WEBVTT 0:00:03.940000 --> 0:00:10.120000 Hello everyone and welcome to the first section of this course. 0:00:10.120000 --> 0:00:14.040000 Now to get things going or to get started I should say we're going to 0:00:14.040000 --> 0:00:19.560000 start off by getting an understanding of what a SOC is or I should say 0:00:19.560000 --> 0:00:22.420000 a security operation center. 0:00:22.420000 --> 0:00:26.780000 Now given you know that our primary focus in this learning path and certification 0:00:26.780000 --> 0:00:34.000000 is incident response you may be asking yourself why is it important to 0:00:34.000000 --> 0:00:39.020000 you know learn about the SOC or why do we have a whole course on the SOC. 0:00:39.020000 --> 0:00:47.020000 Well the reason for that is again firstly in the event that you are interested 0:00:47.020000 --> 0:00:54.180000 in working in the SOC and incident response or an incident response analyst 0:00:54.180000 --> 0:00:58.900000 is a role that you know exists within a SOC you need to understand you 0:00:58.900000 --> 0:01:03.980000 know how SOCs work the various roles etc etc. 0:01:03.980000 --> 0:01:08.800000 The other reason why it's important is primarily because it'll give you 0:01:08.800000 --> 0:01:14.040000 a better understanding of where incident response fits within a SOC and 0:01:14.040000 --> 0:01:19.380000 you know in this case we're pretty much going to be utilizing the cutting 0:01:19.380000 --> 0:01:24.260000 edge examples of SOCs to you know give you a better understanding of what 0:01:24.260000 --> 0:01:30.100000 is required of you as an incident responder but with that being said let's 0:01:30.100000 --> 0:01:36.000000 get started so what is a security operations center or a SOC well a SOC 0:01:36.000000 --> 0:01:42.420000 is a centralized unit or team within an organizational company that is 0:01:42.420000 --> 0:01:48.520000 responsible for monitoring detecting analyzing and responding to cybersecurity 0:01:48.520000 --> 0:01:55.060000 threats across applications devices systems networks and locations so 0:01:55.060000 --> 0:01:59.380000 you can see a SOC is responsible for quite a bit and over here you have 0:01:59.380000 --> 0:02:04.380000 an image of you know that representative what a SOC looks like not a very 0:02:04.380000 --> 0:02:07.440000 large one but a functional one nonetheless. 0:02:07.440000 --> 0:02:12.140000 Now fundamentally speaking what I'm trying to you know to put across to 0:02:12.140000 --> 0:02:19.160000 you is that a SOC is an organization's first line of defense essentially 0:02:19.160000 --> 0:02:24.400000 functioning as the nerve center for all cybersecurity efforts within an 0:02:24.400000 --> 0:02:30.540000 organization now given this critical role that a SOC plays within an organization 0:02:30.540000 --> 0:02:35.620000 it goes without saying that it must operate or you know it should operate 0:02:35.620000 --> 0:02:41.560000 but really it must operate around the clock which means 24 seven so you 0:02:41.560000 --> 0:02:44.460000 know there's no downtime and that's when we'll you know be progressing 0:02:44.460000 --> 0:02:47.920000 through this course you'll also know that you know if you already have 0:02:47.920000 --> 0:02:51.920000 experience or you've worked within a SOC there's usually shifts all right 0:02:51.920000 --> 0:03:02.400000 so you have people coming and going to ensure you and this is you know 0:03:02.400000 --> 0:03:08.240000 in support of providing continuous security monitoring and rapid incident 0:03:08.240000 --> 0:03:14.940000 response when and when and as required so you never want to you know you 0:03:14.940000 --> 0:03:20.000000 don't want to have a SOC that's operational half half the time and miss 0:03:20.000000 --> 0:03:23.620000 out on any potential alerts or you know in the event you get breached 0:03:23.620000 --> 0:03:27.980000 you should have someone there or an analyst there to you know detect it 0:03:27.980000 --> 0:03:32.580000 and then you know follow the procedures to escalate it and you know so 0:03:32.580000 --> 0:03:37.860000 on and so forth so the next logical step that or you know question that 0:03:37.860000 --> 0:03:42.360000 you might be having is okay given the importance of a SOC and you know 0:03:42.360000 --> 0:03:47.980000 