What Is a SOC (Security Operations Center)?
The team and tooling that watch security alerts around the clock.
A SOC, or security operations center, is a team of security analysts, supported by monitoring and analysis tools, that watches an organization's systems 24 hours a day for signs of attack and responds when one is found. Large enterprises build their own. Most businesses get the same capability by subscribing to SOC-as-a-service through their IT provider.
What a SOC does
- Collects telemetry from endpoints, firewalls, servers, identity systems and cloud platforms.
- Correlates it, usually with a SIEM platform, to spot patterns a single tool would miss. See what is SIEM.
- Triages alerts to separate real incidents from noise.
- Responds by isolating devices, disabling accounts and blocking traffic, often through managed detection and response. See what is MDR.
- Hunts for threats that did not trigger an alert. See what is threat hunting.
- Reports on incidents and trends.
SOC vs MDR vs SIEM
The SOC is the team and the operation. MDR is a service the SOC delivers. SIEM is one of the tools the SOC uses. In practice, a business buying "SOC-as-a-service" is getting all three.
Why a small or mid-sized business needs one
Attacks happen on nights, weekends and holidays because that is when nobody is looking. Endpoint tools raise alerts; without a SOC, those alerts wait until Monday. A SOC turns a weekend of undetected lateral movement into a ten-minute containment.
What to ask a provider
Is coverage truly 24/7/365? Who responds, and how fast? What sources do they monitor (endpoints only, or identity and cloud too)? Is response included or just notification?
Mentis Group's Enhanced Cybersecurity program includes a 24/7/365 security operations center with SIEM, MDR and Cloud MDR for Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, layered on top of the protections in our managed IT services.
Have a question about your own environment? Schedule a consultation with Mentis Group or call (866) 901-7808.