SOC Analysts are a part of the modern-day security operation center teams that are an inseparable part of every organization nowadays. As a member of the Security Operations Center (SOC) team, an SOC analyst monitors, analyzes and responds to security issues. They investigate attacks with other team members once they have been detected. The main purpose of building a SOC unit with a SOC Analyst as its head is to build situational awareness in a company and train employees for any security threat.
SOC Analyst job description includes implementing and incorporating multiple tools and technologies. These tools and technologies help companies to find potential security threats, analyze them, and inform the management about the same so that they can take effective measures to resolve them. If you want to become a SOC Analyst and explore the field of work, then you can register yourself for the best CISSP course, which will help you to understand all the basics that a SOC Analyst performs.
What is SOC?
SOC stands for Security Operations Center, and it is a centralized unit for security operations in a company. Every company builds a SOC team, and the main aim of this team is to monitor, analyze and protect the company and its assets from any kind of security threats such as cyber-attacks, data threats, viruses, malware, etc.
A SOC Analyst and the SOC team of a company protect the sensitive data and information of a company that is stored in a computer device so that hackers do not get their hands on it and uses this information for malicious activities and purposes. It may include important company Data integrity of the systems or the company's confidential information.
The SOC team of a company is responsible for strategizing and implementing various methods for maintaining an organization's cyber security, as it is the main point of contact for preventing and avoiding cyber-attacks.
What is a SOC Analyst?
To understand 'what SOC Analysts do', you first need to know what a SOC Analyst is. A SOC Analyst is a professional who deals with a company's cyber security and security operations. They are the first to respond to and take action against cyber-attacks. They identify, analyze and resolve the issues related to security.
They also inform the management about the cyber threats so that the stakeholders can take necessary measures to ensure the security of the sensitive information and data of the company from hackers and malicious activities.
SOC Analyst description can simply be provided to you as someone who reviews incident notifications, after which they perform multiple vulnerability assessments so that they can derive conclusions and report them to senior management. So, it is clear that if you want to become a SOC Analyst, then you will have to take care of the security operations and data safety of the company you are working in.
What does a SOC Analyst do?
A SOC Analyst has certain duties to perform that are essential for the daily operations of a company. To understand 'what is an SOC Security analyst', you must understand his duties. The following are the tasks that a SOC Analyst has to perform:
- Constantly monitors the Networks and servers of the company.
- Identifies any security breach that can harm the sensitive data and information of the organization.
- Analyzes the type of security threat that has attacked the company's security operations.
- Effectively respond to the immediate threats to the security of the company.
- Builds temporary fixes to eliminate security threats and restore the company's data and information security.
- Collaborate with other departments and team members to implement security procedures, methods, and best practices.
- Stay updated about the latest security threats.
SOC Analyst Job Description
A SOC analyst is in charge of monitoring and auditing the company's systems. They also keep an eye on network traffic to ensure that no suspicious behavior is taking place. Here are the responsibilities that come under a SOC analyst's job description:
The purpose of a SOC analyst is to monitor an organization's IT infrastructure. This includes monitoring security systems, apps, and networks for anomalies that could suggest a breach or assault.
A SOC analyst detects, assesses, and mitigates security threats. When SOC analyst sees a threat, they will collaborate with their team to understand what caused the anomaly within the system and how to avoid it in the future.
A SOC analyst reacts and investigates the incidents. If necessary, the SOC analyst will collaborate with other team members to conduct additional investigations into the occurrence before reporting to law enforcement agencies. After thoroughly examining each circumstance, they will share any new knowledge obtained about current cyber threats or vulnerabilities inside their network so that future events can be avoided, if possible, by immediate fixes.
SOC analysts work with other team members to ensure that the company's protocols are in place to continue functioning so that it may continue to operate safely and securely. This involves both the implementation of new systems and the updating of current ones as needed.
Security audits are critical for ensuring the organization's security because they allow you to uncover vulnerabilities before hackers or hostile actors can exploit them. A SOC Analyst directly participates in these audits by assisting with preparing and evaluating data afterward.
SOC analysts must stay current on the most recent cyber risks to their firm's security, whether by learning about fresh phishing scams or keeping track of which bad actors are currently employing hacking tools. This understanding enables them to respond promptly to potential concerns before they cause difficulties for your firm.
