Why and How SecOps ?
Tags: Cyber Security Jobs, Freshers, Information Security, Job Switch, Security Operation Center

Usual Day at SOC

I have always been asked a common question be it my college juniors or whosoever wants to switch to security domain. How to switch/start career in Cyber Security field ?

Being working in Security Domain from 3 years now i think i am qualified enough to answer this.

Here i will be focusing more on the resources and the baby steps to switch/start your career in Cyber Security field.

Switching domains is not an easy job in India as far as i have seen in my career however if you make it special then you are limitless my virtual friend.

Cyber Security is a ever growing domain and has become a mouth to mouth thing these days ever since the big corporate hacks started show casing in news like the Domino’s hack. With emerging market in virtual field we have exponential demand increase in cyber security professional.

Getting straight to the point.

Make sure you get familiar with the Networking concept (CCNA ,CCNP books will be the best ones to start with) Read about the methodology , idea behind hack as there are lot’s of reasons why companies face a big slap from hackers ( monetary benefit / competitor rivalry / political benefit etc.) Read the latest news and trends on

D ark Reading , Threat Post , Microsoft Twitter , Cyber Security Reddits ( r/blueteamsec/ , r/redteam , r/cyber security , r/netsec Information Security News & Discussion etc.

Learn how to defend instead of Attack. Defending a goal in football teaches more about methods than the attack vector.

Once you have the basic idea how stuff works you will be able to now understand the core technologies that are being used in Security Operations . Security Operations (SOC) is a temple which will initiate the most of the incident response , threat hunting , defensive mechanism mostly.

SOC Analysts generally uses SIEM tool and a Service Incident management tool additional to that they will document the attacks , escalate incidents , hunt the Indicators of compromise , research based on the security framework being used.

If you have a home lab setup you can practice free or trial SIEM tool in your own network by launching an attack from different network to your lab , performing an malicious activity in lab which will trigger an alert based on the rules that you have configured on SIEM tool.

SIEM is like a sneaky neighbor who will be watching on you and if something suspicious happens it will blabber ( alert).Tool will be keep on listening to the SysLogs from the hosts ( servers, computers , network devices , Firewalls , applications etc.). Then the SIEM admins will define rules on console depending on the need. If any of those rules are violated then an alert will be generated and an SOC analyst will verify if it is a true positive or false positive.

Moving on to why SecOps ?

SecOps is the place where i think everyone shall start their journey in security domain. This will teach you all the 360 ways of the attackers and defenders mindset.

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Moreover companies prefer freshers as SOC analysts because there is not so much to be expected from a fresher. However if you already are in corporate and have an experience of around 5 years or plus and do not want to start from basic , you can either opt for a Management post or Technical field. I would suggest getting yourself certified in any of the stream will open opportunities for you.

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I think i have covered the question in title mostly but in case you want to know more do let me know . Reach out to at my LinkedIn — Happy to connect and share .

[:Happy learning , Keep hacking:]

Note — SOC is managed different in every organization depending on the structure they follow. I have explained mostly what is to my knowledge and experience in case any thing is missed or wrong please feel free to comment out.