SOC Analyst Career Path
SOC Analysts are the front line of defensive security operations and the most in-demand job in cybersecurity. They are responsible for receiving, analyzing, and triaging security tickets as part of an organization’s Security Operations Center. This career path is designed to provide you with foundational knowledge and key skills required to succeed as an entry-level SOC Analyst. Over the course of 20 courses and hands-on virtual labs, you will learn Defensive Security Fundamentals, Log Analysis, Network-Based Detection, and Host-Based Detection. Completing this career path and the associated Assessments will prepare you for pursuing a career as a SOC Analyst and further specializing in advanced skills like Threat Intelligence, Threat Hunting, Incident Response, Malware Analysis, and Digital Forensics.
Purpose Statement
Overview
What Are Some SOC Analyst Roles and Responsibilities?
Most SOC analysts plan, monitor, and implement security measures to protect an organization’s computer systems, networks, and data. To do this, SOC analysts must constantly educate themselves on new intelligence, including adversaries' practices and tactics, to anticipate and prevent security threats and breaches.In addition to the above, as an SOC analyst, you will likely be required to:
What Are Some SOC Analyst Job Requirements?
Each organization that seeks to hires an SOC analyst will have unique experience requirements for candidates. However, most organizations require that SOC analyst candidates have earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science or another relevant field, as well as at least one year of IT work experience.Some of the other common requirements for SOC analyst positions are:
Some of the common technical knowledge requirements include:
What is a Typical SOC Analyst Job Description?
As a security operations center analyst, your primary duty is to ensure that the organization’s digital assets are secure and protected from unauthorized access. You must protect both the online and on-premise infrastructures, monitor metrics and data to identify suspicious activity, and identify and mitigate risks before adversaries breach your system. Some adversaries will still breach your system, and a SOC analyst fights the frontline battle.Additionally, SOC analysts must generate reports for managers and IT administrators to evaluate the effectiveness of current security protocols. Then, you will make any necessary modifications to establish a more secure network. In some roles, your duties will include creating training programs and curriculum to educate the organization’s employees and network users on proper security policies and procedures.
Candidates for the SOC analyst position must have analytical skills, communication skills, and the desire to stay up-to-date on the latest technology. In this role, you may need to sift through huge amounts of information to identify threats or other security issues. Threats and attacks can happen at any time, day or night, so you may need to work nights and weekends.
A Day in the Life of an SOC Analyst
No two days are alike in a security operations center – adversaries don’t follow a specific schedule, and how much time you have to spend on an individual incident can depend on many factors. You may be able to circumvent an attack quickly in some cases, while others might take much more time, attention, and work.On a daily basis, you will need to ascertain the weaknesses of hardware, software, and network infrastructure and establish ways to protect it. But the nature of information security means each day may bring different situations, tasks, and challenges, so you’ll rarely feel bored. When a threat or an attack arises, your team will likely work nonstop to expose the attack, shut down access to your systems, resolve the issue, work to prevent the same type of attack from happening in the future, and document and communicate appropriate information to management or clients.
SOC analysts may need to work odd hours, outside of the normal workday, to perform the necessary incident response to protect the digital assets of the organization.
Course Outline
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