the the parameters you know that it should operate or the constraints 0:03:47.980000 --> 0:03:54.540000 that it has set on it from an operational perspective if we were to look 0:03:54.540000 --> 0:03:58.700000 at it from the you know the perspective of building a new SOC how would 0:03:58.700000 --> 0:04:02.960000 you do this correctly or what's the correct way of building a SOC well 0:04:02.960000 --> 0:04:09.480000 firstly we need to understand that a well-defined functional SOC is built 0:04:09.480000 --> 0:04:15.120000 upon or relies on four essential pillars now in the past they were really 0:04:15.120000 --> 0:04:21.840000 thought of as three pillars namely people processes tools but we now have 0:04:21.840000 --> 0:04:26.260000 you know cyber threat intelligence so in reality there are four pillars 0:04:26.260000 --> 0:04:32.860000 that sort of underpin a functional or operational SOC so the the pillars 0:04:32.860000 --> 0:04:38.840000 as i've just stated are people processes tools and intelligence so i've 0:04:38.840000 --> 0:04:42.680000 just summarized a couple of them here but we'll look at them shortly individually 0:04:42.680000 --> 0:04:48.020000 i should say so skilled analysts and engineers form the human foundation 0:04:48.020000 --> 0:04:53.480000 so whoever's working in the SOC are people right so that's the first pillar 0:04:53.480000 --> 0:04:58.400000 and the second pillar to do with processes is the second part of this 0:04:58.400000 --> 0:05:04.260000 sentence so these people utilize established protocols and workflows to 0:05:04.260000 --> 0:05:10.760000 guide operations so just think of playbooks procedures you know essentially 0:05:10.760000 --> 0:05:15.320000 checklists to follow that these people or analysts should follow when 0:05:15.320000 --> 0:05:20.700000 you know a particular when a particular incident occurs you can you can 0:05:20.700000 --> 0:05:25.160000 you can sort of see why it's a it's a pillar why processes is a pillar 0:05:25.160000 --> 0:05:28.800000 of course we'll dive into this i'm just giving you an overview at the 0:05:28.800000 --> 0:05:33.860000 moment you then have tools right so advanced security platforms and technologies 0:05:33.860000 --> 0:05:40.740000 very helpful in enabling real-time monitoring detection and analysis of 0:05:40.740000 --> 0:05:44.440000 potential threats right this is actually quite an important pillar because 0:05:44.440000 --> 0:05:49.260000 you need to have the tools or technologies to actually you know monitor 0:05:49.260000 --> 0:05:55.760000 systems you know detect intrusions and more importantly analyze potential 0:05:55.760000 --> 0:06:00.560000 threats or intrusions and then finally which is sort of the new pillar 0:06:00.560000 --> 0:06:05.300000 which is intelligence up-to-date threat intelligence keeps the SOC informed 0:06:05.300000 --> 0:06:10.040000 about emerging this is very important so emerging attack methods which 0:06:10.040000 --> 0:06:16.540000 helps ensure a proactive and adaptive defense posture so the bottom line 0:06:16.540000 --> 0:06:20.380000 is that a SOC relies on these pillars to effectively protect you know 0:06:20.380000 --> 0:06:25.340000 the organization or unorganization and each pillar is critical that's 0:06:25.340000 --> 0:06:29.860000 very important is critical to the SOC's effectiveness or the effectiveness 0:06:29.860000 --> 0:06:35.400000 of a security operation center so let's take a deeper look at these pillars 0:06:35.400000 --> 0:06:40.060000 starting off with people which in you know reality is the SOC team so 0:06:40.060000 --> 0:06:45.180000 the these are the individuals or roles required to operate a functional 0:06:45.180000 --> 0:06:50.960000 SOC so as i mentioned a SOC requires skilled security analysts and or 0:06:50.960000 --> 0:06:55.580000 engineers i should say and not and or and engineers to operate effectively 0:06:55.580000 --> 0:07:00.500000 a functional SOC organizes and classifies members of the SOC team based 0:07:00.500000 --> 0:07:03.900000 on their role and responsibilities so for example you have a tier one 0:07:03.900000 --> 0:07:07.820000 tier two tier three analyst we'll get into the roles in another video 0:07:07.820000 --> 0:07:12.060000 but for now i just want you to understand