Security Operations Centres: The Ultimate Defence Against Cyber Threats

With complex digital threats now occurring daily, cyber security has never been more crucial to the modern corporate world. The impact of a significant breach can have huge negative ramifications for your organisation’s reputation — and therefore your bottom line.

That’s why it’s crucial for businesses to prioritise and invest in cyber security protection. A Security Operations Centre (SOC) is essential for staying one step ahead of cybercriminals.

A SOC acts as your frontline defence, by actively identifying and reacting to threats in real time. The combination of advanced security technologies and an expert team can add significant value to your organisation, safeguarding your operations for years to come.

At DigitalXRAID, we’ve been a leading managed SOC service provider, protecting high profile brand and public sector organisations for more than 10 years.

In this ultimate guide to Security Operations Centres, we’ll break down what a SOC is, why it’s critical for your business, and how it works to protect you from cyberattacks.

Why Businesses Need a Security Operations Centre

In today’s evolving threat landscape, cyberattacks are becoming more frequent and sophisticated, making a Security Operations Centre (SOC) essential for modern businesses.

The Rising Threat Landscape & Cyber Attacks Targeting Businesses

Cyberattacks like ransomware, phishing scams, and insider threats are escalating. Recent studies revealed that ransomware attacks alone have surged by over 1885%, leaving many businesses vulnerable.

According to the latest Cyber Security Breaches Survey, released by the UK government, 39% of UK businesses identified cyberattacks within the last 12 months, highlighting an increased need for robust cybersecurity measures.

One alarming development is the rise of adaptive malware, a type of sophisticated attack capable of dynamically changing its code to avoid being detected by traditional security measures. Adaptive malware uses artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to bypass detection systems, making it harder for organisations to defend against these threats as they evolve. In recent news, the infamous Emotet malware has repeatedly adapted to traditional security defences, impacting thousands of businesses worldwide.

Phishing remains another critical concern, with attackers continuously refining their tactics. The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) reported a record number of 1,270,883 phishing attacks globally in just one quarter. These targeted attacks exploit human vulnerabilities, leading to devastating financial and reputational damage for targeted organisations.

Insider threats also can’t be ignored in the threat landscape. A Ponemon Institute study indicated that insider threats increased by 44% over the last two years, with incidents costing businesses an average of £9.6 million annually. These threats are often harder to detect and require advanced monitoring capabilities offered by a robust SOC.

Why a Proactive Defence is Critical in Modern Cybersecurity

Reactive measures are no longer enough in today’s fast moving cyber threat environment. As we’ve discussed, attackers now exploit vulnerabilities faster and more aggressively, leaving little time to respond effectively without proactive security measures.

Continuous threat monitoring and rapid response capabilities provided by SOCs ensure that threats are identified and neutralised within minutes, before causing damage. This reduces your potential downtime, financial losses, and reputational harm.

IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report found that organisations with proactive security measures, such as 24/7 SOC monitoring and advanced threat detection, reduced the average time to identify and contain a breach from 277 days down to just 200 days. Organisations leveraging these proactive approaches also reported an average reduction in breach costs of approximately £1.2 million compared to those relying on reactive methods.

According to a study by Verizon, businesses with comprehensive, proactive SOC capabilities detected and mitigated cyber threats up to 50% faster, drastically reducing potential downtime, financial losses, and reputational damage.

Ultimately, having a proactive SOC in place enables your organisation to stay ahead of evolving threats, ensuring continuous protection against even the most sophisticated cyberattacks.

How a Managed SOC Strengthens Security & Compliance

A managed SOC provides businesses with constant threat monitoring, effective incident response, and helps meet crucial regulatory standards and frameworks, including ISO 27001, NIS2, and DORA.

Outsourcing these functions allows your team to focus on strategic objectives while still ensuring compliance.

What is a Security Operations Centre (SOC)?

A Security Operations Centre (SOC) – sometimes referred to as a Cyber Security Operations Centre – monitors cyber threats, detects any suspicious activity and ultimately protects businesses against cyberattacks.

A Security Operations Centre unifies threat detection, prevention and response capabilities with technology, tooling and business operations. A SOC is made up of a team of security analysts who will monitor and analyse security risk on a 24/7 basis plus utilise a range of advanced tooling to detect and respond to cyber security incidents in real time.

A Security Operations Centre should be the key piece in any company’s cyber security strategy.

A SOC is a centralised unit within a business that manages and oversees everything related to cybersecurity and the protection of the company’s digital assets. It continuously monitors potential threats, identifies suspicious activity, and deploys threat response to prevent or mitigate any potential security breaches.

A SOC is an integral part of an organisation’s incident management processes. It enables the early detection and identification of potential threats, while also playing a decisive role in any response, both proactive and reactive. A SOC will have an extremely well-defined set of processes and procedures regarding any incidents, enabling swift action to minimise the impact of a security breach on the business.

