Turbo Charge your Security Operation Center by inculcating Cyber Fusion

Why Modernize the SOC

The architecture of security operations is typically divided among various teams, including Security Operation Centers (SOC), Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRT), and cyber physical security teams responsible for physical access control at industrial setup. These teams have distinct roles in protecting, detecting, identifying, remediating, and investigating security incidents. However, these teams often operate independently, utilizing disconnected tools and technologies without semantic awareness. As threats continue to evolve, increase in frequency, and result in more severe consequences, it is no longer feasible to continue working in silos within security operations.

Agility, collaboration, and responsiveness are crucial for success in this challenging environment. In order to thrive, organizations must dismantle the barriers that separate their teams. It is imperative to engage in collective action to share knowledge and effectively prepare for future threats. To accomplish this objective, the concept of Fusion Centers emerged. These centers aim to bring together the pertinent teams to adopt a comprehensive approach towards a specific issue. With the increasing significance of cyberspace and the associated risks, a new concept has emerged known as the Cyber Fusion Center. This center integrates all security functions, including threat intelligence, security orchestration, security automation, incident response, and other relevant aspects such as operatives' or physical security, into a unified entity designed to foster collaboration. Most companies may find this to be a challenging situation. Nevertheless, with the aid of a Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response tool (SOAR), you have the ability to:

1)    Conquer the division that commonly defines security operations teams

2)    Adopt a unified defense strategy to effectively combat threats

3)    Hence, it is imperative to establish a cyber fusion center.

By doing so, you can dismantle barriers and reap numerous advantages for your organization. 

Overcoming information silos

The dangers in the digital realm are rapidly evolving. Organizations face a growing number of attacks that are increasingly sophisticated and diverse. To combat these threats, security operations have had to adapt. They have developed new tools and expanded their responsibilities to enhance their security measures and gain insight into various risks. As a result, the structure of security operations has become divided into different areas of focus. Some areas concentrate on detecting and assessing incidents, while others specialize in crisis management, forensics, and threat intelligence. This segmented structure encompasses a wide range of tools, including familiar ones such as next generation firewalls (NGFW), endpoint detection and response (EDR), security information and event management platforms (SIE<), intrusion detection and protection systems, and identity and access management (IAM) systems. Each tool serves a specific purpose, such as threat intelligence, incident detection, threat response, or vulnerability management. However, this division of missions, tools, and teams often leads to independent work and the creation of silos. These silos prevent teams from gaining a comprehensive understanding of the overall situation and hinder collaboration. Furthermore, this fragmentation of goals results in each team prioritizing their own objectives without considering the common goal. Consequently, information becomes isolated within each silo due to a lack of communication or inadequate integration. Ultimately, this lack of cohesion negatively impacts overall efficiency.

Introduction to Cyber Fusion

Cyber fusion entails consolidating all security and associated operations, including orchestration, automation, data analysis, incident response, and threat intelligence, within a single operational unit. This integration aims to enhance the cohesion of threat detection, management, and response procedures, while promoting collaboration in security among individuals, teams, and devices.

A cyber fusion center represents an advanced security operations center (SOC) that aims to elevate and enhance enterprise security. By merging conventional cybersecurity services like threat detection and response with cutting-edge security tools and features such as threat intelligence, data analytics, security information and event management (SIEM) technologies, and user and entity behaviour analytics, a cyber fusion center offers a comprehensive security solution. Moreover, it brings together previously separate teams like security operations (SecOps) and IT operations, fostering better collaboration and integration of security activities, ultimately leading to risk reduction and cost savings.

The need for a cyber fusion center

Cyber fusion centers have been created with the purpose of enhancing collaboration and communication among teams involved in interconnected functions, such as cybersecurity and IT operations. Their primary objective is to minimize risk and enhance the overall security posture of the organization.