this pillar so the SOC team 0:07:12.060000 --> 0:07:17.140000 that's pillar one second processes so what's this all about well processes 0:07:17.140000 --> 0:07:22.440000 establish consistency and clarity ensuring incidents are handled methodically 0:07:22.440000 --> 0:07:28.180000 so a functional SOC has defined workflows protocols and best practices 0:07:28.180000 --> 0:07:34.240000 checklist as well you know to help ensure consistency and efficiency of 0:07:34.240000 --> 0:07:38.920000 the operate of the operations right and this includes procedures for incident 0:07:38.920000 --> 0:07:43.320000 response threat intelligence sharing and of course compliance reporting 0:07:43.320000 --> 0:07:49.780000 you then have pillar three which is tools and technologies so this refers 0:07:49.780000 --> 0:07:53.740000 to the technical you know this is the technical capabilities to detect 0:07:53.740000 --> 0:07:58.820000 analyze and mitigate threats at scale what this is referring to is the 0:07:58.820000 --> 0:08:03.920000 range of solutions or tools or technologies that you know are required 0:08:03.920000 --> 0:08:10.240000 for the SOC team to perform its primary functions or to deliver its primary 0:08:10.240000 --> 0:08:15.780000 services for example you need tools for asset discovery you need tools 0:08:15.780000 --> 0:08:20.100000 for vulnerability assessment for intrusion detection and prevention so 0:08:20.100000 --> 0:08:25.820000 your ideas IPS solutions you need a seem you need to have end point detection 0:08:25.820000 --> 0:08:31.220000 and of course security analytics fairly simple quite important well not 0:08:31.220000 --> 0:08:36.480000 quite without the tools you really don't have a SOC but moving on to the 0:08:36.480000 --> 0:08:40.340000 fourth pillar this is intelligence right as i said it's quite new or when 0:08:40.340000 --> 0:08:45.060000 i say new i mean it's fairly new it has been there although not officially 0:08:45.060000 --> 0:08:50.800000 but now intelligence is treated as a pillar you know right from the inception 0:08:50.800000 --> 0:08:55.260000 of a SOC when you're planning to build one out so what's all of this about 0:08:55.260000 --> 0:08:59.060000 what is intelligence about well you know this involves supplying the SOC 0:08:59.060000 --> 0:09:06.520000 you know the SOC team or the analysts specifically with intelligence you 0:09:06.520000 --> 0:09:11.300000 know so that they can remain one step ahead of the adversaries and the 0:09:11.300000 --> 0:09:15.400000 point here is that up to date threat intelligence equips the SOC with 0:09:15.400000 --> 0:09:19.400000 insights into emerging attack vectors tactics and indicators of compromise 0:09:19.400000 --> 0:09:25.700000 which guide proactive and reactive measures effectively all right so those 0:09:25.700000 --> 0:09:30.760000 are the four pillars now the next question you may be having will okay 0:09:30.760000 --> 0:09:37.860000 i know what a SOC is i know you know what's what it is comprised of in 0:09:37.860000 --> 0:09:44.000000 terms of the pillars what does a SOC do or what are the services that 0:09:44.000000 --> 0:09:50.140000 a SOC you know provides what functions does it provide well generally 0:09:50.140000 --> 0:09:53.640000 speaking and i'm generalizing yeah although i think this list is quite 0:09:53.640000 --> 0:09:58.480000 comprehensive a SOC is typically responsible for a broad range of services 0:09:58.480000 --> 0:10:03.840000 or functions like you know a real-time security monitoring b thread detection 0:10:03.840000 --> 0:10:13.060000 and c incident response d vulnerability management e forensics and f reporting 0:10:13.060000 --> 0:10:16.740000 and compliance now i want to point out we'll get into this in the next 0:10:16.740000 --> 0:10:21.160000 set of slides but these services or functions that are just outlined represent 0:10:21.160000 --> 0:10:26.080000 categories of services that a SOC provides and is not representative of 0:10:26.080000 --> 0:10:29.540000 all the functions or activities that fall under each of these categories 0:10:29.540000 --> 0:10:34.660000 and we'll be taking a closer look at the primary SOC services in the next 0:10:34.660000 --> 0:10:39.220000 set of slides so you know just to go over them again or to give you