• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

Europol shuts down Archetyp Market, longest-running dark web drug marketplace

 | 

Kelly Benefits data breach has impacted 550,000 people, and the situation continues to worsen as the investigation progresses

 | 

Cisco removed the backdoor account from its Unified Communications Manager

 | 

U.S. Sanctions Russia's Aeza Group for aiding crooks with bulletproof hosting

 | 

Qantas confirms customer data breach amid Scattered Spider attacks

 | 

CVE-2025-6554 is the fourth Chrome zero-day patched by Google in 2025

 | 

U.S. CISA adds TeleMessage TM SGNL flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

A sophisticated cyberattack hit the International Criminal Court

 | 

Esse Health data breach impacted 263,000 individuals

 | 

Europol dismantles €460M crypto scam targeting 5,000 victims worldwide

 | 

CISA and U.S. Agencies warn of ongoing Iranian cyber threats to critical infrastructure

 | 

U.S. CISA adds Citrix NetScaler flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Canada bans Hikvision over national security concerns

 | 

Denmark moves to protect personal identity from deepfakes with new copyright law

 | 

Ahold Delhaize data breach affected over 2.2 Million individuals

 | 

Facebook wants access to your camera roll for AI photo edits

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 51

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 530 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

The FBI warns that Scattered Spider is now targeting the airline sector

 | 

LapDogs: China-nexus hackers Hijack 1,000+ SOHO devices for espionage

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Security
  • SOC Scalability: How AI Supports Growth Without Overloading Analysts

SOC Scalability: How AI Supports Growth Without Overloading Analysts

Pierluigi Paganini January 09, 2025

Scaling up a security operations center (SOC) is inevitable for many organizations. How AI supports growth without overloading analysts.

Scaling up a security operations center (SOC) is inevitable for many organizations. Although it might sting, keeping pace with business growth, increased threat volume and complexity, or compliance and regulatory demands requires enhancing and expanding SOC capabilities. Traditionally, SOC scaling efforts have translated to increased burdens on already-overworked analysts. However, the transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is poised to reshape this trajectory. 

The Problem with Traditional SOC Scaling

For many analysts, the news that they need to scale operations is daunting. Most modern SOCs already receive thousands of alerts, stretching analysts to capacity. Adding the tools necessary to scale a SOC inherently results in more alerts – often more than analysts can handle.

Moreover, adding new technologies and tools to a SOC without proper integration can create siloed systems. These siloes mean that, in addition to investigating more alerts, analysts are forced to manage multiple platforms, further compounding their already massive and unsustainable workload.

To make matters worse, many organizations will be reluctant or unable to hire the staff necessary to scale operations – CISOs are facing flat or falling cybersecurity budgets, and the cybersecurity skills gap remains persistently high. As a result, many organizations attempt to scale operations without bringing new staff on board and push existing analysts beyond their limits.

Aside from the obvious well-being impacts on analysts – which are severe and unignorable – traditional SOC scaling practices can compromise an organization’s security. If analysts are burned out and overstretched, they’re more likely to miss alerts, misinterpret data, or otherwise make a costly mistake. And who could blame them? After all, they’re only human. AI, however, isn’t. 

A Brave New World: Scaling SOCs with AI

Strategic and thoughtful implementation of AI can help SOCs scale up without overloading analysts. In fact, building an AI SOC can reduce analyst workloads, increase efficiency, and improve performance. Let’s look at how.

Reducing Alert Overload

As noted, modern SOC environments generate an extraordinary number of alerts. The higher a SOC scales, the more alerts analysts will receive. Integrating AI into SOCs can streamline the investigation process and reduce alert overload by:

·         Prioritizing Alerts: Machine learning (ML) algorithms can prioritize alerts based on their importance, ensuring that analysts can focus their efforts and resources where they are needed most.

·         Reducing False Positives: Analysts can use AI to analyze historical data to learn patterns of legitimate and malicious activity to filter out false positives and reduce noise.

·         Correlating Alerts: AI tools can correlate alerts from disparate sources – including those added as part of scale-up efforts – to identify patterns indicating a larger attack campaign, grouping related alerts into a single incident.

Automating Repetitive Tasks

Many of the tasks analysts must perform are menial, repetitive, and don’t require human intervention. AI can automate these tasks, for example, by collecting and parsing large amounts of information, triaging alerts, correlating incidents, integrating threat intelligence, and even automating response actions. Although these are relatively simple tasks, they can be extremely time-consuming, so eradicating the need for analysts to perform them significantly reduces their workload.

Improving Decision-Making and Response Times

Improving decision-making and response times are key when scaling a SOC. AI can help realize these goals by analyzing vast amounts of data and identifying patterns far faster than human analysts could. As a result, analysts receive more accurate, timely alerts and can respond more effectively.

For example, AI-driven systems can automatically recognize attack indicators such as unusual traffic spikes, unauthorized access attempts, or malware signatures. These systems can then automatically trigger defensive actions (such as blocking IPs or isolating affected devices) or present analysts with clear, actionable insights to help them determine the most appropriate response. This capability reduces the risk of human error and speeds up incident response, preventing potential damage from spreading or escalating – all while minimizing the need for manual effort.

Continuous Learning and Improvement

AI is famed for its ability to learn independently over time. It’s the capability that has dominated dystopian sci-fi films, but it’s also the capability that can make the most difference in a cybersecurity context. Essentially, the longer your AI SOC is in operation, the better it will perform, refining detection capabilities, improving the efficacy of threat response, and further reducing workloads for analysts.

Looking Ahead: AI for Long-Term SOC Growth

It’s important to recognize that SOC scaling is not a one-hit job; it’s an ongoing process. Just because you need to scale your SOC now, doesn’t mean that you won’t need to again in the future. AI is the perfect tool for keeping pace with ongoing SOC growth, allowing organizations to scale up operations while keeping costs and workloads down. Integrate AI into your SOC – your analysts, customers, and finance team will thank you.

About the Author: Josh Breaker-Rolfe is a Content writer at Bora. He graduated with a degree in Journalism in 2021 and has a background in cybersecurity PR. He’s written on a wide range of topics, from AI to Zero Trust, and is particularly interested in the impacts of cybersecurity on the wider economy.

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, SOC)


facebook linkedin twitter

Hacking information security news IT Information Security Pierluigi Paganini Security Affairs Security News SOC

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 03, 2025
Europol shuts down Archetyp Market, longest-running dark web drug marketplace
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 03, 2025
Kelly Benefits data breach has impacted 550,000 people, and the situation continues to worsen as the investigation progresses
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    Europol shuts down Archetyp Market, longest-running dark web drug marketplace

    Cyber Crime / July 03, 2025

    Kelly Benefits data breach has impacted 550,000 people, and the situation continues to worsen as the investigation progresses

    Uncategorized / July 03, 2025

    Cisco removed the backdoor account from its Unified Communications Manager

    Security / July 02, 2025

    U.S. Sanctions Russia's Aeza Group for aiding crooks with bulletproof hosting

    Cyber Crime / July 02, 2025

    Qantas confirms customer data breach amid Scattered Spider attacks

    Cyber Crime / July 02, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT