systems are secure, software products are protected against cyber threats, and job positions are filled with expert professionals who understand cyber threats.
1. Surveillance of an Organization’s Networks and Systems
Monitoring an organization’s IT infrastructure is key to detecting issues and strange activities that have the potential to hit systems and digital assets. This can be considered the main responsibility of SOC analysts in a cybersecurity team that covers monitoring security systems, web and mobile applications, and networks for any irregularities.
● Note that security operations center analysts need a broad range of tools to carry out this responsibility and collect the required information about potential vulnerabilities. Fortunately, there is a wide range of network and system monitoring tools nowadays that can proactively monitor activities and report issues with real-time information.
2. Identifying, Assessing, and Mitigating Security Threats in Real-Time
When the SOC analyst in a cybersecurity team identifies a threat, they will work with the team to collect all the information around it and determine what has caused the issue. Threat analysis and identification are the main roles and responsibilities of an analyst that will help the team better mitigate the related risks and think about practical solutions.
3. Incident Response and Investigation
Cybersecurity incidents need a deep inspection, and these incidents must be checked to understand which issue has caused an incident in an organization. For these reasons, cybersecurity analysts must take much time and work with other team members to investigate the incidents, develop working plans, or apply some modifications to current plans in the team. After gaining complete information about incidents, SOC analysts have the responsibility to report vulnerabilities to future-proof the systems and networks in an organization.
4. Collaboration with Other Team Members to Implement Security Procedures and Solutions
Good collaboration is one of the main soft skills for security operations center analysts, and they need to work with other team members to ensure a company has reliable processes, procedures, and plans in place to encounter cyber threats. Security analysts are experienced ones who have gained much knowledge and expertise in system design, programming, and networking. They know how they can solve a security issue and update the existing systems and devices when necessary.
5. Staying Up-to-Date on the Latest Security Threats
Keeping systems, network tools, and software updated is one of the critical responsibilities of SOC analysts. They will be responsible for some updates and educating employees on the latest cybersecurity practices and security threats. Educating team members is an ongoing process to ensure they understand new hack methods and malicious software that can impact their digital systems and network.
This step helps security teams prevent a wide range of security issues before these issues have enough time to hit an organization.
6. Participating in Security Audits
Cybersecurity audits are essential to have deep knowledge about an organization’s security posture as long as it is performed by a certified service provider and include a lot of tests and analyses. It is an independent and unbiased review and examination of a system’s records, activities, and controls that will provide you with a trustworthy and certified report. Typically, a SOC analyst takes part in security audits to maintain the process and allow other team members to perform reliable tests and provide the most effective security audits on an organization’s digital assets and controls.
What are the Required Skills for a SOC Analyst?
One who wants to work in this critical job position must gain a lot of technical and non-technical skills. Some of these skills are vital, but some are helpful in performing tasks without any interruption.
Working as a SOC analyst in a cybersecurity team requires someone who is highly experienced, as this is a professional, fast-paced, collaborative, and challenging career. Remember that cybersecurity analysts must also be all-time learners to keep their knowledge and expertise fresh and up to date.
In a nutshell, a security operations center analyst has these technical and non-technical skills in practice:
● Networking concepts, including TCP/IP, routing, and switching
● Cybersecurity best practices, techniques, tools, technologies, and concepts
● Coding and database languages
● Firewall management and intrusion detection systems
● Windows, Linux, and UNIX operating systems
● Vulnerability and security testing
● Communication skills, both verbal and written
● Critical thinking
● Management skills
● Flexibility and desire to learn more
SOC Analyst Skills: Technical Skills
It’s expected from a security operations center analyst to have great technical skills combined with remarkable hands-on experience. Technical skills such as intrusion detection and incident response help them better handle threats and provide on-time solutions to future cybersecurity issues in a small or large organization. Note that technical skills include a wide range of techniques and practices, such as networking. Having these skills can guarantee they can understand cybersecurity tools, practices, and techniques that are required to enter a job as a security analyst.
