In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, the effectiveness of a security operations strategy is crucial to maintaining the integrity of businesses, protecting sensitive data, and ensuring operational continuity. As cyber threats become more sophisticated, organizations must rely on a well-rounded security operations approach, emphasizing not just the technology at hand but also the critical roles of process, people, affiliates, business alignment, and visibility. This cybersecurity interview delves into these pillars, exploring how integrating these key elements can create a resilient and adaptive security posture. We will discuss the importance of robust processes, the role of affiliates and partnerships, the significance of people as the first line of defense, and how aligning security with business goals is essential for long-term success. Moreover, we will address how visibility and technology enable organizations to stay ahead of threats and strengthen their security operations.
Biography: Mahmoud Elkashef
Mahmoud Ahmed Elkashef is a customer-focused, value-driven security expert with over 14 years of experience in leading security transformation and adoption across various sectors, including education, healthcare, financial services, oil and gas, and more. His leadership is built on a comprehensive three-pronged approach: advisory and implementation, stabilization, and upscaling.
Throughout his career, Mahmoud has successfully driven services and product pre-sales engagements with strategic customers in the Middle East, expanding the Services Account Manager (SAM) team at Palo Alto Networks by 300% and growing the SAM business by 350% within two years. His expertise spans cloud, on-premises, and SOC environments, where he has been instrumental in helping organizations maximize the value of their technology investments while ensuring robust security postures.
Mahmoud’s dedication to customer success is evident in his role as a Senior Inside Services Sales Engineer and Senior Account Customer Success Manager at Palo Alto Networks, where he has played a crucial role in transforming operations processes and delivering tailored solutions that meet the unique needs of clients. His ability to manage complex customer situations, provide strategic guidance, and drive business growth has made him a trusted advisor and leader in the field of cybersecurity.
The Interview:
- Opening Remarks
- Welcome and introduction of the expert
- Hi, I’m Mahmoud Elkashef, a cybersecurity professional with over 14 years of experience in IT service management and digital transformation. I’ve led key projects in enhancing cybersecurity for major clients in government and telecom, focusing on aligning security with business goals. My current work centers on innovative threat mitigation and fostering a culture of security awareness. I’m excited to share insights on the evolving role of Security Operations in today’s cybersecurity landscape.
- Brief overview of the topic: Navigating Technological Complexities & Staying Ahead in the Industry
- I believe that navigating technological complexities in cybersecurity, especially within Security Operations Centers (SOCs), is a constant challenge. As technology evolves, so do the threats, and that means a SOC has to be more than just reactive—it has to be proactive. The real difficulty lies in smoothly integrating new technologies into existing frameworks while staying agile enough to counter emerging threats. To stay ahead in this field, it’s not just about having the latest tools; it’s about thinking ahead. That means continuous learning, embracing automation, and using AI to speed up detection and response. But it’s also about building a culture of collaboration, both within your team and with external partners, so that you can share knowledge and improve threat intelligence. In the end, staying ahead isn’t just about keeping up—it’s about fostering a mindset that values innovation and continuous improvement. It’s about being adaptable, resilient, and always looking for ways to enhance your security operations.
Section 1: Processes
Defining Effective SOC Processes:
- What are the essential steps a SOC must follow to effectively identify, investigate, and mitigate a suspected security incident?
- First, the SOC needs to focus on identification. This involves constant monitoring using tools like SIEM to spot any unusual activities. Once an alert is triggered, the next step is investigation. Here, the SOC team digs into the alert, utilizing threat intelligence, log data, and various sources to understand the threat’s nature. Finally, the mitigation phase kicks in, where appropriate actions are taken—whether that’s isolating systems, applying patches, or escalating to a higher incident response team.
- How do you ensure that these processes are standardized across the SOC team while allowing for flexibility in response to different types of incidents?
- To standardize processes across the SOC team, I’ve always advised my customers to rely on a playbook with clear, well-defined procedures. But it’s important to maintain flexibility too. Incidents can be unique, so while there’s a standard approach, we train our customers’ teams to adapt based on the context of each situation.
- Can you share an example where a well-defined process led to a successful mitigation of a significant security incident?
