You work as a SOC architect/designer and are obtaining the technical requirements from the customer, a multinational organization with a limited budget that must adhere to multiple security standards. They have dedicated and experienced cybersecurity staff, but they struggle to keep up with threat monitoring and analysis. Which solution is the most secure?

For a multinational organization with a limited budget that must adhere to multiple security standards and is struggling with threat monitoring and analysis, the most comprehensive and secure solution would be a hybrid SOC. This approach integrates aspects of threat-centric, standards-based, and operations-based SOCs, providing a more balanced and flexible solution.

Here’s why a hybrid SOC could be the most secure solution for this customer:

• Threat-centric elements would enhance the organization’s capability to detect and respond to threats, addressing their current struggle with threat monitoring and analysis.
• Standards-based elements would ensure that the multinational organization remains compliant with the multiple security standards it needs to adhere to, which is crucial for legal and regulatory reasons.
• Operations-based elements would maintain the essential security operations necessary for day-to-day protection of the organization’s infrastructure.

A hybrid SOC can provide a tailored solution that matches the organization’s needs, leveraging their existing experienced cybersecurity staff while providing support and enhancement in areas where they are currently limited. The key to a successful hybrid SOC in this scenario is to ensure that it can be implemented within the limited budget and structured in such a way that it maximizes the efficacy of their in-house team by offloading some of the monitoring and analysis workload. This could potentially be achieved through a mix of in-house operations and outsourcing or partnering with a service provider for certain aspects of the SOC functions.