1. Knowledge of SIEM
SIEM is one of the most effective and modern cybersecurity technologies in place that allows organizations to effectively and efficiently collect and analyze log data and make critical decisions based on it. This gives organizations an opportunity to recreate past incidents, analyze new incidents, and think about practical and reliable solutions that can prevent future issues. SOC analysts are experienced analyzers and testers who make use of the SIEM technology and practices to offer better efficiency when performing such tasks.
2. Familiarity with the In-demand Programming Languages
Which programming languages a SOC analyst must be proficient in? Is there a need to spend much time learning different programming languages if you want to be a SOC analyst?
The answer is simple; Security operations center analysts have professional programming skills working with a number of programming languages and related tools. For instance, they are proficient in using scripting languages like Python or PowerShell, and they should make use of other popular languages such as JS, C++, or database management languages.
3. TCP/IP, Computer Networking, Routing, and Switching
Computer networking is one of the essential skills for security operations center analysts, and they must understand which security attacks originate from a network. Many security threats take place across a network of connected devices and systems in organizations, and there are practical methodologies that SOC analysts use to prevent related problems. To keep an organization’s security at the top level, security operations center analysts need a deep understanding of wired and wireless networks.
4. IDS/IPS and Penetration Testing
Pen testing and vulnerability testing are 2 essential skills for security analysts, allowing them to unearth security weaknesses in an organization’s systems and networks. Testers try to penetrate the target system through some techniques and collect the required information. Simulated pen testing or vulnerability testing can uncover a wide range of vulnerabilities, and SOC analysts are experts in performing such attacks on the target system.
Pen testing is a core tool for analyzing the security of IT systems, and you can trust an experienced security operations center analyst to manage, handle, and perform such tests together with your cybersecurity team.
5. Firewall and Intrusion Detection/Prevention Protocols
Intrusion detection systems (IDS) and firewalls are security solutions that can be deployed on your IT infrastructure to protect endpoints or a network. Although they have some clear differences, they both work together to provide your organization with protective layers against a range of cyber threats and attacks.
An intrusion detection system is an all-time monitoring capability that detects potential threats and generates instant alerts on these issues. Through this method, security operations center analysts can better analyze incidents and respond to them at the right time.
6. Windows, UNIX, and Linux Operating Systems
Keep in mind that security threats exist in all operating systems, and we can’t put one operating system aside when analyzing systems. Both computers and mobile devices are potential spots to be impacted by cyber threats, so analysts should stay alert to this. In order to become a professional SOC analyst, you need to build a deep familiarity with Windows, Linux, and UNIX-based operating systems and provide hands-on experience working with their command-line interfaces.
In addition, mobile operating systems are other important points that must be checked and analyzed regularly to study the related threats and vulnerabilities.
7. Antivirus and Anti-malware Tools
Antivirus and anti-malware tools are considered one of the most effective and merciless tools against cyber attacks and malicious actors. There exist large numbers of malicious software tools launched daily, and there should be reliable detection and response tools to prevent associated issues and damages. Security operations center analysts and experts have deep knowledge of working with these capabilities, and they know exactly what security tool you will need for your IT infrastructure.
SOC sounds like mission control that needs dependable antivirus and anti-malware software. Many years ago, there was a limited list of such tools, but analysts and security experts now have access to a wide variety of antivirus software packages that combine many features in all-in-one tools.
8. Vulnerability Testing and Reverse Engineering
Vulnerability testing is an essential requirement for anyone who seeks to land a SOC analyst job. It’s clear that security operations center experts should be able to work with different vulnerability monitoring, testing, and reporting tools to safeguard your IT infrastructure against security threats.
Reverse engineering is another skill that empowers security analysts to process a malware tool to understand its functionality and purposes. This process will help security professionals in a team determine how they can entirely remove the malware from the system or create defense plans against it.
SOC Analyst Skills: Non-technical Skills
Except for the cybersecurity industry, non-technical or soft skills are important for everyone who works in other industries. Soft skills help experts thrive, develop, grow, and gain more benefits from their careers, and these are also essential for SOC analysts in a cybersecurity team.
But what kind of soft skills do you need as a security operations center analyst? How can you get them, and which one is the most crucial skill if you want to proceed in such a job position?
If you want to learn more about this, stay tuned because there are more to follow in the next sections.
1. Critical Thinking and Problem-solving Abilities
This is essential because much of the work SOC analysts do in a cybersecurity team involves critical thinking. If a security operations center analyst isn’t a real critical thinker, he lacks the great skill, and we doubt he can be a real SOC analyst. As a security analyst, you will have to think differently, and you may need to be suspicious about many activities in the systems and networks of an organization.
Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly, rationally, and logically to understand what parts of a system need special attention and rapid solutions. Problem-solving abilities help this skill to provide solutions at the right time with the best possible answer.
2. Communication Skills
It’s important to speak clearly and concisely on different topics and challenges in a daily routine in a cybersecurity team. More importantly, a team manager or leader should transfer the required information to individuals, team members, and employees.
This makes communication skills a mandatory requirement if you want to work as a security operations center analyst. You may also be asked to write technical reports to provide the required resources for other team members.
3. Ability to Work Independently and as a Part of a Team
Collaboration is a broader concept when it comes to working in a cybersecurity team. If you don’t have the ability to work closely with other team members, you can’t successfully perform the related tasks. You need to communicate technical concepts to other members, and sometimes you’ll have to work independently.
Both skills are important and are considered key roles in the cybersecurity industry nowadays.
4. Flexibility and a Willingness for Continuous Development
Achieving a solid and strong background requires action on many fronts, and SOC analysts should take a lot of courses and training to be able to join a professional team. Technology is always on change, and there are many new techniques every cybersecurity team member should learn and make use of. Continuous and incremental improvement is vital, and these are the roots of the word “personal development.”
If you don’t adapt to new technologies and cybersecurity practices, you will fail over time.
SOC Analyst Skills: Foundational Academic or Non-Academic Skills
Academic skills that a security operations center analyst learns over time are the building blocks of this job position. In a growing digital world, the need for IT skills continues to grow, and there are also non-academic skills that will help cybersecurity professionals get things done without any failure and trouble.
Foundational skills may include endpoint security, data security, and network security, and each of them is considered a key part of the skillset all security operations center analysts must learn deeply.
The list below outlines all important practices and techniques that a SOC analyst must have good knowledge of and implement during performing SOC tasks.
1. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
NIST offers a powerful framework, and it consists of 5 main elements to define and improve an organization’s cybersecurity strategy. These elements include identification, protection, detection, response, and recovery, and SOC analysts must look at these requirements as a top priority in an organization.
When evaluating a SOC’s processes and actions, you’ll want to consider the standards defined by cybersecurity frameworks like those outlined in NIST. Understanding NIST and having hands-on experience is so crucial in deploying its concepts and doing tasks without any issues.
2. International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
ISO provides a framework for data security and protection at all levels, and it outlines the necessary requirements for establishing, implementing, monitoring, reviewing, maintaining, and improving the cybersecurity posture of an organization. ISO is considered a world-class data security and protection framework that the security operations center should take seriously and develop the following plans and practices according to its principles.
ISO stands for International Organization for Standardization and aims to provide a standard framework for small and large organizations that want a high level of data security and protection.
3. Center for Information Security (CIS)
CIS is one of the best-known cybersecurity standards recognized as a core principle for defending systems and data against cyberattacks and threat actors in the digital world. Used by thousands of small and large organizations, CIS is also practical in a SOC as long as it provides full guidance and insight for establishing the baseline configuration of a secure IT infrastructure.
