The year 2025 is approaching, and the rapid development of technology means that cybersecurity threats are becoming more complex than ever. For organizations and businesses, building an effective SOC (Security Operations Center) plan not only enables timely detection and response to incidents but also strengthens long-term protection capabilities, ensuring safety and stability for the entire information system.

 

Challenges in Building a SOC Plan

 

1. Lack of Resources and Budget

Establishing and maintaining a sustainable SOC plan requires costs for personnel, technology, and tools. Many organizations, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, lack the resources or budget to invest in a specific and comprehensive plan for the long term.

 

2. Lack of Supporting Tools and Technology

SOC plans often require tools like monitoring systems, intrusion detection, and automation technologies to detect and respond to incidents quickly. A lack of these tools slows down the IT department’s monitoring and security processes, making them less efficient or even prone to errors during manual execution. Moreover, without the right support tools, the IT team can become overwhelmed when multiple incidents occur simultaneously.

 

3. Difficulty in Prioritizing Threats

Cybersecurity threats are diverse and constantly evolving, from DDoS and ransomware attacks to internal breaches and privilege-based threats. Identifying and prioritizing which threats to address first is a significant challenge when creating a SOC plan, particularly for organizations with complex systems.

 

4. Complexity in Cross-Department Coordination

A SOC plan requires participation from multiple departments, such as IT, finance, and communications, as cybersecurity is not just an IT issue but also closely related to operations, risk management, and reputational protection across the organization. Each department handles, stores, and processes large amounts of data across platforms, making them targets for hackers.

Ensuring synchronized cooperation among these departments is a major challenge as each has its own processes and priorities, sometimes causing overlap or a lack of coordination in monitoring and response.

 

5. Difficulty in Ensuring Regulatory Compliance

Many organizations must comply with information security regulations and standards like GDPR, PCI-DSS, or standards from the Ministry of Information and Communications. Ensuring the SOC plan complies with these requirements demands extensive knowledge and costs to meet legal requirements.

 

Key Tips for Building an Effective and Feasible SOC Response Plan

 

1. Define Objectives

 

The SOC plan should start by setting specific and achievable objectives, such as minimizing response time, preventing threats before they impact the system, and protecting critical data. Clear objectives help the SOC team understand their roles and responsibilities in the entire process.

 

2. Build an Incident Response Playbook

 

The IT department can categorize potential incidents such as cyberattacks, data leaks, or internal vulnerabilities into a detailed "playbook." Each type of incident should have a specific response procedure, enabling the SOC team to quickly identify and deploy the appropriate response strategy, avoiding delays or overload when handling multiple incidents at once.

 

3. Choose Suitable Tools and Technologies

 

The SOC plan must ensure that the SOC team is equipped with the latest market-leading tools for monitoring and detecting threats. These tools facilitate effective threat detection and analysis, enabling timely and accurate automated responses and preventing the need for excessive manual monitoring.

 

Particularly, the VNCS SOC solution, certified by CREST, is an optimal choice, highly rated by CREST for its selection of controlled technology from top global security companies. It combines rigorous processes from Japan with AI-powered automation, meeting high-security standards with certifications like ISO 27001, ISO 20000, and ISO 9001.

 

This information security service, developed by VNCS, assists organizations in monitoring IT infrastructure to detect, alert, and respond to attacks in real-time. The service strictly follows Japanese standard processes and complies with Circular 31/2017/TT-BTTT, Decree 85/2016/NĐ-CP, and Directive 14/CT-TTg 2019 by the Prime Minister, helping organizations comply with the above regulations.

 

Furthermore, using VNCS SOC services helps solve personnel and budget challenges for companies, freeing up IT resources for other tasks and optimizing costs in the long term.

 

4. Regularly Test and Evaluate the Plan

 

The IT department can organize periodic drills to test the effectiveness of the SOC plan, including incident response and reporting. This helps the SOC team improve monitoring capabilities, assess emergency situations, and address weak points in the process. It ensures the IT team is ready to handle real situations and respond promptly to diverse cyberattack tactics.

 

5. Integrate Training and Awareness Programs for All Employees

 

Spreading basic information security knowledge to all employees and organizing regular training sessions to update security knowledge and skills is essential but often overlooked. Not only the IT department but all members of the organization need to understand how to recognize cybersecurity threats and report incidents quickly.

 

Integrating cybersecurity training across all departments will minimize internal security vulnerabilities and improve timely response to incidents through effective communication channels, avoiding information overlap.

 

 

Contact us to learn more about VNCS SOC services and the latest cybersecurity solutions, and receive comprehensive and effective security advice!

 

 

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