– SECURITY OPERATIONS
Security Operations Capability Maturity Review
Benchmark, Strengthen, and Mature Your Security Operations with Confidence.
Helping organizations measure, compare, and elevate the capability of their Security Operations against recognized standards and industry peers. Eristotle’s Security Operations Capability Maturity Review delivers an in-depth, structured assessment of your SOC across people, process, and technology, turning gaps, risks, and improvement opportunities into a clear, phased roadmap for stronger detection, response, and long-term cyber resilience.
Assess the Maturity of your Security Operations
Eristotle’s Security Operations Maturity Review serves as a foundational element in assessing and enhancing an organization’s ability to monitor, detect, and respond to cyber threats. By applying a structured, standards-based approach, this service identifies operational gaps, evaluates existing processes and capabilities, and develops a clear roadmap for achieving a more robust and efficient security posture.
We conduct an in-depth assessment of your current security and network operations, focusing on best practices aligned with industry frameworks such as NIST. Our experienced consultants evaluate how effectively processes and procedures are implemented within your Security Operations Center (SOC), using onsite sessions to gather firsthand insights. This comprehensive review uncovers the maturity level of your incident response and monitoring functions, forming the basis for prioritized improvements and strategic investments.
We ensure global consistency in delivery, enabling meaningful benchmarking against peers in your sector. The final outcome is a detailed view of your current Security Operations capabilities, highlighting how prepared you are to detect, defend against, and recover from cyberattacks. We provide phased recommendations tailored to your unique requirements, helping strengthen both your operational readiness and overall security resilience.
Aligned to ISOBOK™ – A Consensus Driven Standard
ISOBOK™ is developed through a rigorous consensus-driven standards development process and incorporates the collective wisdom and experience of experts in the field from around the world. It defines the skills and knowledge required by ISO professionals.
- Contains a description of generally accepted practices for the establishment of Information Security Offices.
- Community driven and consensus based, continuously updated through iterations.
- Techniques are transferable with option to modify concepts and best practices for wide range of organizational contexts.
- Includes the highly valued Reporting Framework.
1. Security Leadership
- Defines the ISO’s role, competencies, and mindset, including the different types of ISOs.
- Establishes the security organisation’s structure, charter, and board-level mandate.
- Aligns with industry standards and frameworks to develop a comprehensive security strategy.
- Covers setting up budgets, initiating security programs, and embedding the function into enterprise governance.
2. Security Culture
- Emphasizes that humans are the final line of defense and central to effective security.
- Promotes a human-centric approach through awareness, training, and behavior-shaping initiatives.
- Uses phishing simulations, access hygiene practices, and continuous reinforcement to improve behaviors.
- Encourages a feedback-driven culture of continuous improvement and user engagement.
3. Security Governance
- Establishes governance through policies, frameworks, ISMS, and the 3 Lines of Defense model.
- Defines risk management approaches, including qualitative/quantitative methods, tolerance, and appetite.
- Integrates compliance, audit, and control mechanisms to align security and business risk.
- Addresses fraud prevention, governance councils, and harmonization between compliance and security.
4. Security Advisory
- Advises on security trends, frameworks, and standards, supporting strategic and operational decisions.
- Applies a layered defense model and reviews risks across technology domains.
- Offers guidance on integrating emerging technologies and securing IT/OT environments.
5. Security Operations
- Aligns security operations with business goals through a service-based SOC model.
- Plans and executes incident and crisis management using structured detection and response frameworks.
- Defines SOC team roles and leverages platforms like SIEM, SOAR, and threat intelligence tools.
6. Security Reporting
- Delivers tiered reporting for operational, management, and board-level audiences.
- Ensures regulatory, legal, and external stakeholder reporting meets compliance obligations.
- Uses KPIs, KRIs, dashboards, and threat intelligence to communicate performance and risk posture.
- Follows best practices for effective, actionable, and transparent security reporting.
Additionally, this servcie draws on AIBOK, CWBOK, and Eristotle competency frameworks for breadth and depth to ensure consistency, credibility, and transferability across engagements.
