Behind every successful mission lies a network of coordinated operations. Security Operations Centers (SOCs), Network Operations Centers (NOCs), and Enterprise Operations Centers (EOCs) each serve distinct roles, but while different in focus, work in lockstep to protect what’s happening now and to shape what’s possible next.
Across the federal government, GDIT manages more than 40 of these operational centers – many in the intelligence and homeland security space. From this work, we have seen how important it is for teams to adopt the mindset that “security is everyone’s concern” and to operationalize policies that cement and reinforce this as a foundation of organizational culture. To that end, it is essential that SOCs, NOCs and EOCs coordinate their operations and work together to create and maintain the strongest possible cyber posture. Here’s how:
Ensure Close and Constant Contact
With customers, we facilitate close and constant collaboration and communication between SOCs, NOCs and EOCs. Teams have daily stand-ups – sometimes multiple times a day – to review current operations and events. Together, we identify, examine and prioritize what needs to be mitigated, and then we make and execute an action plan.
Close Vulnerability Gaps with Coordination
When teams align their maintenance schedules, systems are patched on time, tools and software are updated appropriately, and authorized outages are managed in a controlled way. Without this coordination, vulnerabilities stay open longer than they should, updates become inconsistent, and gaps appear that attackers can easily exploit. Failing to maintain systems in a unified manner does more than slow operations but can create opportunities for harm.
Make Information-Sharing the Expectation
It’s one thing to encourage coordination across the NOC, SOC and EOC. It’s another thing to demand it. Making information-sharing the expectation and, where necessary, the policy ensures each group is working together in an integrated and aligned fashion to meet the mission.
Don’t Overlook Information Access
For operations centers to gather, share and act upon valuable risk information, every team needs to be properly connected to the systems that collect it. This means ensuring all business groups are set up to send the right logs and data, and that the centers can sharing information with one another. When organizations take the time to set up these connections clearly, it becomes easier to keep information flowing to the right place.
Consider AI/ML Tools for Automated Tasks
AI and machine learning offer significant opportunities to enhance operations centers by automating tasks and reporting out data about them. We enable teams to assess their needs and readiness, align investments accordingly, and establish the governance required to use AI/ML securely alongside existing tools. For example, with our Evergreen tool, customers are using AI to monitor logs and correlate anomalies far faster than humans. This is just one way AI becomes immediately actionable and additive to existing efforts.
More than ever – as threats evolve and grow and as tools exist to expand SOC, NOC and EOC capacity – it’s important to ensure that every security team within an agency or organization is coordinating and collaborating to safeguard the mission. Even the most reliable NOC performance is meaningless if the SOC can’t keep foreign adversaries off the network and weak EOC policies fail to prevent employees from inadvertently letting them in.
Security really is everyone’s responsibility. At GDIT, we understand this reality and work with organizations to deploy and maintain coordinated security solutions every day.
