How do you implement and follow a consistent and structured SOC incident response process?

Establishing a Security Operations Center and incident response process begins with setting a mission and vision, providing direction and purpose. The mission details the SOC's objectives like safeguarding digital assets, while the vision defines success. Establishing guiding principles is next, forming the SOC's operational foundation, focusing on proactive threat detection and ethical practices. A skilled team with diverse cybersecurity and crisis management skills is then assembled. The final step involves developing the SOC framework, setting goals to reduce response times, improve incident analysis, and enhance team coordination, while also defining the scope, roles, team responsibilities, and compliance requirements.

The first decision we must consider when implementing a SOC in our company is risk appetite and cost! That is, we must first think about whether we want to implement in-house or outsource the service since the number of employees needs to be significant, as we will have to have monitoring 24 hours a day, seven days a week throughout the year. So, before we think about goals and scope, let's discuss what I mentioned.

Defining specific goals, such as minimizing mean time to detect and respond to incidents, enhancing incident analysis accuracy, and optimizing communication and collaboration among SOC stakeholders, provides a structured framework for effective incident response planning and execution.

It's important to understand the industry that the SOC is supporting, i.e., what are the most significant threats to the organization. Once this is established, you can begin to drill down into what the best triage and escalation protocols are for by hazard type.

Define clear roles and responsibilities for each team member. Conduct regular tabletop exercises to simulate incident scenarios and test the response process. Use red team exercises to identify weaknesses and improve response capabilities. Create detailed incident response policies and procedures, outlining steps for detection, analysis, containment, eradication, recovery. Create Playbook with detailed initial triage steps, prioritization criteria, in-depth analysis procedures, containment strategies, steps to remove threats. Conduct post-incident reviews, document lessons learned, and update policies.

Drafting detailed incident response policies and procedures ensures consistency and clarity in executing incident response activities, including defining incident classification criteria, establishing notification and escalation protocols, outlining documentation and reporting standards, and implementing post-incident review mechanisms for continuous improvement.

Both frameworks are widely used and have proven effective in incident response. After choosing one of the frameworks mentioned, we must adopt the Mitre Att&ck knowledge base so that the team is aware and have better efficiency in recognizing incidents and also ensure that it is part of our process. We must combine the Mitre Framework with the other adopted one. Consider conducting a risk assessment and evaluating your organization's resources and capabilities. Also, involve key stakeholders, including IT, security teams, legal, and management, in decision-making to ensure that the chosen framework aligns with your organization's goals and objectives.

A practical response framework should first consider any relevant regulatory or industry guidance. However, this is only the starting point. To be truly effective, protocols for incident notification and escalation criteria must be established that align with the organization's goals. For example, is the effectiveness of timing of response to limit impacts to employees and assets the most important to the organization? Or, is determining the damage to impact employees or continuity the most essential elements? Or is minimizing the interruption or level of harm to the customer journey paramount to the company? It could be a combination of these elements. Regardless, the framework should reflect these goals.

Providing targeted training programs ensures that SOC personnel and relevant stakeholders possess the requisite skills, knowledge, and awareness to fulfill their roles effectively within the incident response process, fostering a culture of preparedness and collaboration.

Customize training programs to address their specific needs and tasks. For example, technical staff might need hands-on training with security tools, while management might require a high-level overview of incident response processes. We need to provide regular training sessions and real-life scenarios remembering to do a tabletop exercise with everyone involved, including the human resources and communication team and placing to do a tabletop exercise with everyone involved, including the human resources and communication team.

You should be able to carry out your incident response process effectively, establishing and adhering to a consistent and well-organized SOC incident response process involves executing your incident response plan. This entails actively monitoring your network and systems for any indicators of potential or ongoing incidents, and utilizing incident response tools and methodologies to identify, investigate, and counteract them. Also, it involves adhering to your incident response policies and protocols to categorize and prioritize incidents, quickly notifying and escalating them to the relevant personnel, thoroughly documenting and reporting the events, and ultimately containing and eliminating the threats.

We must follow several steps to review and improve the plans we have in place. Initially, we must collect data on past incidents handled by our SOC. This should include incident reports, response times, containment and eradication efforts, and post-incident analyses or reviews. We need to Look for patterns or recurring issues across multiple incidents, compare against the incident response plan, review the tools used at least annually, assess team performance using KPIs, listen to feedback from stakeholders, document changes and lessons learned and keep everything updated.

Monitoring and evaluating the performance and efficacy of your SOC incident response process, along with assessing the satisfaction and feedback of your SOC team and stakeholders, are vital aspects. Periodic audits and reviews of the SOC incident response process are equally essential to guarantee its efficiency and effectiveness. These evaluations also ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, reinforcing the integrity of your incident response practices. By consistently refining and optimizing your incident response readiness, your organization can be well-prepared to proactively and confidently tackle any potential threats or security incidents.

Remember the human side. A SOC can be a very stressful environment high turnover of people, do the math and see if it's worth it. Implementing a SOC as a service can often be better than in-house. Consider all factors and listen to the human resources team's experience.