Roles and Responsibilities of SOC Analysts
The roles and responsibilities of SOC analysts are multiple in nature as they ensure the security of the company operations, ensure that the sensitive data and information of an organization are safe, they protect the company systems from hackers and malicious activities. SOC Analyst roles and responsibilities include being enumerated as follows:
Implement and Manage Security Tools
SOC analysts have access to the company's important technologies to ensure important data security and build a safe environment throughout the organization. Certain relevant security tools are provided to them, and they are trained to handle and use them effectively. The most common security tools include firewalls, threat and vulnerability management tools, data security tools, intrusion detection and prevention technology, Data Analytics platforms, etc.
SOC Analysts also have access to forensic tools, which helps to ensure response investigations to certain security incidents. SOC Analyst duties are important and can prove efficient for the company and the analysts and help find those security threats that traditional tools could not.
Investigate Suspicious Activities and Prevent Them
SOC analysts look within the IT systems and networks to find security threads with the help of modern tools and technologies. They receive alerts from the SIEM that contain possible security threats and compromises with protecting a company's data security. Analysts focus on those alerts, analyze the extent of threats, and resolve them.
SOC professionals cannot stop threats from entering their security network completely, but they can prevent them from spreading across all networks. The compromised network is eliminated, and a new system is installed to restore the security system properly. The correlation and validation of the alerts are an integral part of the security system that the SOC Analysts perform.
Reduce Downtime and Ensure Business Continuity
Companies are very keen to ensure that their operations run with very less or no downtime. Previously, professionals used to shut down the infected server to clean up the virus. Still, today, companies cannot afford to shut down a server completely as it may harm business operations and critical infrastructures.
If any breach of security happens, SOC Analysts are responsible for informing about the same to the upper management so that they can take necessary actions. The redundancy of the error is reduced, and in a way, security risks are mitigated before they cause any greater damage.
Providing Security Services to the Organization as a Whole
The Roles and responsibilities of SOC Analysts include providing security services to the organization in a centralized manner. They provide valuable insights to the upper management of the company and help the stakeholders to take major steps so that they can meet their goals. Multiple departments come together to assist SOC Analysts so that they can take up the charge of maintaining the security of data and information throughout the organization.
Responsibility for anything related to the company's security is on the shoulders of SOC Analysts. If any security breach happens, they are the first ones to deal with it. A clear line of authority and communication should be maintained throughout the organization to avoid discrepancies in security operations.
Audit and Compliance Support
Another important role of SOC Analyst is to perform audit activities to meet compliance requirements for other corporate, government, public offices, etc. Essential compliance consists of access to patch levels, threat information, identity, and data access control.
Previously, SOC analysts used to create documentation and templates for performing audit activities which were prone to errors and consumed a lot of time. Modern security leverage tools, for instance, SIEM aggregates data related to security from across the company so that it becomes easy for analysts to generate reports related to audits and compliance.
A SOC Analyst has to perform these roles and responsibilities so that they can prove to be an asset to the company. Acquire the necessary certifications for Cyber Security to ace the corporate world.
SOC Analyst Skills and Qualifications
You need a particular skill set to get a job in this discipline and have a flourishing career. You need to acquire the following necessary skills to become a SOC Analyst:
- Network Defenders: Defending the networks from possible security threats is one of the major duties of a SOC Analyst. It will help you monitor, analyze, and eliminate security threats from your network. The networks are prone to get infected as it is easy for hackers to attack them because they are connected to the internet. You should have the required skills to protect your company's Networks from hackers' attacks.
- Ethical Hacking: SOC professionals with knowledge of ethical hacking are always preferred in any company. They must find out the probable threats and protect the security networks of the company. You should also have a basic understanding of perpetrations, networks, web applications, and testing to test systems to identify vulnerabilities.
- Response to Incidents: As a SOC Analyst, you must know how to eliminate the malicious activities that are taking place in your security systems and how to deal with incidents involving security breaches. You may suggest changes in the companies' security systems so they can stay protected from future threats.
- Computer Forensics: To prevent your computer security system from any sort of Cybercrime, as a SOC professional, you must become familiar with computer forensics. This will help you collect, analyze and report security data to the company's upper management.
