As ransomware attacks surge and zero-day vulnerabilities hit record highs year after year, businesses increasingly turn to managed security services with established security operations centers (SOCs). The demand for real-time monitoring, advanced analytics, and proactive threat hunting from expert-level SOCs has never been more critical.
The Global Security Skills Shortage
The cybersecurity industry is at a crossroads. While threats grow in sophistication and frequency, the global shortage of skilled professionals is leaving businesses vulnerable. This challenge is felt acutely everywhere, but nowhere more so than in SOCs, which function as the nerve center of an entity’s defense against malicious actors. The shortage of talent is driving businesses to rethink how they approach cybersecurity, with many integrating SOC capabilities as a key component of comprehensive security solutions to address the gap.
In modern cybersecurity strategies, an effective SOC is a foundational element of a comprehensive security solution, including extended detection and response (XDR). It provides the operational backbone that enables these solutions to deliver effective detection, response, and threat mitigation. Evaluating the technology features can be straightforward, you need to find a tool that works with your current environments and IT stacks. But evaluating the expertise and processes you need to deliver the security outcomes that your environments require, can be more challenging.
“A modern multi-disciplined SOC requires specialists who can make sense of the telemetry they pull in,” says Josh Davies, Principal Technical Manager at Fortra’s Alert Logic notes. “But there just aren’t enough qualified people out there to fill these roles in organizations.” This is why many organizations rely on managed security services providers, leveraging solutions like MDR, to enhance internal security teams with broader expertise or to establish incident response processes that involve IT teams when necessary.
The numbers back this up. Industry reports estimate millions of unfilled cybersecurity roles worldwide, leaving internal security teams understaffed and overburdened. This shortage isn’t just about numbers — it’s about expertise. SOC professionals must navigate a complex ecosystem of advanced threats, manage incident response under tight timelines, and proactively hunt for zero-day and emerging threats that evade automated detection methods.
Adding to the issue is the pace of technological evolution which increases the attack surface that needs to be monitored. New attack vectors emerge daily, driven by sophisticated adversaries who leverage AI and automation to scale their efforts. Defending against these attacks requires highly trained, adaptable teams capable of understanding not just the technology but also the nuances of the organization’s specific risks.
Many organizations have neither the time nor the budget to hire and train a team of skilled cybersecurity professionals. Building a fully staffed in-house SOC with 24/7 monitoring capabilities is often out of reach — a gap that has led to a growing reliance on a SOC within a managed security services solution.
Incident Response: Quick Detection & Resolution
Incident response is a crucial core SOC function. When a cyberattack or breach happens, the SOC team must act quickly to detect, contain, and remediate the issue. According to Davies, “The primary tactical deliverable of a SOC is all about quick detection and alert triage. A good SOC doesn’t just send out alerts; it efficiently investigates alerts, and directs initial containment actions — within 15 minutes, ideally, to limit spread while investigation continues, and remediation plans are enacted.”
Incident response is time sensitive — the faster the response, the more likely it is that the damage can be mitigated. SOCs monitor and analyze incoming data for any signs of malicious activity, which might include anomalous behaviors, malware, or attempts to exploit vulnerabilities.
Once an incident is identified, the SOC team works with internal IT staff to validate the issue and assess its scope. Davies explains. “Your relationship with the SOC can’t be passive. When it really matters, you want your internal IT or security teams working closely with the managed security providers SOC team to get to the bottom of things quickly. Collaboration is key.”
According to Davies, clients of managed security solutions should anticipate regular communication from their SOCs to address potential issues before they escalate. For instance, if logging gaps are detected, the SOC should suggest adjustments to the organization’s configuration to ensure critical telemetry is captured. “Proactive communication fosters trust and reinforces the idea that the managed security solution’s SOC operates as an integral part of the organization’s security team, rather than as a detached service provider.”
For example, if a SOC detects unusual account creation activity, it may alert the company’s IT team to determine whether the changes were intentional. This collaboration enables quick differentiation between legitimate and malicious actions, accelerating investigations and helping to prevent escalation or potential disasters.