a 0:10:39.220000 --> 0:10:42.860000 bit of a description or an understanding of each of them so security monitoring 0:10:42.860000 --> 0:10:47.800000 i'm sort of showing you that each of those categories that are all those 0:10:47.800000 --> 0:10:53.520000 categories of services that i outlined in the previous slides have activities 0:10:53.520000 --> 0:10:59.180000 that fall under them so security monitoring entails continuous log collection 0:10:59.180000 --> 0:11:03.240000 network monitoring threat intelligence this involves analyzing emerging 0:11:03.240000 --> 0:11:08.640000 threats and attack trends threat hunting this involves proactive hunting 0:11:08.640000 --> 0:11:13.020000 for undetected threats incident response you know detecting containing 0:11:13.020000 --> 0:11:18.060000 and then of course eradicating threats digital forensics involves investigating 0:11:18.060000 --> 0:11:22.900000 you know the security incidents post breach analyzing malware stuff like 0:11:22.900000 --> 0:11:27.240000 this and then compliance and reporting this involves meeting regulatory 0:11:27.240000 --> 0:11:31.680000 and audit requirements so the the point of this slide is to show you that 0:11:31.680000 --> 0:11:37.720000 you know each of these core services has activities or a subset of activities 0:11:37.720000 --> 0:11:42.260000 that fall under them and you know it's quite complex i just wanted to 0:11:42.260000 --> 0:11:46.880000 start off very very simple and then move from there now before you even 0:11:46.880000 --> 0:11:51.880000 dive into the minutiae of you know SOC services and what you know activities 0:11:51.880000 --> 0:11:56.020000 fall under let's say incident response you need to understand that within 0:11:56.020000 --> 0:12:01.960000 a SOC i should say a well-defined functional SOC these services are usually 0:12:01.960000 --> 0:12:07.200000 categorized based on the operations they entail the nature of the operations 0:12:07.200000 --> 0:12:13.120000 that they entail so what does that mean well the primary categorization 0:12:13.120000 --> 0:12:19.220000 used is are the services reactive or proactive so what does that mean 0:12:19.220000 --> 0:12:23.600000 well in the case of reactive services these are tasks or activities that 0:12:23.600000 --> 0:12:28.920000 are triggered or are performed let's say after an intrusion so after so 0:12:28.920000 --> 0:12:35.060000 you know reactive you're reacting or after an intrusion intrusion or a 0:12:35.060000 --> 0:12:38.540000 malicious event is detected so again just think of an analyst working 0:12:38.540000 --> 0:12:45.220000 in a SOC if they you know detect an intrusion they are then reacting to 0:12:45.220000 --> 0:12:50.080000 that right you then have proactive services which involve tasks that are 0:12:50.080000 --> 0:12:53.780000 performed by the SOC in the absence of any clear indicators of intrusion 0:12:53.780000 --> 0:12:59.340000 so let's say there's no there's no there's nothing really solid or you 0:12:59.340000 --> 0:13:02.040000 know there's nothing really concrete telling you that there's an intrusion 0:13:02.040000 --> 0:13:07.840000 but you proactively decide to investigate something or there may be nothing 0:13:07.840000 --> 0:13:12.820000 at all you know essentially performing tasks that are proactively you 0:13:12.820000 --> 0:13:16.940000 know that are proactive in nature in in the improvement of the the organization 0:13:16.940000 --> 0:13:22.180000 security so very very simple but that brings us to this table where you 0:13:22.180000 --> 0:13:28.280000 know um you know have this uh you know this differentiator which gives 0:13:28.280000 --> 0:13:32.860000 you an idea as to what is reactive and what is proactive within a SOC 0:13:32.860000 --> 0:13:37.980000 so in the case of the reactive services you have alert handling and triage 0:13:37.980000 --> 0:13:42.920000 incident response and analysis you know this i hope this makes sense this 0:13:42.920000 --> 0:13:48.140000 is all stuff that you do this is all reactive these all reactive activities 0:13:48.140000 --> 0:13:54.680000 right intrusion detection vulnerability management digital forensics these 0:13:54.680000 --> 0:14:00.380000 are all stuff that are born out of you reacting to something so you then 