- Let me share a story about a significant cybersecurity incident that happened at RSA Security in 2011—a perfect example of how a well-defined process can effectively mitigate a major threat.
In 2011, RSA Security, renowned for its SecurID two-factor authentication products, encountered a serious challenge. It all began during the Detection phase when their security team noticed unusual network activity related to their SecurID products. Recognizing the potential danger, they immediately moved into the Immediate Response phase, activating their Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) and implementing their crisis management plan.
As the team advanced to the Investigation phase, they discovered that they were dealing with an advanced persistent threat (APT) attack. The attackers were exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in Adobe Flash, making the situation even more complex. To prevent further damage, the team quickly entered the Containment phase, isolating the affected systems to stop the threat from spreading.
Transparency was key during this incident, so RSA moved into the Stakeholder Communication phase, where they promptly informed customers, partners, and relevant authorities about the breach. Simultaneously, they initiated the Mitigation phase, patching the vulnerability and strengthening their overall security measures. RSA went a step further during the Recovery phase by replacing SecurID tokens for customers and adding additional security layers to protect their products.
Finally, after the immediate crisis was under control, RSA conducted a thorough After Action Review. This post-incident analysis was crucial, as it allowed them to learn from the experience and improve their security posture moving forward.
This incident at RSA has since become a textbook example in cybersecurity, demonstrating how following a well-structured response process—through phases like Detection, Investigation, Containment, and more—can help mitigate even the most serious risks.
Continuous Process Improvement:
- How do you approach the continuous improvement of SOC processes to adapt to emerging threats?
- Continuous improvement is inevitable within SOC. I approach it by regularly reviewing our processes in light of emerging threats. This includes taking lessons from past incidents and keeping up with new technologies and methods in the cybersecurity space.
- What role does incident post-mortem analysis play in refining SOC processes?
- For me, Incident post-mortems are one of the most crucial gears in SecOps. After every significant incident, SOC team must conduct a thorough analysis to identify any gaps in our processes. From what I saw in the field, this practice has been key in refining and improving SOC operations over time for many customers.
- How can automation be integrated into SOC processes without compromising the quality of incident response?
- Integrating automation into SOC processes can significantly boost efficiency, but it’s crucial to do so in a way that maintains the quality of incident response. I usually see automation integrated in SOC within four key areas. First, automating routine, repetitive tasks such as log aggregation and alerting. This frees up analysts to focus on more complex, high-priority issues where human expertise is most valuable. Second, enhancing human decicion making through automating basic threat detection and responses, and escalating the more complex incidents to analysts for further investigation to ensure that critical decisions are made by experienced professionals. The third key use of automation is in incident enrichment. Automation can gather and consolidate data from multiple sources, giving analysts all the necessary context to make faster, better-informed decisions, instead of manually pulling that information themselves. The fourth area is automating playbooks and workflows for common incident types, such as phishing or malware detection to help standardize responses. However, it’s important to include checkpoints where analysts can step in, allowing for human oversight in critical situations. By striking the right balance, automation can handle the groundwork while human analysts bring the intelligence and adaptability needed for effective incident response.
Section 2: Affiliates
Collaborating with Affiliates:
- Who are the key affiliates that a SOC relies on during incident response, and how do you ensure effective collaboration with them?
- In my experience, the key affiliates a SOC relies on during incident response can be both internal and external. Internally, we’re talking about IT ops, legal, HR, and the executive team. They’re crucial for everything from system access to decision-making. Externally, we often work with third-party vendors, threat intelligence providers, law enforcement, and sometimes regulators, depending on the incident.
- How do you manage communication and coordination between the SOC and external affiliates during a cybersecurity incident?
- When it comes to managing communication during an incident, it’s all about readiness, structure, and clarity. I recommend my customers to implement a clear incident command structure with a designated Liaison Officer as the single point of contact for external affiliates. Also, having pre-approved communication templates is key as when the SOC team is in the middle of an incident, we don’t want them to be crafting messages from scratch. Having these templates ready saves time and ensures consistent messaging. Finally, performing thorough post-incident reviews, including external affiliates which proved invaluable for refining SOC processes and strengthening relationships.