Key Objectives
- Establish a Clear Security Operations Baseline
- Build an accurate, evidence-based view of current security operations capabilities
- Document people, processes, and technology supporting monitoring, detection, and response
- Create a reliable reference point for measuring progress and demonstrating improvement
- Review and Assess SOC Structure, Operations, and Delivery
- Evaluate staffing models, shift patterns, escalation paths, and governance
- Review core workflows including triage, investigation, containment, and recovery
- Assess use of SIEM, SOAR, EDR, threat intelligence, and supporting platforms
- Benchmark Maturity Against Industry Standards and Peers
- Rate SOC maturity against frameworks such as NIST CSF, IEC 62443, ISO 27001, and MITRE ATT&CK
- Compare performance against peers in your sector, geography, and size
- Identify areas of strength, opportunity, and underperformance
- Identify Capability Gaps Across People, Process, and Technology
- Surface gaps in detection coverage, response playbooks, and automation
- Highlight shortfalls in staffing, skills, and sourcing models
- Pinpoint tooling overlaps, blind spots, and integration weaknesses
- Deliver a Prioritized, Business-Aligned Roadmap
- Translate findings into actionable, prioritized improvements
- Align remediation with strategic, operational, and regulatory priorities
- Provide an achievable phased plan with clear milestones and outcomes
Business Outcomes & Benefits
- Identification of Security Operations Gaps Aligned to Industry Best Practice
- Measured against recognized frameworks such as NIST CSF, IEC 62443, and ISO 27001
- Greater transparency between business goals and technological controls
- Improved alignment of governance, risk, and compliance efforts with operational security
- Prioritized, Business-Focused, Risk-Based Roadmap
- Clear set of prioritized actions targeting the most impactful gaps first
- Improved cyber resilience across monitoring, detection, and response capabilities
- Support for future growth, transformation, and strategic business opportunities
- Flexible, Scalable Security Operations Architecture
- Foundations for adapting swiftly to evolving threats, technologies, and regulations
- Support for secure expansion, innovation, and adoption of new services
- Reduced technical debt and operational fragility over time
- Clear Link Between Cybersecurity Investment and Business Objectives
- Mapping of controls and investments to broader business goals
- Clearer understanding of which measures deliver the greatest value
- Smarter resource allocation and prioritization of spend
- Improved Detection, Response, and Recovery Capability
- Stronger readiness to detect, contain, and recover from cyber incidents
- Reduced dwell time, mean time to detect (MTTD), and mean time to respond (MTTR)
- Greater confidence in managing both routine events and high-impact threats
- Enhanced Stakeholder and Regulatory Confidence
- Credible evidence of operational maturity for regulators, insurers, and auditors
- Strengthened reporting to boards, executives, and committees
- Improved outcomes in certifications, assessments, and third-party reviews
Key Features
- Global Consistency and Peer Benchmarking
- Standardized methodology, reporting, and benchmarking approach
- Comparison of your operations against peers worldwide
- Consistent, credible, and repeatable results across regions and business units
- Holistic Baseline Evaluation
- Comprehensive review of people, processes, and controls in your SOC environment
- Coverage of governance, operations, engineering, and threat intelligence functions
- Clear identification of performance gaps, inefficiencies, and risks
- Framework-Aligned Maturity Assessment
- Evaluation against NIST CSF, IEC 62443, ISO 27001, and MITRE ATT&CK
- Integration with relevant sector-specific standards and regulations
- Measurable maturity ratings across defined capability domains
- Action-Oriented, Business-Aligned Roadmap
- Prioritized remediation plan linked to business risk and strategic priorities
- Phased delivery approach with quick wins and longer-term transformation
- Clear traceability between findings, recommendations, and outcomes
- Onsite and Virtual Assessment Delivery
- Interviews, workshops, and observation sessions with operational teams
- Document and evidence review for policies, procedures, and runbooks
- Optional hands-on review of tooling, use cases, and detection content
- Detection and Response Capability Deep-Dive
- Evaluation of use case coverage and mapping to MITRE ATT&CK
- Review of playbooks, automation, and incident management processes
- Assessment of threat intelligence integration and operationalization
- Technology and Platform Review
- Evaluation of SIEM, SOAR, EDR, NDR, and supporting platforms
- Integration, coverage, and effectiveness assessment
- Rationalization and optimization recommendations
- Alignment with Eristotle Frameworks
- Grounded in ISOBOK™, the consensus-driven standard for ISO professionals