CIS can work along with other frameworks without any problems to help strengthen the cybersecurity posture in your organization. Note that the CIS offers controls that empower the NIST cybersecurity framework and allows SOC team members to better manage the related risks and cyber threats.
4. System and Organization Controls 2 (SOC 2)
The security operations center works to find vulnerabilities and weaknesses at the right time to provide helpful solutions to them. Here, cybersecurity standards such as SOC 1, SOC 2, and SOC 3 come with defined criteria to help SOC analysts and other team members better manage data security risks and eliminate them before they can impact an organization’s digital systems and IT infrastructure.
SOC 2 is a required standard for service organizations, but it is not mandatory in the legal view. It helps security operations center analysts provide a high level of data security and protection, ensuring clients and service partners that your systems and databases are protected and secure.
SOC Analyst Skills: Essential Certifications and Course Programs
Some of the most popular certifications for SOC analysts are Network+, CISSP, and GIAC. However, these are only a few certifications that a cybersecurity analyst must provide to be able to join a certified company and adopt duty.
● Draw attention to the fact that this is an ongoing process to become a professional and experienced SOC analyst in a cybersecurity team. You need to start with the first steps and learn the fundamentals of network and cybersecurity. Therefore, there is more to come with lots of courses and training programs.
The list below highlights the most important and fundamental cybersecurity courses and certifications needed for becoming a security operations center analyst.
1. SOC Analyst Certifications: Security+
● Beginner
The CompTIA Security+ certification is the first security certification you need to earn to become a SOC analyst in a cybersecurity team. Security+ is designed to provide the core and principal knowledge for security professionals who aim to seek success in the cybersecurity industry.
It’s a beginner-intermediate level certification that successful candidates will gain the following skills after completing the courses:
● Attacks, threats, and vulnerabilities
● Architecture and design
● Implementation
● Operations and incident response
● Governance, risk, and compliance
2. SOC Analyst Certifications: CEH
● Intermediate
The certified ethical hacker program is one of the most comprehensive and popular cybersecurity programs worldwide. Cybersecurity professionals who seek to enter the industry can take the courses included in CEH and gain hands-on experience, helping them understand how they can find security vulnerabilities in digital infrastructure and networks.
The purpose of getting a CEH certification is to learn the main standards and techniques and understand which new techniques hackers are using to impact organizations and infrastructures. SOC analysts will obtain a CEH certification to:
● Learn ethical hacking structures and practices
● Make use of hacking software tools and technologies
● Build skills with hands-on training programs
● Gain valuable experience
3. SOC Analyst Certifications: CASP
● Intermediate
CompTIA’s CASP+ is another important program for SOC analysts who want to improve their cybersecurity skills to an advanced level. It’s an advanced-level certification for security architects and senior engineers that defines and educates cybersecurity professionals with the latest technologies, practices, and tools.
CASP+ aims to educate candidates with the following knowledge:
● Architect, engineer, and implement secure solutions across an organization
● Use monitoring, detection, incident response, and automation tools at the enterprise level
● Apply security practices to IT infrastructures, devices, systems, and networks
● Assess the impact of cyber threats and risks and evaluate compliance requirements throughout the industry
4. SOC Analyst Certifications: GIAC
● Intermediate
GIAC, also known as Global Information Assurance Certification, provides deep insight into cybersecurity, and it aims to certify professional security teams by focusing on some specific areas. GIAC provides more than 40 information security-related certifications for professionals, and each certification is specific to an in-demand area, such as ethical hacking, cyber defense, and penetration testing.
SOC analysts can simply choose from one of the following areas to get GIAC certs and get certified to join a cybersecurity team:
● Offensive operations
● Cyber defense
● Cloud security
● Industrial control systems
● Digital forensics and incident response
● Management, legal, and audit
5. SOC Analyst Certifications: CISSP
● Advanced
Earning the CISSP certification proves you have practical experience in effectively designing, developing, implementing, and managing best-in-class cybersecurity programs and practices for an organization. CISSP is categorized as an advanced-level cybersecurity certification that allows a SOC analyst to become an official member of (ISC)2.