Cyber fusion centers serve as a vital link between critical safety and operational functions, such as cybersecurity and IT, enabling seamless collaboration, communication, and operational efficiency. By bridging these functions, they effectively mitigate risks and enhance the response to threats. In the past, IT operations, application and product development, and security were compartmentalized within different groups. However, as businesses have undergone significant digital transformations in the past decade, these groups, along with the platforms, networks, and devices they utilize, have become more interconnected. Consequently, this integration has amplified corporate risks due to the proliferation of endpoints, larger attack surfaces, increased vulnerabilities, and expanded governance and compliance requirements. Cyber fusion centers are designed to foster collaboration and intelligence-driven operations. They incorporate comprehensive threat detection, analytics, and automation/orchestration tools. The structure of these centers encourages teams to work together more effectively by facilitating the sharing of information, alerting one another to potential issues and vulnerabilities, and ultimately improving response times.

Cyber fusion centers offer a comprehensive and proactive strategy for managing threats by fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing among diverse yet interconnected teams. Unlike a SOC, which primarily focuses on incident detection, identification, investigation, and response, a cyber fusion center goes beyond these responsibilities to bolster an organization's security profile and capabilities. Through the integration of functions, intelligence, and teams, along with the utilization of real-time information and shared objectives, cyber fusion centers can effectively navigate the ever-evolving threat landscape of today.

Roles and Responsibilities of Cyber Fusion Center

Cyber fusion centers serve as a centralized hub that brings together various activities into a cohesive unit. These centers encompass several key components, including:

1. Threat Intelligence: This involves gathering and analyzing tactical, operational, and strategic intelligence. It encompasses indicators of compromise (IoC), endpoint and user data, vulnerabilities, and threat intelligence platforms (TIPs), among others.

2. Analytics: The process of analyzing operational and threat data, including user and entity behavior analytics, is a crucial aspect of cyber fusion centers. This helps in identifying patterns and potential threats.

3. Threat Detection: Cyber fusion centers employ various security tools, such as SIEM, firewalls, intrusion detection systems (IDS), intrusion prevention systems (IPS), and endpoint detection and response (EDR), to identify and mitigate threats through alerts.

4. Incident Response: In the event of identified threats, breaches, or attacks, cyber fusion centers prioritize swift response and action to minimize the impact and mitigate further damage.

5. Governance & Compliance: Cyber fusion centers ensure that all IT and security activities adhere to regulations and compliance requirements. This includes aligning with industry standards and best practices.

6. Threat Hunting: Apart from relying solely on alerts, cyber fusion centers actively search for and address threats that may have gone undetected. This proactive approach involves locating and remediating potential threats to enhance overall security. By integrating these components, cyber fusion centers provide a comprehensive and efficient approach to cybersecurity, enabling organizations to effectively manage and respond to cyber threats.

The Modus Operandi of Cyber Fusion Center

An enhanced iteration of the Security Operations Center model, the Cyber-Fusion Based Approach establishes a cohesive strategy for identifying and addressing threats. It brings together various teams within an organization, including SecOps, IT operations, physical security, product development, fraud risk investigation, and more, to enhance overall threat intelligence. By leveraging this approach, organizations can expedite the prediction and response to critical threats, while simultaneously minimizing costs and risks.

Cyber Fusion Capabilities aim to enhance operational effectiveness, preparedness, and response to significant threats in order to enhance Cyber Defenses within a cooperative setting. This is achieved by fostering collaborative and efficient communication of tactical cyber threat intelligence, pertinent indicators of compromise (IoC), and analysis of potential threats, threat actors, and risks before they have any impact. Additionally, a Cyber Fusion Approach involves integrating an operational threat intelligence program that provides real-time information on threats and facilitates the timely dissemination of alerts to inform Incident Response Teams.