A significant benefit of a managed security solution SOC is its dedication to resolving incidents completely. Unlike services that limit investigation hours, a responsible detection and resolution solution provides unlimited SOC support, ensuring every incident is fully addressed without disruptions from service restrictions. This flexibility is especially crucial during active breaches, where any delay could determine whether the threat is contained or escalates into widespread damage.
This collaborative effort investigates all potential angles of an attack, implements appropriate remediation measures, and enables the business to swiftly resume normal operations.
The Ransomware Scourge
Ransomware is one of the most well-known threats, with extortion attempts making headlines weekly. Successful attackers often reinvest their ransom payments into enhancing their operations and techniques, further intensifying the issue. “All companies worry about ransomware. It remains one of the most pervasive and damaging threats organizations face. Recent statistics reveal over 90% of ransomware attacks target Windows workstations. Despite this focus, a glaring gap remains — standard Windows PowerShell logs often lack the detail needed to distinguish legitimate administrative activity from malicious behavior. Without proper visibility, internal IT teams risk overlooking early-stage ransomware propagation or lateral movement,” Davies says.
Threat actors frequently abuse PowerShell (a task automation framework used by system administrators) to execute payloads or compromise systems. Unfortunately, a standard PowerShell logging configuration doesn’t capture the commands executed, making it almost impossible to differentiate between legitimate IT PowerShell use and a malicious living off the land attack. This is a perfect example of why proactive visibility checks are needed, confirming you are logging and ingested key data that can trigger an investigation vs. missing an attack. While the adjustment to your domain controller’s logging configuration takes mere minutes, it delivers critical telemetry that SOCs can analyze for suspicious behavior. This is just one example of how managed SOCs leverage their expertise and extensive experience in securing multiple organizations to share insights and enhance visibility.
Threat Hunting: The Heart of Proactive Defense
Another defining feature of a modern MSS provider’s SOC is its shift toward threat hunting — evolving from reactive defense to uncovering potential threats lurking within the environment. Unlike traditional alert-driven responses, which rely on predefined triggers, proactive threat hunting takes the initiative, manually hunting through telemetry to identify red flags that may signal previously undetected malicious activity.
Structured threat hunting focuses on identifying threats that are prevalent common across all environments. This is accomplished by utilizing the latest threat intelligence on emerging threats, active campaigns and threat actors to hunt through historic data for evasive techniques favored by capable threat actors. Threat intelligence feeds are integrated into hunting dashboards and analysts evaluate indicators of compromise against historic data. Identified threats are escalated and responded to in the usual fashion. Finally, successful findings can be utilized to develop new or improve existing automated detection triggers.
Bespoke threat hunting takes this a step further by tailoring investigations to an organization’s unique environment and threat profile. This approach requires intimate knowledge of IT operations to identify organization specific threats, or even risks. The use cases are vast, ranging from pinpointing non-compliant devices and uncovering assets overdue for decommissioning to intensifying scrutiny of IT activities, exposing the stealthy, prolonged tactics of advanced persistent threats.
In 2023 alone, cybersecurity organizations reported record-breaking exploitation of zero-day vulnerabilities. Without proactive threat hunting, entities risk falling behind adversaries who constantly hone their techniques. Modern SOCs use every tool at their disposal — most often a combination of machine learning (ML), behavioral analytics, and expert intuition to detect threats that automated detection might miss. This level of insight transforms threat detection from a reactive to a strategic capability, enabling businesses to mitigate risks before they escalate.
Analytics and Correlation
Analytics and correlation serve as critical pillars of an effective security strategy in a modern provider’s SOC. A combination of agents, sensors, and API integrations collect vast amounts of data from various sources, including security tools, logs, network traffic, cloud environments, and user activity. Data is normalized and parsed so further intelligence can be applied through analytics.
By applying ML algorithms and behavioral analytics, the SOC can pinpoint patterns, detect anomalies, and correlate events across multiple systems to root out potential threats that might otherwise slip through the cracks. For example, unusual login patterns across geographies might seem innocuous on their own but can signal a coordinated intrusion attempt when viewed alongside anomalous file access logs.