- Reverse Engineering: With relevant skills in reverse engineering, you will also get the hang of the given software program, derive conclusions from it, and help you patch a bug.
Required Qualification
To pursue a career as a SOC Analyst, it will be beneficial for you if you have a bachelor's degree in the field of computer science or some other STEM-related subject. But even if you do not belong to a science background, you can still become a SOC Analyst if you do certain certification courses that are relevant to the particular discipline. Many analysts get into this job by doing certain cybersecurity courses or registering for various boot camps. These courses will help you understand how to identify and analyze data and its threats.
There are multiple tools and technologies that can be used to create strong security protocols in an organization. The most commonly used and top open-source SOC tools are stated as follows:
- Delta: This tool helps SOC Analysts to detect the possible issues and threats in a software-defined network and can stop hackers from accessing your networks. It can analyze both known and unknown network issues.
- Honeynet: It helps SOC professionals to understand some of the common attacking patterns used by hackers. It then designs strategies to protect the security systems and safeguard the assets.
- Lynis: It is a common tool used for UNIX systems. It helps experts to monitor and perform utilities on the UNIX platform to identify their configurations and vulnerabilities.
- Ettercap: It is one of the best tools for testing man-in-the-middle attacks. It helps to understand the response to cyber-attacks.
- Malte go: This tool offers a huge transformation library that helps deal with potential security threats. It is generally used for data mining and link analysis.
- Infection Monkey: This tool keeps track of the events that can happen if any hacker tries to gain unauthorized access to your security system.
- Snort: This tool installs an intrusion detection and prevention system that helps analysts perform real-time cyber-attack analysis.
- Vega: It is a web security scanner and a testing platform that runs a check on the different web applications and other similar problems in scripting.
- OpenVAS: It is a scanner whose purpose is to identify the company assets and anomalies that may make the network open to vulnerabilities and cyber-attacks.
- Nagios: This tool allows the SOC Analysts to completely monitor the security networks, connected servers, and infrastructure.
SOC Analyst Career Path
You must be wondering if you become a SOC Analyst then how much salary can you expect to earn even if you step into this field of work? Will it be productive for you in the coming years or not? So here is the answer to your dilemma:
SOC Analyst Salary
Here is the salary range which you can earn based on your level of experience:
- As a Fresher: At the entry-level, you can expect to earn an average annual salary of $81,787. This salary range will continue till you gain at least 3 years of experience.
- With Minimum Experience: SOC Analysts in the mid-level earn an average salary of $90,537 per year.
- Senior Level: With years of experience working as a SOC Analyst, after 10 to 14 years of work experience, you can expect to earn an annual salary of $1,19,749 every year.
Industry Growth
A SOC Analyst has an exciting career with many opportunities to excel and progress. It is a rewarding career option with plenty of job titles and opportunities. you only have to have the right side of skills and knowledge to reach the peak of your career along with relevant experience. As the business industry is completely focused on becoming technologically dependent, they are having more and more SOC Analysts so that they can protect the security of their computer systems and sensitive data. Thus, it is a great career choice in recent times, and it will only flourish in the coming years.
SOC Analyst Certification and Training
A basic requirement of being a SOC Analyst is to have a bachelor's degree in computer science or Computer engineering and gain some practical experience in relevant roles. Apart from that, you can do the following certification courses to make your resume a better one than your competitors:
- Cisco Certified CyberOps Associate: It will enlighten you with the real-world tasks that are performed in the SOC environment.
- EC-Council Certified SOC Analyst (CSA): It is a short course that is beneficial for SOC Analysts at the entry-level.
- EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker: It teaches to identify tools used by hackers, emerging attack vectors, and practical experience in malware identification, analysis, etc.
- CompTIA Security+: It gives proper training to the candidates for performing the entire security life cycle in modern IT environments.
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Conclusion
Now you know what SOC Analyst means, their career opportunities, job descriptions, and roles and responsibilities of a SOC Analyst. If you want to choose this flourishing discipline as your career, then enroll yourself for KnowledgeHut best CISSP course that will help you to gain in-depth knowledge and insights about what you will have to do as a SOC Analyst and how you can protect sensitive data and information of your company.
