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Creating a Security Operations Centre (SOC) for your company is a multi-step process. You have to find a way to reduce costs and identify threats. There are several technologies and devices that you can use for building the SOC. Read on to find out some of the essential tools for SOC analyst.
Security technology components
While discussing the technology components that support the SOC, one has to put a strong emphasis on security. There is not a single detail that must be overlooked. This includes VPN, LAN segmentation, NAC, encryption of data, endpoints hardening, protection through IPSs/IDSs, routers, switches, and firewalls.
Since SOC is a team, you need collaboration tools that have been designed to provide the best user experience to the team members. In turn, the team will produce value for your business. The value here represents accomplishing the goals with the required security assurance needed for a SOC. While building your SOC, you cannot neglect mobile devices. You also have to focus on data loss prevention measures, from endpoint to servers. Now, let’s get into the essential SOC tools list.
Essential tools for a SOC
1. Forensic Toolkit (FTK)
This is a data imaging and research tool that can help you acquire data forensically. At the same time, it also creates copies of data while ensuring that there is no change to the original file. The imager features include creating forensic images of local hard drives, exporting folders and files from forensic files, and previewing the content stored on the local machine. Through this tool, you will also get the inbuilt checking function that creates a hash report for checking the evidence’s hash before and after the image of the original evidence was created.
2. Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tool
A SIEM tool can help you comply with global security standards. Most SIEM tools also come with a log manager that collects log messages from the system and consolidates the different formats so that they can be stored together and searched. It will come with a dashboard that can be used for checking all the live events on the screen. The analytics will help you look through the stored files and find pertinent security information. It will also protect your files from being tampered with.
However, it is important to note that a SIEM is also a threat intelligence feed. It will use past threat detection experience while searching through log messages to find indicators of attack. Combining this capability with the threat detection and log manager will get you one of the best SOC analyst tools.
If you want to avoid any tampering or infection, you need to place the SIEM isolated from the remaining system. Many SIEMs come with multiple deployment options. You can either install them on a hypervisor or host them on a virtual cloud server.
3. Network Miner
This is a network forensic analysis tool used by Windows. It also supports other OS like Mac OS, Linux, etc. This open-source, passive network capturing or sniffer tool can be used for detecting operating systems versions, open ports, hostnames, etc. The main benefit you will experience by using this tool is that it does its job without putting traffic on the network. It is also capable of passing pcap files for office analysis. Apart from this, it can reassemble or regenerate certificates from pcap files and other transmitted files.
With this tool at your disposal, you will have all the information needed for a forensic investigation. It offers the feature of live sniffing through which you can capture packets over the network. However, this feature is limited because of the buffer size.
4. Splunk
Splunk can be used for searching, analyzing, and visualizing machine data from applications, websites, computers, sensors, IoT devices, etc. It works by collecting, monitoring, and visualizing information in real-time. It can also remote forward the data so that you are able to get real insights. Needless to say, incorporating it into your SOC tools will make your job a lot easier. Given its importance, it is necessary to get the Splunk licensing done in the right way to avoid any discrepancies later.
Another great feature of this tool is the real-time Syslog analysis. It can be installed on any server, allowing you to monitor and understand the IP traffic, along with the number of people on your website and the action they are performing.
The Surprise enterprise version of the tool collects, indexes, and visualizes machine data. The Splunk cloud offers every feature of the enterprise in the cloud-based service. You will also get access to the Splunk IT Service Intelligence and have the Splunk ecosystem that helps you with the hybrid cloud model.
Designing and building a Security Operation Center is a holistic process. It requires continual improvement. You have to remember every aspect of security concerns, including reporting events, monitoring vulnerabilities continuously, collecting logs, and identifying security incidents. You also have to work on educating your employees so that they can optimize the SOC as per their needs.