- What challenges do you face when working with multiple affiliates, and how do you overcome them?
- Working with multiple affiliates is often challenging due to the differences in processes and/or priorities. To overcome this, I’ve found that establishing standardized procedures and clear communication channels and aligning all the affiliates on them is essential.
Building Strong Affiliate Relationships:
- How do you establish and maintain strong relationships with affiliates that support SOC activities?
- Establishing robust partnerships with affiliates necessitates consistent engagement and transparent communication. A highly effective strategy for achieving this is to integrate affiliates into tabletop exercises that simulate various incident response scenarios. This approach not only enhances collaborative capabilities but also significantly strengthens inter-organizational coordination during actual security incidents. By fostering a shared understanding of roles, responsibilities, and procedures, these joint exercises create a foundation of trust and efficiency that proves invaluable when responding to real-world cybersecurity threats.
- What criteria do you use to evaluate the effectiveness of affiliates involved in incident response?
- To evaluate the effectiveness of affiliates, I look at their response times, the quality of the threat intelligence and information they provide, and how well their actions align with our SOC’s objectives.
- How do you ensure that affiliates are aligned with the SOC’s objectives and processes during a crisis?
- In my experience, a blend of upfront planning, clear communication, and post-incident analysis keeps everyone aligned, even in tough situations. Before the incident, we establish shared protocols (including pre-defined decision-making frameworks) and goals in advance through joint planning sessions. Then, during the incident, we use a centralized management platform to keep everyone on the same page. Also, we conduct regular briefings to ensure all affiliates understand not just what we’re doing, but why. On top of this, we include quick ‘alignment checks’ in our updates to catch any misunderstandings early. Finally, after the crisis, we conduct joint after-action reviews to review the lessons learned and improve our collective response for next time.
Section 3: People
Developing SOC Staff:
- What are the key components of a skill development plan for SOC staff, and how do you implement it?
- To develop SOC staff, a solid plan includes comprehensive training programs, relevant certifications, and most importantly, hands-on experience with simulated incidents. This combination ensures SOC team is always ready for real-world scenarios.
- How do you balance the need for ongoing training and professional development with the day-to-day demands of SOC operations?
- Balancing training with daily operations is a real challenge. I advise my customers to handle this by scheduling regular rotational training sessions in addition to encouraging self-paced learning. This way, SOC team continues to develop their skills without compromising the day-to-day activities.
- What strategies do you use to optimize the utilization of SOC staff to ensure maximum efficiency and effectiveness?
- Role rotation and cross-training are the two key techniques used to optimize staff utilization in a SOC. By rotating roles and ensuring that each team member is cross-trained, SOC management maintain a well-rounded team that can handle various aspects of SecOps efficiently.
Professional Growth in SOC Teams:
- How do you design professional growth plans for SOC team members to ensure their long-term career development?
- When designing professional growth plans, I focus on aligning individual career goals with the SOC’s needs. We offer clear pathways for advancement, which not only benefits the team members but also strengthens the overall SOC capabilities.
- What role does mentorship play in enhancing the capabilities of SOC personnel?
- Mentorship plays a significant role in the SOC. It’s about providing guidance, sharing knowledge, and offering career advice. I’ve seen firsthand how mentorship can elevate the capabilities of the SOC personnel in many of my customers’ environments.
- How do you retain top talent within the SOC, given the high demand for cybersecurity professionals?
- Given the high demand for cybersecurity professionals, retaining top talent is crucial, so I always recommend three-pronged approach (1) offering competitive salaries, (2) providing continuous learning opportunities, and (3) fostering a supportive work environment.
Section 4: Business
Understanding Business Needs:
- How do you ensure that the SOC’s activities align with the broader business objectives of the organization?
- Aligning SOC activities with the broader business objectives is something I’m very mindful of. When building a new SOC or enhancing an existing one, we start our discussions with the customer’s business stakeholders to understand their business nature and requirements. Through this business baselining we ensure that SOC operations are directly tied to the business goals and protecting the organization’s critical assets which are required to maintain business continuity.