Note the following points that come in the CISSP exam, covering a wide range of cybersecurity concepts, practices, and techniques:
● Security and risk management
● Asset security
● Security architecture and engineering
● Communication and network security
● Identity and access management
● Security assessment and testing
● Security operations
● Software development security
How the SOC Analyst Career Path Look Like
Cybersecurity careers can be very diverse, offering a wide variety of job positions to those professionals who work in this industry. SOC analyst career is one of the most in-demand job positions in the cybersecurity industry that is considered the field of opportunities.
● Security operations center analysts can enter their job after providing the defined certifications and some work experience. Thereafter, they are free to take additional courses and add to their knowledge and expertise.
Note that becoming a SOC analyst is not an easy process, and it requires cybersecurity professionals to have a broad understanding of a range of security tools, systems, and procedures. They play a key role in triaging the detected incidents and potential threats that are hitting an organization.
● Entering a cybersecurity career in a security operations center analyst position is one of the best choices, but not all SOC analysts have the same tasks, and they may be tasked to deal with different challenges.
Taking everything into account, a SOC analyst career is good for you if you’re interested in cybersecurity and you have the following:
● A sense of curiosity and a desire to investigate
● Strong technical and analytical skills
● A passion for learning and personal development
1. Security Analyst Level 1 / Tier 1: Triage
Triage is the first level of the security operations center in organizations, and Tier 1 personnel are responsible for sorting, prioritizing, and classifying incoming incidents. They are responsible for determining the severity level of an incident that requires a deep understanding of the threat and its source.
Tier 1 personnel work all the time to provide an initial response to incidents and report them to other parts of the team if necessary. It should be noted that Tier 1 analysts are also tasked to monitor event logs for suspicious activities, and these professionals are often the least experienced analysts compared to Tier 2 and Tier 3 experts.
2. Security Analyst Level 2 / Tier 2: Incident Response
Tier 2 involves the activities needed for incident response, and Tier 2 analysts are tasked with reviewing and responding to any reports forwarded by Tier 1 professionals. Tier 2 experts focus more on responding to emerging threats, and they must be proficient in analyzing threats, identifying targeted systems, and providing on-time solutions to issues.
Note that while a Tier 2 analyst investigates a reported issue, they also gather more detailed information from various sources for future cures. They must know where a threat came from and which solutions we have in place to hinder that specific threat.
3. Security Analyst Level 3 / Tier 3: Threat Hunting
Tier 3 professionals are called “Threat Hunters” in the security operations center, and they are considered at the top of the SOC analyst hierarchy. Tier 3 experts employ their advanced skills to support Tier 2 analysts and provide trustworthy solutions to complex security issues.
Tier 3 analysts are threat hunters, and they inherently invest time in exploring and detecting threats that may impact an organization in the future.
SOC Analysts Should Provide Reports for SOC Managers
A SOC manager can have an experience of between 10 to 20 years, and they are senior SOC team members in a company. They are responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the team and ensuring the SOC team is acting and operating properly according to defined plans.
As a routine task, SOC analysts should provide reports to senior managers, and this takes a lot of time from them. As a matter of fact, reporting is a routine task that many SOC analysts enjoy the least. Without any doubt, reporting matters, but there should be automation solutions to streamline this process, which takes much time.
What is the Difference Between SOC Analyst and Security Engineer?
In collaboration with each other, the 2 roles in a cybersecurity team help the entire team, and they ensure that systems are secure and remain protected in time. The security engineer works on the front lines, and they have more technical and hands-on responsibilities working with hardware, devices, and system components. As the name suggests, engineers build things, work with software tools, link systems and network components, and get an organization’s systems and networks running at its high efficiency.
