What is the Difference Between SIEM and SOC

In a secure environment, it’s essential for businesses to monitor network traffic, network appliances, and the cybersecurity technology responsible for protecting corporate data and resources. Without monitoring, businesses would be unaware if a security device failed or cyber-criminals breached protections and began exfiltrating data. Malware would also go undetected, which makes it critical to log, analyze, and respond to these events using a combination of SOC and SIEM tools. A Security Operations Center (SOC) and a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) platform are complementary but distinct components in a security architecture. They work together to help corporations prevent data breaches and alert them to potential ongoing cyber-events.

What is a SOC?

In a data center or large enterprise environment, a SOC is necessary for network security. The SOC is often a physical room within the organization’s office where several employees continually monitor network traffic, alerts, and visualized information that could be used to respond to a potential cyber-incident. The SOC focuses on the security of IT infrastructure using real-time analytics from various systems and security logs, rather than on network performance and utilization, which makes it distinct from a Network Operation Center (NOC). However, SOC and NOC employees could be housed in the same physical location.

SOC and SOC engineers perform a few standard functions:

• 24/7 continual monitoring across the entire environment
• Preventative maintenance and deployment of cybersecurity appliances
• Alert ranking to determine priority during incident response
• Threat response when a cyber-threat is found
• Containment and eradication of discovered threats
• Root-cause analysis after a cyber-incident
• Assessment and management of compliance for various regulations
  

SOC engineers work directly with a SIEM platform to analyze network traffic and security logs. In the context of SOC and SIEM working together, the SIEM acts as the analytical backbone of a SOC, turning raw telemetry into actionable insights.

Employees who make up the SOC team have a range of professional skills mainly in the cybersecurity industry. The number of team members depends on the business, but a SOC team could have forensics experts, security analysts, and cryptography and malware analysts, to name just a few of the professionals who work in a SOC.

During a cybersecurity incident, the SOC team will contain and analyze the threat to figure out what went wrong, why cyber-protections failed, and what can be done to avoid the issue in the future. They may also use automated tools or integrate with SIEM platforms to improve incident response and post-incident reporting. When comparing SIEM vs SOC, remember that the SOC houses the human expertise, while the SIEM provides the automation and data intelligence required to support their work.

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What is a SIEM?

A SIEM is a collection of cybersecurity components used to monitor network traffic and resources. From a user perspective, it’s a centralized dashboard of security information used to display alerts and suspicious network activity to a security analyst. It’s a platform containing:

• Log aggregation from multiple sources
• Threat intelligence
• Event correlation and organization for easier analysis
• Advanced analytics visualization
• Customizable dashboards for analytics
• Threat hunting features to find currently compromised resources
• Forensics tools for investigation after a cyber-incident
  

SIEM platforms are foundational to security operations, and many modern organizations are now exploring SIEM open source options to improve flexibility and reduce vendor lock-in.

SIEMs are typically implemented within SOC environments, acting as the data and analytics engine behind the scenes. One aspect of a SIEM not listed above is SOC automation. Some SIEM platforms integrate artificial intelligence (AI) to automate intrusion detection and prevention. A SOC analyst is still necessary for containment and eradication of the threat, but the SIEM will analyze network traffic, potentially block access, and send an alert to a security analyst to further research the event.

Complex and advanced threats are difficult to eradicate from an environment. An advanced persistent threat (APT) will set up backdoors and additional ways to exfiltrate data even after initial eradication. For example, some variants of ransomware will replicate themselves to storage across the network. If left on network storage, it can potentially reinfect the network and create another cyber-event that could impact data integrity. These threats are difficult to identify and completely remove from the environment, but a SIEM can help monitor and detect them so that analysts can remove the APT.

Actively searching for threats gives security analysts a way to find a compromise based on data collected in logs. Threat hunting features in a SIEM help with newly emerged threats that might be unknown. For example, a new variant of malware in the wild could currently be undetected by antivirus software, but a SIEM might detect unusual traffic probing a network resource and alert SOC analysts so that they can further look into the issue.

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What are some SOC challenges when working with a SIEM?

At first glance, a SIEM looks like an obvious solution for any enterprise in need of network security, but using a SIEM comes with its own set of challenges. These challenges can be overcome, but they should be considered before choosing the right solution.

Depending on the number of monitored resources, a SIEM collects potentially thousands of events and aggregates the information in one location. Analysis of multiple resources in one location is a benefit for the SOC team, but the log files must be stored either locally or in the cloud. This means that the organization must have enough storage space to store the log data.

Too many false positives from a SIEM creates a phenomenon called analyst fatigue or analyst burnout. A SIEM that can analyze data and send alerts to the SOC team is beneficial, but too many false positives leave analysts apathetic to alerts. This issue is particularly common in organizations using inflexible or outdated tools, which is why many turn to modern or SIEM open source alternatives with better tuning capabilities. When analysts no longer trust the platform, they become desensitized to alerts and may miss critical ongoing threats from legitimate notifications.

Ultimately, the conversation around SIEM vs SOC is misleading—it's not a matter of one versus the other. SOC and SIEM are symbiotic, each playing a unique and vital role in modern security operations.

Alerts must also be specific enough so that the analyst knows the type of threat and can determine the right procedures that should be followed to contain it. The SOC team must configure the SIEM to give them the right alerts and detailed information so that they can quickly determine the right steps based on the type of threat detected.

Although a SIEM is not a requirement to have a SOC, the two cybersecurity strategies work together to protect internal resources. In the debate of SIEM vs SOC, the answer isn't either/or—you need both. Without a SIEM, a SOC team does not have the right tools to detect and contain threats effectively.