- What steps do you take to engage business stakeholders in the SOC’s mission and priorities?
- First, I align our security initiatives with business goals to ensure that business stakeholders understand the importance of cybersecurity to their business. Then, I continuously involve them in the SOC discussions and operations through means such as building an executive dashboard and periodic reports to keep them up to date on the SOC success parameters of their interest.
- Can you provide examples of how the SOC has successfully protected the business interests of the organization?
- One example that comes to mind is the British Airways data breach in 2018. The airline suffered a significant breach that exposed the personal data of around 500,000 customers. Fortunately, the SOC quickly identified the breach and initiated containment efforts. While the incident did result in a substantial GDPR fine, the swift action taken by the SOC helped limit further exposure and potential financial damage. This incident highlights how timely intervention by a SOC can significantly mitigate the impact on a business.
Communicating with Stakeholders:
- How do you communicate the value of the SOC to non-technical stakeholders within the organization?
- Communicating the SOC’s value to non-technical stakeholders can be tricky. I typically use KPIs, regular reports, and simplified explanations to show how SOC directly impacts the organization’s security posture.
- What metrics or KPIs do you use to demonstrate the SOC’s impact on the business’s overall security posture?
- Some of the KPIs we use include Mean Time to Detect (MTTD), Mean Time to Respond (MTTR), and the number of incidents successfully mitigated. These metrics help us demonstrate our impact on the business.
- How do you address situations where there is a disconnect between the SOC’s priorities and the business’s needs?
- When there’s a gap between the SOC’s priorities and the needs of the business, it often means that communication with key business stakeholders has broken down. To address this, I make it a priority to re-establish any dormant communication channels, like regular meetings or newsletters. This helps ensure that the dialogue is restored and that the SOC’s focus remains aligned with the business’s most critical risks.
Section 5: Visibility
Achieving Comprehensive Visibility:
- How do you ensure real-time visibility of activities and events within the organization’s IT infrastructure?
- To ensure real-time visibility within an organization’s IT infrastructure, we involve a combination of endpoint detection solutions, network monitoring tools, cloud monitoring tools, and SIEM systems to merge the outcome of the first two. This combination works together effectively to give the organization a comprehensive view of what’s happening in real-time.
- What tools and technologies do you use to achieve comprehensive visibility, and how do they integrate with SOC operations?
- I recommend my customers to use XDR solutions on the endpoint side, NGFW solution on the network side, and CNAPP solution on the cloud front, and integrate all of them with XSIAM (NG-SIEM) to achieve comprehensive visibility. We usually use syslog or API to collect the logs from the various solution and build multiple unified dashboards on XSAIM to ensure all these tools work together and seamlessly feed our SOC operations.
- How do you handle the challenges of monitoring and analyzing data from diverse and complex IT environments?
- Monitoring diverse IT environments such as onsite and cloud environments present challenges, particularly due to the heterogeneity of systems and the sheer volume of data. To manage this, we leverage the automation capabilities in XSIAM (NG-SIEM) to prioritize critical incidents and handle data analysis efficiently.
Enhancing Situational Awareness:
- How does the SOC maintain situational awareness of ongoing threats and incidents?
- Maintaining situational awareness is all about continuous monitoring inside the organization landscape and more importantly outside it. So, staying up to date with threat intelligence feeds, and regularly reviewing the threat landscape helps organization stay ahead of potential threats.
- What role does threat intelligence play in enhancing the SOC’s visibility into potential threats?
- I often tell my customers, if you don’t know you’ll never detect it even if it is in front of your eyes. So, threat intelligence is crucial in enhancing the SOC visibility into potential threats. As it provides context and helps anticipate attacks before they materialize, allowing the SOC team to be proactive rather than reactive.
- How do you ensure that visibility tools are effectively configured to detect anomalous activities without generating excessive false positives?
- This is a continuous challenge in security operations and to mitigate it, the SOC team must go through a continuous and rigorous tuning process to ensure the visibility tools are effectively configured and allows them to detect real threats while minimizing false positives.
Section 6: Technology
Selecting the Right Technologies:
- What criteria do you use to evaluate and select technologies for SOC operations?
