While Quorum Cyber’s Security Operations Centre (SOC) team is known to keep the company’s managed services running for over 150 customers around the globe, it plays a much bigger role in making the business a glowing success story than many people know.

As one of the cornerstones of Quorum Cyber since its inception in 2016, the SOC started out with a core team of four members. It’s now 80-strong and counting. The team has been crucial to enabling one of the UK’s fastest growing cyber security companies to expand year after year, helping to defend a wide variety of public, private, and not-for-profit organisations in the UK, Europe, North America, and beyond.

As fresh recruits – some straight out of university – have joined the SOC as new cyber security analysts, they have gained valuable experience at the frontline of cyber security, learnt and developed new skills, and earnt industry-recognised qualifications. Some have been rewarded with a promotion or two, becoming people managers on their way up. Career changers from a wide range of other industries have also come into the SOC team, giving it a diversity of thought and perspective that has only made it even stronger.

Training and certification

Training for new SOC team members typically lasts around 8-12 weeks. It’s divided into a variety of topics and the different services we offer, including Quorum Cyber’s phishing service, called the Big Red Button (BRB), and the SOC’s range of managed services. This ensures everyone gains an in-depth understanding before working on customer incidents. This is verified by the analyst undertaking sign-off exercises to test their understanding of concepts they’ve learned in training. The SOC’s services are broken down further into the different Defender portals.

New team members spend time shadowing more experienced analysts on the team and learn how we communicate with customers at every stage of an incident. The training sessions are conducted by our tool champions for BRB and Defender portals. Alongside all this, every SOC member must train towards achieving the Microsoft SC-200 certification, which validates their skill and knowledge in identifying, investigating, responding to, and remediating threats to both hybrid and cloud environments.

And because so many of Quorum Cyber’s team members have strong grounding in the SOC, they all understand their customers’ pain points and challenges, which, of course, helps everyone to defend them from the growing number of cyber-attacks we observe today.

“The SOC team has proven to be the lifeblood of the company, and the training, coaching and experience we give our team members enables them to stay with us, to grow, and to gain promotion,” says Josh Brown, Quorum Cyber’s Head of Security Operations. “We occasionally provide talented professionals to other teams, thereby helping the business to facilitate lateral movement and retain experience, while giving people the opportunity to contribute their skills in other areas.”

Greater than the sum of its parts

While the protection of its many customers has been constant, the SOC has always evolved to meet demand. It’s a fluid department that doesn’t only achieve its main defensive objectives but helps to fuel growth in all other areas of the company.

Some team members have chosen different paths within the growing business, spreading their wings to bolster other teams that have also expanded to meet increased demands. Some have joined the Incident Response & Threat Intelligence team, or the Advisory team, while others have moved into Compliance, Service Delivery, Pre-Sales and Engineering.

This flow of skilled employees, while always needing to be managed properly, has been really healthy to the success of the business. People have been able to share their knowledge and transfer their skills across teams, work more effectively together and, ultimately, protect as many organisations as possible from harm. When team members have moved into new roles, it’s created opportunities for others to step up and blossom.

Constant learning and development

Rebecca Stewart, a SOC Manager, says her journey in Quorum Cyber has been one of constant learning. She explains: “Starting in the belly of the beast, I have experienced all the lows and all the highs that come with being part of a rapidly growing team. The skills I have honed, the fires I have walked through, moulded me from the junior I once was to the juggernaut I am today. Moving through the ranks I was able to experience all aspects of the service we provide, how we provide it, and what I can do to improve it. My time here would not have been the same without the fantastic individuals I am surrounded by and have the pleasure of working with every day. The sky’s the limit here!”

Michael Forret built on his time in the SOC to continue developing in another team as a Threat Intelligence Analyst. “For me, the SOC was the equivalent of tipping my toe into the water, and moving to the Threat Intelligence team was taking the plunge into the security world,” he says. “My time in the SOC made me realise that I have a skillset that translates well into IT security – including technical problem solving, being inquisitive, and thinking outside the box. I was so pleased that I was able to do this and remain in the same awesome company.”

Interested in joining Quorum Cyber?

If you’re keen to kick-start your career in cyber security, or are ready to put your considerable skills and experience to the test at one of the fastest growing cyber security companies in the UK and North America, learn more about our company, browse our current vacancies and see what we can offer you.