In today’s fast-changing cyber threat landscape, threats are common and can harm the systems in no time; having the knowledge about the correct SOC tools is important. A SOC is a centralized team having three tiers that perform different functions, such as monitoring, detecting, investigating, and responding to cyber threats as soon as possible.

A SOC can’t function effectively without using specialized tools or equipment such as SIEM (Security Information and Event Management), SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response), and IDS/IPS (Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems).

In this blog, we’ll discover some of the powerful tools on which the SOC is dependent. Understanding these tools is essential for anyone managing or building a modern SOC.

So, without further delay, let’s dive into the blog!

Why are tools important in a SOC?

Before understanding the tools in SOC, we need to understand, “Why are tools essential?”.

An organization needs specialized tools to protect its data and systems, as they can be leaked or damaged. The tools help reduce the work and allow the SOC to work in a smarter manner.

Here’s why tools are essential:

  •  It helps in finding the threat quickly; tools such as SIEM and IDS help the analysts to check the system and respond whenever something strange happens.
  •  It helps in responding to the threat at a faster rate; tools like SOAR can stop the attacks automatically.
  •  Tools help in showing all the data in one dashboard, which helps the analysts to not miss anything.
  • SOC tools help in spotting, stopping, and understanding the cyberattacks before they cause any damage

Tools used in Security Operation Center

soc tools

SIEM (Security Information and Event Management)

We’ll begin with SIEM, one of the most widely used tools in any modern Security Operations Center.

What is SIEM?

Security Information and Event Management is one of the most important and widely used tools in cybersecurity. It’s just like the brain of the SOC, as its main job is to collect and analyze logs and data across an organization’s network. It’s a combination of SIM (security information management) and SEM (security event management) functions into one security management system.

Some Key Benefits of SIEM: Live Alerts, Meeting Rules, and One-Stop Monitoring

SIEM tools provide several advantages for a SOC.

Let’s understand step-by-step:

  • Quick Alerts: This helps the security team to respond quicker and faster to any threat that may cause damage in the future.
  • Compliance: This helps with meeting rules and regulations needed in an SOC, such as GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI-DSS.
  • One-Stop Monitoring: This helps in recording all the data in one place. This helps in making it easier for the teams to monitor everything, find out threats, and make rapid decisions.

Popular SIEM Tools You Can Explore

SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response)

SOAR stands for Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response. Let’s understand what it means and some key benefits.

What is SOAR?

As we discussed above, SOAR stands for Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response. SOAR is an intelligent tool used in cybersecurity that offers a smart way to handle the threats. It helps in automating the steps involved in handling alerts, investigations, and responding to threats, which saves time and effort. Simply, SOAR helps the SOC to work smarter, at a quicker pace, and with less human effort during incident response.

SOAR Benefits: Smarter Automation, Rapid Response, and Reducing SOC Fatigue

SOAR offers a variety of benefits to the teams and those who work in a SOC.

The three main advantages of SOAR are

  • Security Automation: This helps us automate the tasks like answering to the alerts, collecting data, or blocking strange users. This saves time and helps the team to pay attention to more serious issues.
  • Incident Response: Another benefit of SOAR is rapid response. SOAR follows a playbook so that it can respond to the issues at a faster pace.
  • Reduces Analysts Fatigue: This helps in reducing the pressure on analysts and helps in saving some time. The security team gets tired from handling several alerts 24/7.

Popular SOAR Tools You Can Explore:

IDS/IPS (Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems)

IDS/IPS stands for Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems. Let’s understand what IDS/IPS is and what the key benefits of this tool are.

What is IDS/IPS?

IDS/IPS are the important parts of the network security tools. Both the systems monitor the traffic on your network and search for the signs of hacking, viruses, or other strange behaviors. Intrusion detection systems (IDS) can detect the threat and respond to the security team, whereas intrusion prevention systems (IPS) can take action to block these threats. These tools help the businesses networks to be safe. In short, these tools protect the companies from cyber threats.

Some key advantages of IDS/IPS

IDS/IPS provides several advantages for increasing the network security.

  • Intrusion detection systems: They provide quick warning about a strange activity with the help of intrusion detection systems. This helps in finding the threat before it causes any damage.
  • Intrusion prevention systems: They can end the attack automatically and help decrease the risk of loss of information.
  • Incident Response: They help us to strengthen our incident response, help reduce the manual efforts, and help in creating a secure IT environment.

Popular IDS/IPS Tools You Can Explore

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

EDR stands for Endpoint Detection and Response. Let’s have a brief overview of what Endpoint Detection and Response is and what its key benefits are.

What is Endpoint Detection and Response?

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) is an endpoint security solution that helps protect different systems, servers, and other networking devices—these are known as endpoints. The main job of EDR tools is to detect, investigate, and respond to strange activities. EDR tools watch over your devices 24/7 and help find hidden threats. In short, EDR adds an extra layer of smart protection to keep the systems safe and secure.

Key Benefits of Endpoint Detection and Response

EDR tools offer strong and safe protection to all the devices that are connected to the network. One major advantage of EDR is that it provides full visibility to the security teams so that they can have a clear view of each device in real time. This benefit helps them to find out suspicious behavior. Another benefit is that it can also respond automatically to spot threats, for example, automatic device isolation or stopping suspicious activities before they damage the systems. This quick and rapid response to the threat is the main advantage of endpoint detection and response.

Popular EDR Tools You Can Explore

Threat Intelligence Platform (TIP)

TIPs stand for Threat Intelligence Platform. Let’s understand what a Threat Intelligence Platform is and what its key advantages are in SOC.

What is a Threat Intelligence Platform (TIP)?

Threat Intelligence Platform (TIP) is a tool that is used by security teams to collect information and manage information about the cyberattacks. This tool collects data from the threat feeds.

(Threat Feeds: Threat feeds include the information from various sources. This provides updates about known threats like malware, phishing, and hacking.

The TIP helps to keep the information in one place so it’s easy to understand and use the data in a better way. TIP helps the analysts to have complete knowledge about the dangers and helps them to take better action when a threat appears.

Benefits of TIPs

The Threat Intelligence Platform offers many advantages for security purposes.

  • Firstly, they help in bringing all the information about the cyberattacks in one place, which helps in saving time and avoids missing any important update.
  • Secondly, TIPs also improve the IOC management by automatically organizing and updating threat indicators. This helps other tools such as SIEM and EDR in blocking attacks more effectively.
  • Lastly, using TIP in a Security Operation Center decreases false alarms and helps the teams to focus on more real threats.

Popular TIP Tools  You Can Explore

Interested in learning more about cyber threats?
Check out my other blog where I dive deep into different types of cyber threats and how to stay protected —Click here

Conclusion

To build a strong and secure Security Operation Center (SOC), depending on one tool isn’t enough. Tools such as SIEM, SOAR, IDS/IPS, EDR, and TIP each add on a different layer of protection. For instance, SIEM is used for monitoring, SOAR is used for automation, network protection is ensured by IDS/IPS, EDR’s main job is device-level security, and TIPs are for collecting and managing the data about cyber threats in one place. Together these Cybersecurity monitoring tools can detect, investigate, and respond to threats in a better way. Today’s modern SOC technology helps you to pick different tools that help you and your organization to grow over time.

In simple words, if you use these top SOC tools together, then it helps your team to stay alert, spot threats, and help your systems to stay safe and secure.