As security operations leaders, we are burdened with a large responsibility. The expectation is that we can respond to alerts as soon as possible and be able to investigate immediately. It sounds simple, but in today’s cyber threat landscape we are faced with growing threat vectors and a sheer volume increase in overall alerts or notifications. Failure to respond quickly enough or investigate the right areas could result in huge impacts to the organizations we are responsible for. IDG reported that a majority of CIOs will focus on security this year and increase funding in this area, but what does that mean for security operations? Buy more tools? Get more alerts? Create more work for our overworked analysts and engineers?
We need to have a plan to build towards operational efficiency within the security operations center (SOC). More funding is always welcome, but spending it to show value is where we run into challenges. So, where do we start? I think this depends on the organization’s understanding of risk and where they stand with their risk acceptance today. We won’t know where all of our risks are, but we can get a better unders