The Role of a SOC in Continuous Threat Monitoring & Response

A Security Operations Centre continuously monitors network activities, using advanced tools to detect anomalies, threats, and vulnerabilities. Skilled analysts rapidly respond to any detected incidents, mitigating risks before they escalate.

Typically, a SOC monitors all sources of traffic across the network and any user activities to detect suspicious activity or anomalies.

Event logs and activity from cloud environments, network infrastructure, devices, applications, and databases are gathered to build a thorough picture of the organisation’s security posture.

For a Cyber Security Operations Centre to best fulfil its purpose, it requires a constant influx of data. This can be log data in the form of:

Network and DNS logs
Firewall and intrusion detection/prevention logs
Email and web logs
Database activity logs
Event logs
And many more

The collected data is analysed by SOC analysts, using tooling and threat intelligence platforms. At all times of the day or night, any threat detected for remediation is responded to before it can cause any disruption to business operations, or damage to reputation.

How a SOC Detects, Investigates & Mitigates Cyber Threats

SOCs utilise technologies such as SIEM (Security Information and Event Management), behavioural analytics, and AI-driven security tools to detect threats in real-time. Analysts investigate alerts, determining the root cause, isolating compromised assets, and swiftly neutralising threats to minimise impact.

For most Security Operations Centres, the core technology or tool used for monitoring, detection and response is SIEM, however as capabilities evolve, more detailed telemetry and monitoring tooling has become available. Advanced extended detection and response (XDR) technology expands on traditional SIEM functions and can automate actions for incident response for a faster neutralisation of an attack.

The SOC service will analyse any suspicious activity that has been identified. It is not enough to simply view the log files of a SIEM tool. The security analyst needs to have enough experience to be able to interpret log data accurately. The key in this phase is whether any part of the IT infrastructure has been accessed successfully. They will then work to interpret this data carefully so that they have actionable information.

Once the investigation is complete and a plan has been identified to contain the threat using data driven analysis, the issue must then be remediated. This could include isolating endpoints, closing down permissions to edit or delete files, terminating processes that could be harmful and ensuring that attackers are not able to move laterally through the network.

Why a SOC is More Than Just a Set of Tools – The Human Expertise Behind It

While advanced tools are crucial, human expertise can’t be replaced with software and automation.

A successful SOC combines a suite of advanced technology and tooling coupled with the expertise of a skilled team of professionals to provide complete defence against even the most advanced threats.

Experienced analysts interpret data, manage responses, and proactively hunt threats. Their expertise ensures the effectiveness and efficiency of cybersecurity operations beyond automated tools alone.

There are some key roles that a Security Operations Centre (SOC) must include:

SOC manager – overseeing the whole operation and liaising directly with the CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) for any reporting to the board
SOC analysts – also known as security analysts or incident responders. These are the team members who are on the front line detecting and responding to cyber security threats

It may also include Threat Hunters who specialise in advanced threats and offensive cyber security techniques and a range of junior to senior positions working alongside each other.

Managed SOC vs In-House SOC: Why Outsourcing is the Smart Choice

While some businesses consider building an in-house SOC, outsourcing to a managed SOC provider like DigitalXRAID offers greater efficiency, expertise, and cost-effectiveness.

Cost & Resource Challenges of Building an Internal SOC

Building an internal SOC requires significant investment in infrastructure, tools, and highly skilled personnel. Initial setup alone can cost upwards of £500,000, with ongoing expenses for salaries, training, and technology upgrades.

The Complexity of Maintaining 24/7 Threat Monitoring

Providing continuous security monitoring in-house requires significant resources, including managing shift patterns, preventing analyst burnout, and effectively addressing alert fatigue.

Building a Security Operations Centre team to monitor threats 24/7/365 is not easy with skills and funds in short supply. Let alone the expense of the tooling and technology.

That’s why many companies are choosing to outsource their Security Operations Centre to a specialist provider. Outsourcing ensures your organisation receives uninterrupted, expert security coverage.

Why a Managed SOC Provides Greater Scalability & Expertise

Partnering with a Security Operations Centre service provider makes cyber security a priority without over spending on in-house tools. It can also free up time for executive leaders to focus on building their business. A service provider will take care of security monitoring, vulnerability and malware detection, managed detection and response, threat monitoring, incident response, security audits, and much more.

Managed SOC providers offer access to a larger, more experienced team of analysts, scalable resources, and a range of advanced tools that individual businesses might find cost prohibitive. With a managed SOC, organisations can scale their security measures efficiently as their business needs evolve.

Key Features of a High-Performing Managed SOC

Security Operations Centres can provide the level of advanced security protection needed to address modern cyber security challenges.

