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In this episode, Rafeeq and Scott discuss the many considerations involved with building your own Security Operations Center SOC. While in no way a comprehensive analysis, the discussion attempts to make the concepts manageable. If you're a small company growing past a few IT headcount, the topic should help you create a vision for your situation. If you’re a larger company and looking to expand, these pointers may be of help

This conversation focused on budgeting, structure, and decision-making processes, including the choice between building in-house or outsourcing. The discussion covered various aspects of SOC operations, such as staffing requirements, skill development, and the importance of continuous learning in the face of evolving threats. Also emphasized is the need for proper shift management, stress tolerance, and the value of tabletop exercises and purple teaming in assessing SOC effectiveness.

Rafeeq wrote a great book on this topic. Have a look on Amazon here.

Check out the calculator Rafeeq mentions in the podcast here.

https://rafeeqrehman.com/ciso-mindmap/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-a-hawk/
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Welcome to Episode 7 of the CISO MindMap Podcast. This week, Rafeeq and Scott discuss a range of topics related to business acumen. Tucked away in this topic are references to some common themes of this podcast. Themes such as brand-building, business performance, and business alignment are spread throughout the conversation.

This episode breaks down the business acumen topic into five areas:

1. Business Management
2. Accounting & Finance
3. Sales & Marketing
4. Industry Specific Knowledge
5. Legal Terminology and Concepts

https://rafeeqrehman.com/ciso-mindmap/
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https://www.linkedin.com/in/rafeeq/

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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.
  

https://rafeeqrehman.com/ciso-mindmap/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-a-hawk/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rafeeq/