Collaboration among threat response teams is crucial for organizations to effectively address cyber security issues and enhance overall security functions. By sharing information and actions in various ways, organizations can witness the synergy between teams, enabling them to quickly identify and address pitfalls. This collaborative effort ultimately leads to improved security measures and a reduction in cyber security issues. To further enhance their capabilities, organizations can utilize Cyber Fusion Centers. These centers serve as a centralized hub where threat data from different security tools is combined. By analyzing this data, actionable intelligence can be deduced, providing organizations with high confidence insights. This intelligence is specifically designed to enhance an organization's detection and response capability. The integration of various security tools and the availability of actionable intelligence empower organizations to identify digital threats and suspicious patterns promptly. With this knowledge, organizations can respond and mitigate these threats more effectively, reducing the mean time to respond (MTTR). By staying proactive and vigilant across the cyber threat landscape, organizations can effectively reduce cyber security issues and maintain a strong security posture.

Using a SOAR Platform to turbo charge the cyber fusion agenda

In order to enhance your security measures, it is crucial not only to have a thorough understanding of your own organization and its similarities, but also to be aware of your adversaries. In order to achieve this, it is of utmost importance to share and enrich the data that you collect both internally and externally. However, currently this knowledge is fragmented across different teams. I believe that it is necessary to establish a centralized platform that automates and enriches this sharing process. This is the only way to enhance the overall security of any organization. By creating a cyber fusion center and integrating it with a Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) system, you can automate various operations. This approach empowers your teams by consolidating and utilizing the data that is dispersed among them. The integration of different security functions opens up new possibilities and offers unique benefits, such as:

1. Orchestration across your organization: By leveraging integrations between various security functions and tools, your teams can establish seamless workflows, minimizing overlaps and loopholes between the tools they utilize.

2. Automated collection and sharing: Standardized and automated processes across different tools and teams enable real-time data collection and sharing between relevant teams.

3. Advanced Threat Detection: Real-time intelligence and data sharing enhance your teams' contextual awareness, thereby improving their ability to detect incoming threats.

4. End-to-end incident automation: Streamlined and standardized operations enable security teams to leverage automation, creating workflows that cover the entire incident lifecycle from detection to response and management.

5. Boosted overall productivity and security: The fusion of security operations accelerates incident detection and response times, reducing the need for manual labor. It also facilitates and enhances the quality of exchanges between every team, leading to improved resource allocation and reduced costs and risks. By implementing these measures, you can significantly enhance your organization's security posture and ensure a more proactive approach to threat detection and response.

Conclusion

Cybersecurity threats possess a unique characteristic. A single vulnerable point has the potential to disrupt an entire organization or industry. Recent incidents, such as the breaches faced by Solarwinds and Microsoft Exchange, serve as examples of how these breaches can spread throughout entire sectors. In essence, organizations as a whole, as well as industries, encounter the same threats and suffer the same consequences when internal or external breaches occur. This hostile environment has necessitated a shift in the way organizations establish their cybersecurity architecture. Instead of adopting a passive and reactive approach, there is a need to implement a collective defense model to counter the diverse range of threats. As strategists often emphasize, understanding oneself and the enemy is crucial for achieving victory in battles. It is essential for organizations and industries to be aware of the risks, threats, opportunities, and impacts that are relevant to them. However, this becomes challenging when different teams operate independently and remain disconnected from one another. Valuable data and knowledge are lost in the gaps between teams and tools. Collective defense, therefore, is a collaborative approach that requires both internal and external organizations to unite in defending against cyber threats. For example, in a collective defense model, the threat hunting team can share their knowledge with the threat intelligence team, providing additional insights into any new threats. This intelligence can then be shared with the security operations center (SOC) teams as actionable information. Consequently, security teams gain visibility into the threats by accessing information on various types of threats in a centralized location. A collective defense system not only breaks down silos within an organization but also promotes collaboration across industries through strategic, tactical, and operational threat intelligence. However, achieving an approach that encourages collaboration between security operations, intelligence sharing, and coordinated threat response is only possible within a centralized framework that allows for seamless integration among all teams.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of mine and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities or organization that I represent or have been associated in the past.