A Security Alert Investigation Tool Supporting Tier 1 Analysts in Contextualizing and Understanding Network Security Events

The investigations run by tier 1 (T1) analysts in a Security Operation Center are critical to the SOC operations as they represent the first gateway to alert escalation and incident response. Critically, they demand an accurate and as-complete-as-possible understanding of the events surrounding the investigated alert. This is a complex task inexperienced T1 analysts can easily lose track of. In this work, we collaborate with a commercial SOC to develop an alert investigation support tool to help inexperienced analysts identify and collect all the information relevant to the investigation of an alert. We evaluate the prototype tool with two qualitative studies. The first study employs T1 analysts from the SOC to evaluate the conformity of the tool to the underpinning analysis process. The second study employs 57 students, recruited from the same pool where the SOC acquires its junior analysts from, to evaluate whether it helps inexperienced analysts develop a complete understanding of events surrounding security alert data. Our findings suggest that employing the tool helps inexperienced analysts form a more accurate understanding of attacks, at no time cost. We discuss the wider implications for research and practice.