This ability to unite all these data sources equips the provider’s SOC with a holistic view of multi-vector threats across the entire environment. Correlation helps identify connected threats and helps security practitioners prioritize events. By aggregating related alerts into cohesive narratives, SOCs should limit alert fatigue and focus on incidents that pose the highest risk to their customers.
For instance, when an advanced persistent threat (APT) actor attempts low and slow techniques to hide their actions such as patient lateral movement attempts within a network, analytics tools can consolidate key indicators — like privilege escalation, credential access, and unusual host communications — into a unified console which can easily be correlated by a SOC analyst. One of these actions could be passed up as a false positive, but when correlated, SOC can have confidence that the individual actions represent a valid threat when viewed together.
Leveraging advanced analytics and correlation, an MSS provider’s SOC transforms vast streams of raw data into actionable insights, enabling businesses anticipate possible threats, identify active threats and mitigate risks before they escalate.
Analytics also require tuning, which can be categorized as tactical reactive tuning during floods or feedback to an alert, or strategic proactive tuning where you able contextualized knowledge to identify tuning opportunities that can be discussed before being implemented. “Cry wolf too many times, and you lose credibility,” explains Davies. “By focusing on the nuances of an organization’s operations, you can cut false positives, build trust with IT teams, and improve response times.”
Laying the Groundwork for SOC Success
An effective SOC must have the right combination of advanced tools, skilled professionals, and streamlined processes to swiftly detect, respond to, and neutralize security threats. Tools such as advanced monitoring systems and proven threat detection software provide the technical foundation for real-time analysis and incident management. However, these tools alone are not sufficient; experienced professionals need to interpret alerts, make critical decisions, and handle complex security incidents. Structured processes, like incident response protocols and escalation paths, ensure consistency and efficiency in operations.
Additionally, the deployment phase for solutions integrating a provider’s SOC capabilities is vital. This involves configuring sensors, agents, and logging configurations across an organization’s environment to enable effective monitoring and response. However, the deployment also introduces challenges, particularly around security and access management.
Best practices dictate that SOC-integrated solutions, such as within MDR, should not involve granting unrestricted access to a company’s environment. Instead, customers should retain control over sensitive actions, with SOC analysts and security engineers providing guidance and validation. “For example, when deploying agents or configuring log settings, the engineering team can instruct IT administrators on the necessary steps, ensuring efficient and effective deployment that can be validated by a specialist,” says Davies.
To enhance deployment efficiency, consider leveraging automation to deploy agents and sensors in protected environments. Public cloud providers such as Azure and AWS offer services that simplify automated deployment, making it particularly advantageous for dynamic cloud workloads that can be spun up and down in a moment’s notice. Establishing a security deployment role enables rapid agent installation. Tools like AWS Systems Manager (SSM) facilitate swift installation of monitoring agents, while AWS CloudFormation can provision dedicated resources for security sensors, effectively mitigating security configuration drift in agile cloud environments.
Visibility underpins every security outcome of a SOC. If you cannot evaluate an asset for potential exposures or collect data to detect suspicious activity, you are left with a blind spot in your environment that significantly weakens your security posture. This is why deployment support and routine deployment health checks are essential. They enable a security partner to address visibility gaps that naturally emerge as technologies deviate from their original security monitoring configurations.
A Strategic Partner
A modern SOC is more than a monitoring center — it’s a strategic partner in the fight against cyber threats. With eagle-eye incident response tailored threat hunting, and smooth deployment support, SOCs integrated into a detection and response solution offer the expertise and capabilities organizations need to stay ahead of persistent adversaries.
The growing sophistication of cyber threats and the severe shortage of skilled professionals make strong SOCs more essential than ever. Managed security services that include a multi-faceted SOC provide the real-time monitoring, advanced analytics, and expert-level threat hunting that modern organizations need to protect against the rising tide of attacks. As the cybersecurity landscape continues to evolve, organizations must view a SOC not as a support function, but as an indispensable strategic ally in building a resilient security posture.
