Can your SOC Save You?

Enterprises today are expected to have at least 6-8 detection tools, as detection is considered a standard investment and the first line of defense. Yet security leaders struggle to justify dedicating resources further down the alert lifecycle to their superiors.

As a result, most organizations’ security investments are asymmetrical, robust detection tools paired with an under-resourced SOC, their last line of defense.

A recent case study demonstrates how companies with a standardized SOC prevented a sophisticated phishing attack that bypassed leading email security tools. In this case study, a cross-company phishing campaign targeted C-suite executives at multiple enterprises. Eight different email security tools across these organizations failed to detect the attack, and phishing emails reached executive inboxes. However, each organization’s SOC team detected the attack immediately after employees reported the suspicious emails.

Why did all eight detection tools identically fail where the SOC succeeded?

What all these organizations have in common is a balanced investment across the alert lifecycle, which doesn’t neglect their SOC.

This article examines how investing in the SOC is indispensable for organizations that have already allocated significant resources to detection tools. Additionally, a balanced SOC investment is crucial for maximizing the value of their existing detection investments.

Detection tools and the SOC operate in parallel universes

Understanding this fundamental disconnect explains how security gaps arise:

Detection tools operate in milliseconds. They must make instant decisions on millions of signals every day. They have no time for nuance; speed is essential. Without it, networks would come to a halt, as every email, file, and connection request would be held up for analysis.

Detection tools zoom in. They are the first to identify and isolate potential threats, but they lack an understanding of the bigger picture. Meanwhile, SOC teams operate with a 30K feet view. When alerts reach analysts, they have something detection tools lack: time and context.

Consequently, the SOC tackles alerts from a different perspective:

1. They can analyze behavioral patterns, such as why an executive suddenly logs in from a datacenter IP address when they usually work from London.
2. They can stitch data across tools. They can view a clean reputation email domain along with subsequent authentication attempts and user reports.
3. They can identify patterns that only make sense when seen together, such as exclusive targeting of finance executives combined with timing that aligns with payroll cycles.

Three critical risks of an underfunded SOC

First, it can make it more difficult for executive leadership to identify the root of the problem. CISOs and budget holders in organizations that deploy various detection tools often assume their investments will keep them safe. Meanwhile, the SOC experiences this differently, overwhelmed by noise and…