- Draws on AIBOK, CWBOK, and Eristotle competency frameworks for breadth and depth
- Consistent, credible, and transferable approach across engagements
Deliverables
- Summary Presentation (PowerPoint)
- Executive-level view of top findings, themes, and recommendations
- Clear visual summary of maturity ratings and benchmarking
- Ready-to-use for board, executive, and committee briefings
- Detailed Assessment Report (PDF)
- In-depth analysis of current-state capabilities across people, process, and technology
- Maturity ratings mapped to industry frameworks and benchmarks
- Evidence-based findings with supporting observations and rationale
- Maturity Rating Dashboards
- Visual representations of security posture across key capability domains
- Comparison of current-state, target-state, and benchmark positions
- Clear heatmaps highlighting strengths, gaps, and priorities
- Prioritized Remediation Roadmap
- Phased plan of prioritized recommendations across short, medium, and long term
- Clear mapping of actions to risks, frameworks, and business outcomes
- Resource, effort, and impact indicators to support planning
- Detection Coverage & Use Case Review
- Analysis of detection coverage against MITRE ATT&CK and relevant threat models
- Recommendations to close detection gaps and optimize existing content
- Suggested improvements to use case lifecycle and tuning processes
- Process & Playbook Recommendations
- Gap analysis of incident response, triage, and escalation processes
- Recommended improvements to runbooks, playbooks, and automation
- Template enhancements and quick-win opportunities
- Technology Optimization Recommendations
- Assessment of SIEM, SOAR, EDR, and related platform effectiveness
- Recommendations for rationalization, integration, and enhancement
- Input to architecture, tooling, and investment decisions
- Project Timelines & Delivery Plan
- Phased implementation timeline with milestones and dependencies
- Alignment with broader security, transformation, and business plans
- Support for budget, resource, and governance planning
- Executive Summary & Board Briefing Pack
- Concise, visual summary designed for board-level engagement
- Business-focused narrative framing maturity, risk, and investment
- Talking points and Q&A support for executive sponsors
How We Deliver
Our Capability Maturity Review is highly adaptable and tailored to your environment, operating model, sector, and business drivers. We combine structured assessment methodology with hands-on engagement to ensure the findings and recommendations are realistic, actionable, and enduring.
- Discovery & Scoping
- Engagement kick-off with security leadership to confirm scope, objectives, and success criteria
- Identification of key stakeholders, systems, and documentation required
- Agreement on frameworks, benchmarks, and maturity scales to be applied
- Evidence Gathering
- Review of policies, standards, procedures, runbooks, and prior assessments
- Collection of operational metrics, use case inventories, and tooling documentation
- Onsite or virtual observation of SOC operations where appropriate
- Workshops & Interviews
- Structured interviews with SOC leadership, analysts, engineers, and stakeholders
- Facilitated workshops with IT, risk, incident response, and business leaders
- Deep-dive sessions on critical processes such as incident response, threat intelligence, and detection engineering
- Analysis & Benchmarking
- Evaluation of current-state capabilities against NIST CSF, IEC 62443, ISO 27001, and MITRE ATT&CK
- Comparison with peer organizations in similar industries and regions
- Synthesis of findings into clear themes, gaps, and opportunities
- Roadmap Development
- Co-creation of a prioritized, phased roadmap with security leadership
- Alignment of recommendations with business, risk, and regulatory priorities
- Impact, effort, and dependency modeling to support investment decisions
- Executive & Stakeholder Engagement
- Presentation of findings and roadmap to security leaders, executives, and the board
- Facilitation of alignment and endorsement sessions
- Support for securing sponsorship, funding, and governance commitments
- Handover & Enablement
- Transfer of all reports, dashboards, and supporting materials to internal owners
- Walkthroughs to embed understanding of findings, recommendations, and methodology
- Optional ongoing advisory via related Eristotle services to support execution
Ultimately, Eristotle’s Security Operations Capability Maturity Review empowers you to build a more efficient, robust, and resilient security foundation, one that is ready to meet current and future challenges, and demonstrably aligned with business objectives.
Ready to Benchmark, Strengthen, and Mature Your Security Operations?
Partner with Eristotle to assess your Security Operations against industry standards and peers, uncover capability gaps, and build a prioritized roadmap for stronger detection, response, and resilience. Book a free 30-minute discovery call with an Eristotle advisor. No commitment required.