0:14:00.380000 --> 0:14:04.880000 have malware analysis reporting and compliance recovery and remediation 0:14:04.880000 --> 0:14:08.760000 in the case of proactive services this is where you know you're sort of 0:14:08.760000 --> 0:14:13.720000 on the offense if that makes sense um you know you have cyber threat intelligence 0:14:13.720000 --> 0:14:17.500000 you have threat hunting you know that makes sense that is indeed proactive 0:14:17.500000 --> 0:14:23.120000 you have network security monitoring logging and seam management that's 0:14:23.120000 --> 0:14:29.720000 really platform health and monitoring um you know that involves monitoring 0:14:29.720000 --> 0:14:38.260000 and managing your logging solutions as well as management and of course 0:14:38.260000 --> 0:14:43.300000 proactive monitoring so we'll dive into all of these but hopefully you're 0:14:43.300000 --> 0:14:48.000000 starting to see where you as an incident responder uh you you're starting 0:14:48.000000 --> 0:14:52.220000 to understand where you fit into the the SOC now this is just the introduction 0:14:52.220000 --> 0:14:57.000000 so i know that is not that clear but that brings us to the final section 0:14:57.000000 --> 0:15:00.700000 of this video where i want to go over the key characteristics of a SOC 0:15:00.700000 --> 0:15:05.200000 so we've talked about the pillars or you know what a SOC is what it does 0:15:05.200000 --> 0:15:11.880000 um you know the pillars uh that it uh that a SOC is built on and relies 0:15:11.880000 --> 0:15:16.800000 on i should say a good SOC but i want to point out some of the key characteristics 0:15:16.800000 --> 0:15:22.400000 of a SOC so what distinguishes a good SOC you know which is non-functionally 0:15:22.400000 --> 0:15:27.460000 it really can be called a SOC uh from one that's um what differentiates 0:15:27.460000 --> 0:15:33.220000 a bad one from a good one right or what are the key features of a functional 0:15:33.220000 --> 0:15:37.540000 SOC now why is this important well understanding the key characteristics 0:15:37.540000 --> 0:15:42.760000 of a SOC is essential because it provides a foundational framework for 0:15:42.760000 --> 0:15:48.720000 how security operations function and how this is very important how a 0:15:48.720000 --> 0:15:53.860000 SOC or SOCs should operate more importantly these characteristics will 0:15:53.860000 --> 0:15:58.880000 be very useful in establishing a baseline that can be used to determine 0:15:58.880000 --> 0:16:03.480000 whether a SOC is indeed functional so you know in your case if you are 0:16:03.480000 --> 0:16:07.500000 a SOC analyst you can use these characteristics to say well are we really 0:16:07.500000 --> 0:16:12.220000 a functional SOC are we really doing what we should uh what we should 0:16:12.220000 --> 0:16:16.020000 be doing now of course this what i'm going to show you these characteristics 0:16:16.020000 --> 0:16:22.800000 are you know taken from personal experience having built two SOCs uh personally 0:16:22.800000 --> 0:16:28.300000 or being involved in that process but also you know based on what is what 0:16:28.300000 --> 0:16:34.800000 the industry standards are um so the bottom line is you know this will 0:16:34.800000 --> 0:16:38.880000 be very useful in establishing a baseline that can be used to determine 0:16:38.880000 --> 0:16:42.540000 whether a SOC is indeed functional and more importantly to identify where 0:16:42.540000 --> 0:16:46.260000 improvements can be made so you can always refer back to these characteristics 0:16:46.260000 --> 0:16:52.640000 just as a you know a guiding light or a framework for saying are we doing 0:16:52.640000 --> 0:16:59.100000 this well or not you know and are there areas that we can improve so getting 0:16:59.100000 --> 0:17:05.020000 started the first characteristic is the centralized command center what 0:17:05.020000 --> 0:17:10.860000 does this mean well what i'm referring to here is that a SOC is or should 0:17:10.860000 --> 0:17:16.260000 be centralized so a SOC operates as a single centralized unit or team 0:17:16.260000 --> 0:17:21.600000 that's responsible for an organization's cybersecurity defense right so 0:17:21.600000 --> 0:17:26.120000 what are the key characteristics uh that um relate to the centralized 0:17:26.120000 --> 0:17:32.600000 command center notion or idea well firstly 24 seven operations a SOC should 0:17:32.600000 --> 0:17:37.300000 function around the clock 24 seven in order to detect and respond to threats 0:17:37.300000 --> 0:17:43.520000 immediately that's you know without that it's not really a SOC and i know 0:17:43.520000 --> 0:17:47.560000 there's some exceptions but if you know you really can't call a SOC functional 0:17:47.560000 --> 0:17:52.960000 or effective if you have you know if you're up 18 hours or even six out 0:17:52.960000 --> 0:17:57.640000 of seven days of the week secondly unified security infrastructure so 0:17:57.640000 --> 0:18:03.660000 a SOC should integrate multiple security tools such as a SEAM EDRs I IDS 0:18:03.660000 --> 0:18:08.620000 IPS so intrusion detection and intrusion prevention systems and firewalls 0:18:08.620000 --> 0:18:14.020000 to provide a holistic view of security events so if you just have a vulnerability 0:18:14.020000 --> 0:18:17.900000 scanner it's not really a SOC if you're just doing basic SISmon logging 0:18:17.900000 --> 0:18:24.400000 it's not a SOC or i should say it's not a functional SOC third real-time 0:18:24.400000 --> 0:18:30.540000 threat intelligence so centralized visibility allows the SOC team to correlate 0:18:30.540000 --> 0:18:35.400000 events detect patterns and respond proactively so there should be a real 0:18:35.400000 --> 0:18:40.100000 -time threat intelligence feed that's providing you with up-to-date you 0:18:40.100000 --> 0:18:44.660000 know intelligence you don't want to be you you don't want to be utilizing 0:18:44.660000 --> 0:18:48.980000 outdated intelligence or a system where you check for you know the latest 0:18:48.980000 --> 0:18:53.900000 threat intelligence after a month because again threat actors are constantly 0:18:53.900000 --> 0:18:59.180000 evolving so that's something that's also very very important you then 0:18:59.180000 --> 0:19:05.060000 have incident coordination so security teams, IT teams and executive stakeholders 0:19:05.060000 --> 0:19:11.400000 rely on the SOC for security event updates and response actions right 0:19:11.400000 --> 0:19:17.500000 so what does this mean it means that they should be proper coordination 0:19:17.500000 --> 0:19:22.620000 between the SOC you know security teams IT teams and of course executive 0:19:22.620000 --> 0:19:28.740000 stakeholders because they rely on this information from the SOC so that's 0:19:28.740000 --> 0:19:39.600000 one you know characteristic the for real -time monitoring of network traffic 0:19:39.600000 --> 0:19:44.080000 system logs endpoints in cloud environments to detect malicious activity 0:19:44.080000 --> 0:19:50.160000 so what are the key factors or characteristics here you know that relate 0:19:50.160000 --> 0:19:55.180000 to this idea or you know the the practice of continuous monitoring well 0:19:55.180000 --> 0:20:00.860000 firstly log collection and analysis so this goes without saying that a 0:20:00.860000 --> 0:20:08.840000 SOC should aggregate logs from firewalls secondly alerting and threat 0:20:08.840000 --> 0:20:14.140000 prioritization this is very very important so a SOC should utilize you 0:20:14.140000 --> 0:20:19.780000 know a SEAMs or a SEAM to generate alerts and prioritize security incidents 0:20:19.780000 --> 0:20:24.240000 if there's no prioritization even if you have a SEAM what do you know 0:20:24.240000 --> 0:20:30.200000 or how do you how do you know what to action or triage first or you know 0:20:30.200000 --> 0:20:35.220000 before you even get into triage how do you know whether some things actually 0:20:35.220000 --> 0:20:39.260000 happen you need to write rules right or you need to you know you need 0:20:39.260000 --> 0:20:44.240000 to you need to write rules for specific events so on and so forth you 0:20:44.240000 --> 0:20:48.380000 they also have threat intelligence here but in the form of feeds so a 0:20:48.380000 --> 0:20:52.820000 SOC should incorporate global threat intelligence sources to detect known 0:20:52.820000 --> 0:20:56.260000 indicators of compromised soap again you should always be up to date with 0:20:56.260000 --> 0:21:00.960000 the latest IOCs you then have behavioral analytics and machine learning 0:21:00.960000 --> 0:21:05.680000 