Security Operations Center (SOC)
A dedicated team and facility responsible for continuously monitoring, detecting, and responding to security threats.
A Security Operations Center (SOC) is a dedicated team, and often a physical or virtual facility, responsible for continuously monitoring an organization's systems, detecting security incidents, and coordinating the response, typically around the clock. Analysts watch dashboards, investigate alerts, and escalate genuine threats for deeper action.
A SOC brings together people, processes, and tools like a SIEM into one coordinated function rather than leaving security monitoring scattered across individual teams. Smaller organizations without the resources to run their own 24/7 SOC often outsource this function to a managed security service provider instead.