Enterprises today are expected to have at least 6-8 identity tools, as identity is considered a standard investment and first line of defense. Yet security leaders struggle to justify dedicating resources down the alert lifecycle to their superiors.
As a result, most organizations’ security investments are asymmetric, robust detection tools paired with under-resourced SOCs as their last line of defense.
A recent case study shows how companies with standardized SOCs prevented a sophisticated phishing attack that bypassed major email security tools. In this case study, a cross-company phishing campaign targeted C-suite executives at multiple enterprises. Eight different email security tools in these organizations failed to detect the attack, and the phishing emails reached executive inboxes. However, each organization’s SOC team detected the attack soon after employees reported the suspicious email.
Why did all eight detection tools fail equally where the SOC succeeded?
What all these organizations have in common is a balanced investment in the alert lifecycle that does not neglect their SOC.
This article examines how investing in a SOC is inevitable for organizations that have already allocated significant resources to identity devices. Additionally, a balanced SOC investment is important to maximize the value of their existing identity investments.
Probe devices and SOCs operate in parallel universes
Understanding this fundamental disconnect explains how security flaws arise:
Testing tools operate in milliseconds. They have to make quick decisions based on millions of signals every day. He has no time for niceties; Speed is essential. Without it, the network would grind to a halt, as every email, file, and connection request would be stopped for analysis.
Inspection tool zoom in. They are the first to identify and isolate potential threats, but they lack an understanding of the bigger picture. Meanwhile, SOC teams operate with a 30K feet view. When alerts reach analysts, they lack detection tools: time and context.
As a result, SOC deals with alerts from a different perspective:
- They can analyze behavioral patterns, such as why an executive suddenly logs in from a datacenter IP address when they usually work from London.
- They can stitch data across devices. They can see an email domain with a clean reputation with subsequent authentication attempts and user reports.
- They can identify patterns that only make sense when viewed together, such as the special targeting of finance officers combined with timing that aligns with the payroll cycle.
Three important risks of underfunded SOC
First, it may make it more difficult for executive leadership to identify the root of the problem. CISOs and budget holders in organizations deploying various identity tools often believe that their investment will keep them secure. Meanwhile, SOCs are experiencing it differently, overwhelmed by the noise and lacking the resources to properly investigate real threats. Because the expense of detection is obvious, while SOC conflict occurs behind closed doors, security leaders find it challenging to demonstrate the need for additional investment in their SOC.
Second, asymmetry overwhelms the last line of defense. Significant investments in multiple detection tools generate thousands of alerts that flood the SOC every day. With underfunded SOCs, analysts become goalkeepers facing hundreds of shots at the same time, and are forced to make quick decisions under immense pressure.
Third, it weakens the ability to identify subtle threats. When the SOC becomes overwhelmed with alerts, the ability to perform detailed investigative work is lost. Threats that escape detection are threats that detection tools never catch in the first place.
From temporary fixes to permanent SOC operation
When detection tools generate hundreds of alerts per day, adding a few more SOC analysts is as effective as trying to save a sinking ship with buckets. has been the traditional option Outsourcing to MSSP or MDR and appointing external teams to handle the overflow.
But for many, the trade-offs are still too high: high ongoing costs, shallow analyst investigations that are unfamiliar with your environment, coordination delays, and broken communication. Outsourcing does not correct the imbalance; It simply puts the burden on someone else’s plate.
Today, AI SOC platforms are becoming the preferred choice for organizations with lean SOC teams looking for efficient, cost-effective, and scalable solutions. AI SOC platforms work at the investigation level where contextual logic occurs, automate alert triage, and surface only high-fidelity incidents after assigning them context.
With the help of AI SOC, analysts save hundreds of hours every month, as false-positive rates often drop by more than 90%. This automated coverage enables small internal teams to provide 24/7 coverage without additional staffing or outsourcing. The companies in this case study invested in this approach through Radiant Security, an agentic AI SOC platform.
2 ways to benefit from a SOC investment, now and later
- The SOC investment makes the cost of detection equipment worthwhile. Your detection tools are only as effective as your ability to investigate their alerts. When 40% of alerts aren’t investigated, you’re not getting the full value of each of your detection tools. Without sufficient SoC capacity, you are paying for detection capabilities you cannot fully utilize.
- The unique perspective of the last line will become increasingly critical. SOC will become increasingly necessary as detection devices fail more often. As attacks become more sophisticated, more context will be required for detection. The SOC’s perspective would mean that only they can connect these dots and see the whole picture.
3 questions to guide your next security budget
- Are your security investments symmetrical? Start by assessing your resource allocation for imbalance. The first sign of asymmetric security is alerts exceeding your SOC’s capacity. If your analysts are overwhelmed with alerts, it means your frontline is exceeding your backline.
- Is your SOC a worthy safety net? Every SOC leader must ask, if detection fails, is the SOC prepared to catch what is happening? Many organizations never ask this because they do not see detection as the responsibility of the SOC. But when detection equipment fails, responsibilities change.
- Are you underutilizing existing equipment? Many organizations find that their detection tools generate valuable signals that no one has time to investigate. Asymmetry means a lack of ability to act on what you already have.
Key Takeaways from Radiant Security
Most security teams have an opportunity to maximize the ROI from their current identity investments, support future growth, and allocate resources to enhance security. Organizations that invest in detection tools but neglect their SOC create blind spots and burnout.
Radiant Security, the agentic AI SoC platform highlighted in the case study, shows success through balanced security investments. Radiant SOC works at the detection layer, automatically triaging every alert, reducing false positives by nearly 90%, and analyzing threats at the speed of a machine like a top analyst. With over 100 integrations with existing security tools and one-click response features, Radiant helps lean security teams investigate any known or unknown alerts, without requiring impossible headcount increases. Radiant Security makes enterprise-grade SOC capabilities available to organizations of any size.