- When evaluating and selecting technologies for the SOC, I consider four key factors (1) effectiveness, (2) ease of integration, (3) scalability, and (4) post-sales support. These criteria help our customers choose solutions that will best integrate with their existing infrastructure and efficiently support their operations.
- How do you balance the need for advanced technology with the practical considerations of budget and resource constraints?
- I tend to suggest phasing in solutions over time to manage my customer’s costs while still advancing their capabilities in addition to prioritizing solutions that offer the best cybersecurity ROI based on the customer’s current cybersecurity status and readiness.
- Can you share an example where the implementation of a specific technology significantly improved the SOC’s incident response capabilities?
- A good and repeated example is when we implemented our new XSIAM solution in one of our European customer environments. It significantly reduced their incident prioritization, Mean Time to Detect (MTTD), Mean Time to Respond (MTTR), and quicker isolation of infected assets by enabling better correlation of security events, which in turn improved their incident response capabilities.
Integrating Technology into SOC Operations:
- How do you ensure that the technology stack used by the SOC is cohesive and fully integrated?
- Ensuring our technology stack is cohesive and fully integrated is essential. We do this by selecting solutions that integrate well with our existing systems and using a centralized management platform to tie everything together.
- What challenges do you face when integrating new technologies into existing SOC workflows?
- Based on what I saw in the field, compatibility issues and resistance to change are the two key challenges when integrating new technologies into existing SOC workflows. We usually address these by thorough testing and incremental integration to minimize disruption.
- How do you assess the effectiveness of technology in real-time incident response, and what metrics do you use to measure this?
- When it comes to assessing the effectiveness of technology in real-time incident response, I focus on a few key metrics. First, I look at Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) and Mean Time to Respond (MTTR). These metrics give a clear indication of how quickly the technology helps the SOC detect and respond to threats. I also monitor the False Positive Rate to ensure that the tools in use are precise and not overwhelming the team with unnecessary alerts. Additionally, Detection Rate—the percentage of incidents accurately identified—serves as a critical measure of the technology’s effectiveness. Finally, I evaluate how well the implemented cybersecurity solutions integrate with the customer existing systems and workflows, as seamless integration is essential for maintaining the SOC’s agility during an incident.
Conclusion
- In your opinion, which of the six pillars—Processes, Affiliates, People, Business, Visibility, or Technology—has the most significant impact on the overall effectiveness of a SOC, and why?
- In my opinion, while all six pillars are crucial, Visibility has the most significant impact on the overall effectiveness of a SOC. Without comprehensive visibility into the organization’s IT environment, the SOC is essentially operating blind. Visibility ensures that the SOC can detect, monitor, and respond to threats in real-time. It forms the foundation upon which all other SOC activities—like processes, technology, and people—are built.
- What advice would you give to organizations looking to build or enhance their SOC to ensure they cover all six pillars effectively?
- For organizations looking to build or enhance their SOC, my advice is to start by ensuring balance across all six pillars. Each pillar supports the others, so it’s important not to neglect any area. Begin by establishing robust processes and ensure that your team has the necessary skills and training. Leverage technology that integrates well with your existing systems and ensures that visibility tools are properly configured. Don’t forget the importance of strong affiliate relationships and alignment with business objectives. Regularly review and refine your approach as the threat landscape evolves.
- How do you see the role of the SOC evolving in the next 5-10 years, particularly concerning emerging threats and new technologies?
- In the next 5-10 years, I see the role of the SOC evolving significantly, especially with the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning. These technologies will automate many of the routine tasks currently handled by SOC analysts, allowing them to focus on more complex and strategic challenges. Emerging threats, like those related to quantum computing and advanced persistent threats, will require SOCs to be more adaptive and resilient. Additionally, the integration of threat intelligence into real-time operations will become even more critical. The SOC of the future will need to be more proactive, with a strong emphasis on predictive capabilities and advanced analytics.
Conclusion: Thank you for taking the time to share your expertise with our readers. Your insights will greatly contribute to the understanding and advancement of “The Pillars of Impactful Security Operations, Process, Affiliates, People, Business, Visibility and Technology