In a SOC (security operations center), alerts originating from hundreds of systems compete to get attention. What ensues is a security analyst’s battle to beat alert fatigue while effectively defending their organization from cybersecurity threats.
Alert fatigue is a major challenge faced by security operations center (SOC) teams. The stakes are even higher since they take on the enormous responsibility of maintaining networks and data systems. One small, fatigue-induced negligence can compromise an organization’s IT infrastructure.
In this blog, we’ll take a look at key strategies that can be implemented by SOC teams to combat alert fatigue, improve security alert visibility and drive faster resolution to vulnerabilities.
A SOC is the central nervous system to an organization’s security processes and provides detailed visibility into end-to-end IT infrastructures. It allows you to monitor, evaluate, and respond to cybersecurity threats across your organization with increased efficacy. A SOC ecosystem ingests telemetric data from information systems and continuously monitors for threats.
SOC organizations consist of analysts, incident responders and threat hunters. Team members work collaboratively to prevent potential threats and neutralize cyberattacks. Teams are led by SOC managers that consistently monitor, detect and remediate security vulnerabilities.
Organizations have well-defined hierarchies, escalation policies and fallback systems in place. SOC level 1 analysts monitor security information and event management (SIEM) systems. They will triage and alert level 2 colleagues if a real, time-sensitive incident is identified.
Remediation is generally carried out by level 2 analysts. SOC level 3 members operate on a more strategic level, identifying system vulnerabilities and security gaps.
SIEM systems aggregate telemetry data in a single pane of glass with real-time analysis. SOC teams utilize SIEM platforms to gain detailed observability into critical infrastructures. SIEM improves visibility and accelerates security investigations.
A SIEM system collects logs and event data from applications and IT infrastructures, enabling SOC teams to gain a holistic view of the system. When a metric falls outside of a specified range, these systems create an incident and trigger an email notification.
Next-gen SIEM systems dig through large amounts of data in milliseconds and generate actionable insights into suspected intrusions. They’re also able to store and manage log data to meet auditing compliance.
SOC teams are measured by how swiftly they’re able to detect and contain a cybersecurity incident. To effectively do their jobs, teams must keep up with the evolving threat landscape and expanding digital assets.
Two major impediments for teams in responding to threats include:
Addressing talent scarcity requires more strategic intervention. For instance, organizations can invest in training and talent development programs to attract and retain top cybersecurity talent.
Strategies that organizations can adopt to reduce alert fatigue include:
Modern alerting solutions, such as OnPage’s incident management platform, eliminates the need for constant monitoring of security systems and emails. OnPage provides an “Alert-Until-Read” mobile application that triggers loud, intrusive push notifications to an engineer’s smartphone. OnPage alerts can also be sent to email, SMS and phone call.
By following the strategies discussed in this post and complementing them with a powerful alerting solution, SOC teams can improve security alert visibility and team collaboration to drive faster incident resolution.
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