CMM 6 - Six Essential Ingredients of a Successful SOC

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This week, Scott and Rafeeq go wide across the CISO MindMap discussing six key concepts for every Security Operations Center. As the conversation kicks off, Rafreeq takes a few minutes to discuss a recent FBI warning related to texting.

The six elements discussed are People/Staffing, Processes, Technology Stack, Governance, Data Sources, and Threat Intelligence. Check out Rafeeq’s blog for written commentary on these topics.

During the conversation, Scott mentions a security incident from Christmas Eve 2024. He laments not recalling the specifics but as predicted, it is well documented. That incident was a hack of a Chrome extension.

Breach Stats:  Scott mentioned that certain statistics are widely available to search engines.  Here are the results from a ChatGPT request from February 2025.

1. Time to Detect and Contain a Breach:

• Average Detection Time: In 2024, the global average time to identify and contain a data breach was 258 days, marking a seven-year low.
  fieldeffect.com
• Industry Variations: Detection and containment times can vary by industry. For instance, the energy sector is among the fastest, yet still takes over 30 days on average to identify a breach.
  varonis.com

2. Attacker Dwell Time:

• Definition: Dwell time refers to the duration an attacker remains undetected within a system.
• Current Trends: In 2023, the global median dwell time was reported as 10 days, a decrease from 16 days in 2022.
  reddit.com

3. Average Cost of a Data Breach:

• Global Average: The average cost of a data breach globally reached an all-time high of $4.88 million in 2024, a 10% increase from the previous year.
  ibm.com
• Cost by Company Size:
  • Small Businesses (fewer than 500 employees): Average cost of $2.98 million.
  • Medium Businesses (500-1,000 employees): Slightly lower at $2.63 million.
  • Larger Businesses (1,001-5,000 employees): Higher average cost of $4.09 million.
    prowritersins.com
• Cost by Industry: Breaches involving customer personal data are particularly expensive, costing $173 per record on average in 2024, up from $156 in 2023.
  bakerdonelson.com

4. Impact of Detection Time on Breach Cost:

• Correlation: The longer a breach remains undetected, the higher the financial impact. Companies that contained a breach in less than 30 days saved more than $1 million compared to those that took longer.
  

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