Cyber Defense in SOC for Cybersecurity

This curriculum spans the design, operation, and governance of a security operations center at the level of a multi-workshop technical advisory program, covering architecture, detection engineering, incident response, and compliance activities comparable to those conducted during an enterprise SOC maturity assessment or internal capability build-out.

Module 1: SOC Architecture and Operational Design

• Selecting between centralized, decentralized, and hybrid SOC models based on organizational footprint and incident response latency requirements.
• Designing network segmentation to ensure SOC tools have access to critical data sources without introducing lateral movement risks.
• Integrating SIEM with existing logging infrastructure while managing data ingestion costs and retention policies.
• Establishing secure remote access protocols for SOC analysts working from untrusted networks.
• Defining escalation paths and handoff procedures between Tier 1 analysts and incident response teams.
• Documenting runbooks for common alert types to standardize initial triage and reduce mean time to acknowledge.

Module 2: Threat Intelligence Integration and Application

• Mapping external threat intelligence feeds to MITRE ATT&CK techniques for relevance to the organization’s environment.
• Filtering and normalizing intelligence from multiple sources to reduce false positives in detection rules.
• Implementing automated IOC ingestion into EDR and firewall systems while validating source reliability.
• Assigning ownership for tracking threat actor TTPs relevant to the industry vertical.
• Conducting quarterly reviews of intelligence feed efficacy based on detection contribution metrics.
• Establishing rules for sharing internal threat data with ISACs while complying with data privacy regulations.

Module 3: Detection Engineering and Rule Development

• Writing Sigma rules that balance specificity and generality to minimize alert fatigue without missing novel variants.
• Validating detection logic in staging environments before deployment to production SIEM.
• Using historical log data to baselining normal behavior before enabling anomaly-based alerts.
• Coordinating with network and system teams to verify log source completeness for critical assets.
• Version-controlling detection rules using Git to track changes and enable rollback.
• Rotating and deprecating detection rules based on threat relevance and operational noise levels.

Module 4: Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Operations

• Configuring EDR agents to collect process, network, and registry telemetry without degrading system performance.
• Defining containment policies that specify when automated isolation is permitted versus requiring analyst approval.
• Conducting live response investigations while maintaining chain of custody for potential legal proceedings.
• Managing EDR console access with role-based controls to prevent privilege abuse.
• Responding to EDR sensor failures or communication outages across remote endpoints.
• Integrating EDR alerting with SOAR platforms to automate evidence collection for common malware families.

Module 5: Incident Triage, Investigation, and Escalation

• Applying decision trees to determine whether a phishing alert warrants full investigation or can be dismissed.
• Correlating endpoint, network, and identity logs to reconstruct attack timelines during multi-stage intrusions.
• Documenting investigative findings in a standardized format for handoff to IR or legal teams.
• Using memory forensics to detect in-memory malware when disk artifacts are absent.
• Identifying false positives caused by legitimate administrative activity mimicking adversary behavior.
• Initiating containment actions only after confirming impact scope to avoid disrupting business operations.

Module 6: Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR)

• Designing playbooks that include manual review checkpoints for high-risk automated actions.
• Mapping SOAR triggers to specific alert severities to prevent over-automation of low-fidelity events.
• Testing playbook execution in non-production environments to validate API integrations.
• Monitoring SOAR job logs to detect failures in third-party tool connectivity.
• Ensuring automated enrichment actions comply with data handling policies for PII and regulated data.
• Assigning ownership for maintaining and updating playbooks as tooling and threats evolve.

Module 7: SOC Performance Measurement and Continuous Improvement

• Calculating mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to respond (MTTR) using incident timestamps from ticketing systems.
• Conducting blameless post-mortems after major incidents to identify process gaps.
• Using detection coverage matrices to identify blind spots in monitoring across MITRE ATT&CK tactics.
• Adjusting analyst shift schedules based on historical alert volume patterns by time of day.
• Measuring false positive rates per detection rule to prioritize tuning efforts.
• Conducting red team exercises to validate detection and response capabilities under realistic conditions.

Module 8: Governance, Compliance, and Reporting

• Aligning SOC activities with regulatory requirements such as GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI-DSS for audit readiness.
• Producing executive-level reports that translate technical incidents into business risk impact.
• Implementing data retention and deletion policies for security logs in accordance with legal hold requirements.
• Managing access to SOC tools and data under least privilege principles and conducting access reviews quarterly.
• Documenting incident disclosure procedures in line with legal and regulatory timelines.
• Coordinating with internal audit to validate SOC control effectiveness and address findings.