Security Operations Center

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What Does Security Operations Center Mean?

A Security Operations Center (SOC) is a strategic command center facility for fighting cyberattacks through monitoring, threat analysis and more. The implication is that the SOC is generally a physical location in which to house professionals and cybersecurity assets.

Techopedia Explains Security Operations Center

As a best practice, the SOC is part of a greater context involving threat evaluation and assessment. Companies are encouraged to analyze metrics such as dwell time for threat incidents, while also doing complex damage control when a data breach or other attack occurs.

All of this leads to the promotion of a central repository for cybersecurity assets, and that's what the SOC represents, whether it's a physical facility or a collaborative paradigm that involves remote work. The latter setup is unpopular partly because of the more robust collaboration that can go on any physical security operations center.

Look for the SOC to continue to be a fundamental element of cybersecurity as private businesses and governments work to protect sensitive data and network environments from harm.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.

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