A Security Operations Centre will bring assurance to the business that cyberattacks will be detected and prevented in real-time. SOC analysts can respond faster, protect customer and sensitive data, while costing less than the cost of lost business and fines associated with an attack. The service will:

Provide proactive, 24/7 threat detection and incident response.
Monitor and manage firewall and intrusion prevention systems/intrusion detection systems
Help with patch management and whitelisting
Provide deep analysis of security log data from various sources across the business
Analyse, investigate and document security trends
Investigate security breaches to understand the root cause of attacks and prevent future breaches
Enforce security policies and procedures

The benefits are hard to put a price on because they quite literally keep your business running.

Real-Time Threat Intelligence & Incident Response

Using real-time threat intelligence, SOCs identify and mitigate threats immediately, reducing response times and preventing breaches from escalating.

Advanced Security Technologies & SIEM Integration

A high-performing SOC integrates advanced technologies including SIEM, endpoint detection and response (EDR), AI-driven security analytics, and proactive threat hunting capabilities, providing comprehensive cybersecurity.

Compliance Support (ISO 27001, DORA, NIS2, etc.)

Managed SOC providers help businesses navigate and comply with complex regulatory frameworks such as DORA and NIS2, and information security frameworks such as ISO 27001, streamlining compliance efforts and ensuring readiness for audits.

24/7 Security Operations & Proactive Threat Hunting

Continuous monitoring and proactive threat hunting ensure threats are identified and addressed promptly, safeguarding critical assets around the clock.

How DigitalXRAID’s Managed SOC Protects Businesses

A well-managed and effective SOC is a necessity for modern businesses. However, as discussed, they take time and money to build and implement properly in-house. As a technology agnostic provider, DigitalXRAID offers a bespoke approach that’s specifically tailored to your business’s needs. We bring decades of experience in the field, with a team of experts available to provide 24/7 security.

We make sure all of your systems are not only secure, but that they meet any of the complex regulatory compliance that may exist within your industry. We understand that every business is unique, and make sure that the SOC we build for you fits your specific needs.

DigitalXRAID goes beyond conventional security, offering tailored solutions, rapid response, and continuous vigilance that stands up against modern day cybercriminals.

DigitalXRAID’s Approach to Cyber Threat Detection & Response

The service uniquely supplies the complete spectrum of AI-driven advanced threat detection and response capabilities and XDR (extended detection and response). The service includes vulnerability management, IDS & IPS, threat mining, SOAR (Secure Orchestration and Response), SIEM & log management, endpoint detection and response, file integrity monitoring, dark web monitoring and full compliance reporting. As a fully managed security service, customers don’t need to update or configure any tooling.

Our proactive approach identifies and neutralises even the most severe threats in around 8 minutes, dramatically reducing risks to your organisation.

Considering the advanced and evolving nature of modern cyberattacks, having robust incident response plans is vital. We employ our rapid detection and response capabilities to minimise downtime and any impact it could have on your business. Our 24/7 proactive monitoring provides round the clock support, so that you can get on with running your business, safe in the knowledge that you’re protected by some of the most advanced technologies and experts in the industry.

Case Study: How DigitalXRAID Stopped a Cyber Attack Before It Escalated

Just a few months after Lambert Smith Hampton selected DigitalXRAID as its SOC service provider, it experienced an attempted account compromise attack. DigitalXRAID identified the source and ingress point including any further activity from that particular IP address – all executed and neutralised within 10 minutes.

Within an hour, a full incident report had been delivered to Lambert Smith Hampton which could be shared with the board, detailing the 6 other accounts which had been attempted but failed due to the MFA enforcement during the incident response.

“Having dealt with large corporates for other security services in the past, we knew we needed a better fit for a service provider – one that understood our business and spoke our language.

DigitalXRAID has been a trusted partner since 2018. All areas of the business provide the tailored service, support and guidance that we need to enhance our security and our knowledge.”

Richard Todd, Information Security & Compliance Manager, Lambert Smith Hampton

Why Businesses Trust DigitalXRAID for Managed SOC Services

Organisations trust DigitalXRAID due to our industry-leading expertise, CREST and CHECK accreditations, including SOC and Incident Response, and ISO certifications (ISO 27001, ISO 9001, ISO 20000). Our impartial advice and proven track record of protecting businesses inspire confidence from our clients.

Strengthening Your Security with a Managed SOC

Partnering with a managed SOC provider like DigitalXRAID delivers your business unparalleled cybersecurity protection. You’ll gain access to a team of expert analysts and engineers, a range of cutting-edge technology, compliance support, and around-the-clock threat monitoring—all while significantly reducing your costs.

Next Steps: Secure Your Business with DigitalXRAID’s 24/7 Security Operations

Take control of your organisation’s cybersecurity today. Contact DigitalXRAID to discuss your security needs and learn how our managed SOC service can protect your business 24/7.

Get in touch to start safeguarding your business now.