Table of contents
- Cyber Operations: the new strategy for civil security
- What Cyber Operations are and why they matter
- The role of the SOC in Cyber Operations
- Building an effective SOC
- Measuring performance: key cyber security KPIs
- Automation and Artificial Intelligence in the SOC
- Digital sovereignty and the strategic value of national SOCs
- Building a culture of resilience
Cyber Operations: the new strategy for civil security
Born in the military domain, Cyber Operations are redefining how governments and businesses face cyber threats.
In 2025, the concept of a network perimeter in cyber security no longer exists. Distributed workforces, cloud computing, supply chains, and SaaS platforms have dissolved all traditional boundaries.
Security today is not about “keeping intruders out,” but about assuming compromise and building systems that minimize impact: automatic secret rotation, revocable sessions, continuous post-authentication checks, and real-time telemetry.
What Cyber Operations are and why they matter
Cyber Operations are not just tools they are a continuous organizational process integrating SIEM/XDR, EDR, Threat Intelligence, SOAR, Vulnerability Management, and Incident Response.
Their mission is to reduce MTTD (Mean Time To Detect) and MTTR (Mean Time To Respond), prevent lateral movement, ensure business continuity, and turn security into a lever of trust and resilience.
Cyber Operations link security KPIs to business objectives, aligning IT, compliance, and communication to create measurable and coordinated defense mechanisms.
The role of the SOC in Cyber Operations
The Security Operations Center (SOC) is the beating heart of Cyber Operations an always-on command room combining people, processes, technology, and governance.
An internal SOC suits large organizations with resources for 24/7 monitoring and governance, while external or MDR (Managed Detection & Response) models help small and medium businesses achieve rapid, cost-effective security adoption.
The rising hybrid SOC model maintains internal governance while outsourcing continuous monitoring to certified providers balancing control and scalability.
Within a SOC, everything is orchestrated through playbooks and runbooks, structured guides that define roles, workflows, and escalation paths for every possible incident from phishing to ransomware.
Building an effective SOC
An efficient SOC rests on four key pillars:
- People
L1–L3 analysts, incident responders, threat hunters, and CTI specialists working in continuous shifts with regular training. - Processes
Structured playbooks and runbooks for handling ransomware, phishing, identity compromise, and data exfiltration. - Technology
Advanced tools such as SIEM/XDR, SOAR, EDR, NDR, vulnerability scanners, and integrated ticketing systems. - Governance
Alignment with NIST, ISO/IEC 27001, GDPR, and NIS2, including a dynamic risk register, KPIs, and regular board reporting.
Measuring performance: key cyber security KPIs
The effectiveness of Cyber Operations depends on measurable outcomes.
Essential KPIs include:
- MTTD and MTTR (speed of detection and response)
- Dwell time (how long attackers remain undetected)
- Detection fidelity and false positive rate
- Mean remediation time and operational readiness
However, security is not only about speed. The goal is to minimize exposure while preserving stability and service continuity.
Automation and Artificial Intelligence in the SOC
Automation and Artificial Intelligence enhance analysts’ capabilities but must remain under human supervision.
AI copilots can summarize logs or suggest actions, but decisions should always stay within a human-in-the-loop framework, supported by audit trails and clear operational limits.
The true value of AI is not replacing human thinking, but freeing it for cases where intuition and judgment are essential identifying rare patterns, weak signals, and ambiguous events.
Digital sovereignty and the strategic value of national SOCs
In Italy, building a national SOC, operated exclusively by local professionals and hosted on Italian infrastructure, enhances digital sovereignty, regulatory compliance, and data confidentiality.
This is not just a procurement decision it’s a strategic choice that determines where sensitive data reside, who can access them, and how transparently they can be managed in times of crisis.
Building a culture of resilience
Cyber Operations teach us that security is not won by accumulation, but by consistency between what is feared and what is measured, between what is automated and what remains explainable.
Resilience means learning from incidents rather than hiding them.
When an organization embraces that mindset, its learning curve accelerates, and KPIs become results, not goals.
A mature SOC doesn’t chase threats it dictates the rhythm of defense.
