Building a Security Operations Centre (SOC) is undoubtedly the best move you can make towards protecting not only your organisation’s data, systems and services, but also any sensitive information about your clients that you handle or store. This article is a brief overview of the task of building a SOC, introducing not only the key elements but also how the challenges of increased security requirements and rapid response are addressed.
The process for building a SOC can be time consuming and it is directly related to the available budget. The best approach is to create a plan that allows for incremental phases of implementation. Starting with a gap analysis, you will be able to define and prioritise the milestones for incremental improvements by setting the appropriate expectations and timelines. To start with, take a look at the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) and more specifically the Top 20 Critical Security Controls guidance.
The incremental improvements need to take under consideration the collaboration and communication between people, technology, and processes. These are the three equally important components that define a SOC.
