Alert Fatigue in the SOC: How to Protect Your Best Analysts from Burnout
Anyone who has managed a SOC team over the past two years is familiar with the phenomenon: alert fatigue. SOC is not some abstract HR concern, but a direct operational risk. The analyst who closes the third “failed login” alert at 2:30 a.m. without even looking at it isn’t doing so out of laziness. He’s doing it because he’s already dealt with 220 similar […] that evening
Why Your SOC Playbooks Don't Work (and How to Make Them Useful)
Anyone who has ever made a serious attempt to improve a SOC playbook will recognize the pattern. Somewhere in a wiki or SharePoint folder lies a 40-page document, drafted by a consulting firm, approved by the audit team, and barely opened since then. When the next incident occurs, no one refers to that document. Analysts rely on experience, group chats, and manual improvisation. […]
Purple Teaming Without an External Firm: How to Set Up a Smart Exercise
Anyone who wants to take purple teaming seriously within their organization will, sooner or later, run into the assumption that such an exercise automatically requires an outside firm. That assumption is costly and often incorrect. A well-designed purple team session builds internal capacity, whereas hiring an outside red team yields a report that rarely […]
Tier 1 vs. Tier 2 SOC Analyst: How to Choose the Right Level
Anyone setting up or restructuring a security operations center will sooner or later run into the same question: What is the right ratio of Tier 1 to Tier 2 SOC analyst positions? Most articles answer that question with a job description. Tier 1 analysts triage incidents, while Tier 2 analysts investigate them in greater depth. That’s true, but it doesn’t say anything about when you actually […]
Building Your First SOC Team: Roles, Levels, and Pitfalls
Putting together a SOC team is one of the most strategic decisions a CTO can make. It sounds straightforward: you hire a few security analysts, set up a SIEM platform, and you have a Security Operations Center. But in practice, it’s more complicated. Which roles should you fill first? How many people do you need for 24/7 […]
Outsourcing Cybersecurity vs. Building an In-House Team: The Honest Cost Analysis
For many organizations, outsourcing cybersecurity is the first instinct when security issues come up. It sounds logical: you hire a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) that provides 24/7 monitoring, and you can focus on your core business. But the reality is more nuanced than the sales brochure suggests. Outsourcing solves part of the […]
Trivian Brings Rogier van Agt On Board to Accelerate the Training of Cybersecurity Talent
Schiphol-Rijk – Cybersecurity training organization Trivian has appointed Rogier van Agt as CEO and co-founder. With his arrival, the company aims to accelerate the growth of its cybersecurity academy and help address the growing shortage of cybersecurity professionals. Organizations in Europe are finding it increasingly difficult to find qualified cybersecurity specialists. At the same time, many traditional training programs do not adequately align with real-world practice, […]
How Much a Cyber Incident Really Costs Your Company (and How Training Can Reduce That Cost)
The Cost of a Cyber Incident: It’s a topic that many executives only begin to address once the damage has already been done. A ransomware attack, a data breach through an unsecured vendor, a phishing email that slips past three layers of detection. The resulting bill is rarely limited to the ransom or the initial assistance from a forensic team. The […]
Cybersecurity for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses: Building It Up on a Small Budget
Cybersecurity for small and medium-sized businesses is a topic that often elicits the same response: “We know we have to do it, but we don’t have the budget.” That response is understandable. As the CTO of an organization with 50 to 250 employees, you look at enterprise solutions that cost hundreds of thousands per year and think that security isn’t possible unless you have the […]
Security awareness training doesn't work. This does.
Security awareness training is the most widely adopted security program in the Netherlands. Virtually every organization with more than 100 employees has one. Every year, thousands of employees click through modules on phishing, password hygiene, and clean desk policies. The completion rate is high. The compliance department is satisfied. And yet, in practice, almost nothing changes. Research by […]