now this is not that important but it's becoming quite relevant so a SOC 0:21:05.680000 --> 0:21:09.480000 should have a normally based detection capabilities in order to monitor 0:21:09.480000 --> 0:21:14.080000 user behavior and insider threats through use and entity behavior analytics 0:21:14.080000 --> 0:21:19.680000 or ueba as it's known now we don't really need to worry about that right 0:21:19.680000 --> 0:21:23.680000 now but that is quite important we'll probably take a look at it later 0:21:23.680000 --> 0:21:29.780000 on in this course and again more importantly or more important than than 0:21:29.780000 --> 0:21:33.840000 that even is network endpoint monitoring so without this again do you 0:21:33.840000 --> 0:21:39.320000 really have a SOC if there's no if you don't have an EDR but let me explain 0:21:39.320000 --> 0:21:44.360000 the point first so a SOC should integrate network detection and response 0:21:44.360000 --> 0:21:49.800000 or NDR and endpoint detection and response known as EDR tools to track 0:21:49.800000 --> 0:21:58.780000 suspicious activity on you know different systems workstations to explain 0:21:58.780000 --> 0:22:03.640000 here is if you were to try and judge whether a SOC is indeed functional 0:22:03.640000 --> 0:22:10.140000 or is really a SOC then I would look for firstly you know the centralized 0:22:10.140000 --> 0:22:15.600000 command center nature or you know the aspects of that I would also look 0:22:15.600000 --> 0:22:19.580000 for its continuous monitoring capabilities in the form of lock collection 0:22:19.580000 --> 0:22:28.260000 and analysis alerting and threat prioritization so on and so forth and 0:22:28.260000 --> 0:22:33.120000 for the incident response and containment capability so given that that's 0:22:33.120000 --> 0:22:38.240000 one of its core services you know in this case incident response and containment 0:22:38.240000 --> 0:22:45.580000 in this particular you know given I'll just use the description here one 0:22:45.580000 --> 0:22:48.760000 of the SOCs most critical functions is rapidly responding to cybersecurity 0:22:48.760000 --> 0:22:53.520000 incidents to minimize damage contain the threat and you know prevent escalation 0:22:53.520000 --> 0:22:59.380000 given that that's the case what are the key things that you know you should 0:22:59.380000 --> 0:23:04.780000 look at either when you're building a SOC or when you're sort of assessing 0:23:04.780000 --> 0:23:10.400000 your own or the one you work in the first is incident handling capabilities 0:23:10.400000 --> 0:23:14.560000 so SOC analysts should follow a structured incident response process that's 0:23:14.560000 --> 0:23:20.260000 based on either the NIST 861 or SANS guidelines don't worry we'll go over 0:23:20.260000 --> 0:23:25.080000 both of them in this course secondly the SOC should have containment strategies 0:23:25.080000 --> 0:23:30.220000 so a SOC team should be able to quarantine compromised systems revoke 0:23:30.220000 --> 0:23:35.420000 access or block malicious IPs or domains you then have eradication and 0:23:35.420000 --> 0:23:39.660000 remediation which again very very important so a SOC team should be able 0:23:39.660000 --> 0:23:43.920000 to remove malware or I should say eradicate malware patch vulnerabilities 0:23:43.920000 --> 0:23:49.600000 and strengthen security controls forensic investigation so a SOC team 0:23:49.600000 --> 0:23:53.580000 should be able to collect digital evidence analyze malware and track the 0:23:53.580000 --> 0:23:57.000000 origin of an attack if you don't have those capabilities you can't even 0:23:57.000000 --> 0:24:01.940000 analyze a phishing you know malicious phishing attachment you and you 0:24:01.940000 --> 0:24:06.000000 know there may be instances where you know an analyst may have flagged 0:24:06.000000 --> 0:24:10.380000 a particular attachment you know that an employee downloaded or got through 0:24:10.380000 --> 0:24:14.780000 an email you need to be able to analyze where it came from you know but 0:24:14.780000 --> 0:24:20.420000 then finally incident documentation and reporting so a SOC as a whole 0:24:20.420000 --> 0:24:24.140000 should be able to prepare post-incident reports for executive stakeholders 0:24:24.140000 --> 0:24:31.020000 and legal teams and then finally coordination and collaboration so the 0:24:31.020000 --> 0:24:36.640000 core point here is that a SOC does not operate in isolation it requires 0:24:36.640000 --> 0:24:40.680000 close collaboration with multiple departments to ensure an effective security 0:24:40.680000 --> 0:24:45.780000 posture so in this particular case what are the key features or factors 0:24:45.780000 --> 0:24:49.760000 so firstly collaboration with IT team so the SOC should be able to work 0:24:49.760000 --> 0:24:54.300000 with system administrators devops and network engineers to apply patches 0:24:54.300000 --> 0:24:59.300000 and force security controls and maintain business continuity very very 0:24:59.300000 --> 0:25:04.280000 important secondly communication with executive leadership so SOC managers 0:25:04.280000 --> 0:25:08.580000 should be able to provide security reports risk assessments and incident 0:25:08.580000 --> 0:25:14.020000 impact analysis to the executive team very very important you know all 0:25:14.020000 --> 0:25:17.880000 of these are important but this is typically what I look for you know 0:25:17.880000 --> 0:25:24.260000 if I'm sort of judging or rating the effectiveness of a SOC so you then 0:25:24.260000 --> 0:25:27.620000 have compliance and legal coordination so a SOC should ensure compliance 0:25:27.620000 --> 0:25:35.040000 with industry regulation so GDPR, hyper BCIDSS ISO 2701 and should be 0:25:35.040000 --> 0:25:39.200000 able to work with legal teams for incident disclosure in the event there 0:25:39.200000 --> 0:25:43.880000 is you know an incident or an intrusion you then have security awareness 0:25:43.880000 --> 0:25:47.700000 in training this is not that important but it's always good to have you 0:25:47.700000 --> 0:25:52.820000 know SOC should always should be able to work with HR and employees to 0:25:52.820000 --> 0:25:58.620000 reduce human risk you know such as or I should say an example of this 0:25:58.620000 --> 0:26:01.840000 would be you know the form of phishing attacks in social engineering scams 0:26:01.840000 --> 0:26:06.200000 so they should be actively engaging with employees to tell them what to 0:26:06.200000 --> 0:26:12.020000 do what not to do how to look out for you know weird or malicious emails 0:26:12.020000 --> 0:26:18.300000 and attachments how to you know how to analyze emails to you know determine 0:26:18.300000 --> 0:26:24.120000 if you know if it is a phishing if it does look like a phishing email 0:26:24.120000 --> 0:26:28.460000 and if they do find it that you know they should bring it to the SOC to 0:26:28.460000 --> 0:26:35.700000 investigate and analyze so there should be this dynamic relationship or 0:26:35.700000 --> 0:26:41.340000 collaboration between not just you know the executive team but also the 0:26:41.340000 --> 0:26:46.680000 HR department and employees in general and then finally continuous security 0:26:46.680000 --> 0:26:50.700000 improvement so again this goes without saying that a SOC should share 0:26:50.700000 --> 0:26:55.040000 lessons learned from past incidents to refine security policies and defense 0:26:55.040000 --> 0:26:59.180000 strategies and the core point here is that if you don't learn as a SOC 0:26:59.180000 --> 0:27:10.860000 or as a SOC analyst then there's no all of the all of the lessons that 0:27:10.860000 --> 0:27:14.180000 have been learned either from you know a particular intrusion or attempted 0:27:14.180000 --> 0:27:20.500000 intrusion or whatever should be should be fed back into the SOC in the 0:27:20.500000 --> 0:27:26.940000 form of you know mitigations stuff like this so I would say that coordination 0:27:26.940000 --> 0:27:30.520000 and collaboration is also something that I look for because you know really 0:27:30.520000 --> 0:27:34.880000 the the social aspect of the people aspect the pillar if you will the 0:27:34.880000 --> 0:27:40.440000 people pillar really plays a massive role in you know the effectiveness 0:27:40.440000 --> 0:27:44.940000 of a SOC team but with that being said that's going to be it for this 0:27:44.940000 --> 0:27:49.720000 video hopefully you now have a proper introduction or you know what a 0:27:49.720000 --> 0:27:53.480000 security operation center is with that being said that's going to be it