Security engineers take into account their experience and expertise, and they have these essential responsibilities in the SOC team:
● Designing and implementing security strategies
● Planning computer and network security upgrades
● Testing hardware and software tools
● Addressing technical problems related to applications and production equipment
What is the Difference Between SOC Analyst and Security Manager?
In a nutshell, security analysts basically examine things, and they work in the security operations center to examine systems and networks and run the required tests. As a result of these tests, SOC analysts provide valuable information about security defects in an organization that can be forwarded to fellow members of the team.
Most of the time SOC analysts spend in the security operations center is occupied with deep diving into system logs, looking at collected data, providing recommendations, and parsing vulnerability scanning results.
SOC managers have a key role in the team, and they are responsible for the tasks and operations of the team. SOC managers will plan, direct, and control the team in terms of functions and operations to ensure all processes are performing according to the final goals.
What Routine Tasks Do SOC Analysts Perform?
Now that you are aware of what security operations center analysts do, it’s clear they have some daily routine tasks. Not all these routine tasks make sense, but all of them are inherently required for successfully fulfilling the SOC team’s jobs and responsibilities:
● Investigating all suspicious activities
● Maintaining secure monitoring tools
● Reviewing and reporting on all processes and operations
● Keeping things updated and ensuring the systems have no issues in place
What are the Main Challenges of Being a Security Operations Center Analyst?
It may be a wondering fact that all cybersecurity team members have some challenges when they perform their responsibilities. If you are a SOC analyst, you know that security alerts never end, and you should deal with these alerts throughout the day.
More than that, too many false positives originating from unreliable sources can cause trouble for a SOC analyst. Additionally, the list below shows some other challenges a SOC analyst encounters regularly:
● Poor visibility and transparency environment
● Uneducated team members
● Limited cybersecurity budget
● Too many manual tasks
● Compliance issues
Starting a Career as a Security Operations Center Analyst
Becoming a SOC analyst is not a complex pathway, but it needs spending time, effort, and attention. To start your career in this domain, you should have a bachelor’s degree in computer science or related degrees and go for some certifications.
Starting with the Network+ certification and operating system fundamentals will help you enter the journey, and you’ll need to follow on with the CompTIA Security+ certification and other important course programs.
How Nordic Defender Will Help Your Organization Deal with Cybersecurity Threats
SOC analysts play an important role in simplifying the process of threat handling. However, a SOC analyst is just a part of the cybersecurity team that works to integrate data security and protection into your organization.
● Nordic Defender is a certified cybersecurity team that provides you with a complete list of data security and protection services. As an MSSP, Nordic Defender is ready to give you an effective data security plan and protect your organization against cyber threats.
Final Thoughts
A cybersecurity team consists of many professional members, and each of them has specific responsibilities. If one of these members lacks the required skills or refuses to do the defined responsibilities, it will put the entire team at risk and pose a lot of issues in an organization. A SOC analyst is responsible for critical tasks in a cybersecurity team, so SOC managers should be careful in assigning the most trustworthy and skilled professionals to this career.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a security operations center do in a cybersecurity team?
● The function of a SOC is to monitor, detect, handle, prevent, investigate, and respond to cyber threats that may hit an organization and impact its digital assets negatively.
What are the main types of security operations centers to use in an organization?
● There are 4 main types of security operations centers:
● In-house security operations center
● Virtual security operations center
● Security operations as a service
● Collaborative o hybrid security operations center
What are the key practices and techniques used by a SOC analyst in a cybersecurity team?
● These essential practices include asset discovery, behavior monitoring, vulnerability assessment, and reporting. More importantly, SIEM technology is one of the critical assets a SOC analyst uses to deliver better results.
What are the best software tools used by security operations center analysts?
● SOC analysts need a broad set of cybersecurity tools. The most powerful tools include Splunk, SolarWinds, LogRhythm, and Trellix platform.
Do security operations center analysts need to code?● As a security analyst, it’s important to learn and understand the most popular and common programming languages and tools. Learning Golang, JS, Python, and C++ will help you perform tasks without any issues.