When it comes to protecting data and systems, speed is everything. The faster a Security Operations Center (SOC) can detect and respond to threats, the better the chances of avoiding damage. In this article, we’ll walk through 30 key stats that show how well SOCs are performing when it comes to speed. Each stat opens up a world of insight—and opportunity—for improving your own team’s efficiency.
1. The average dwell time for threats is 24 days.
This means threats can sit undetected for over three weeks. That’s a long time for bad actors to move laterally and do damage. To cut this number down, teams need better visibility into network traffic, endpoints, and cloud activity. Start by tuning detection rules to catch low-and-slow attacks.
Look into behavioral analytics tools that can flag anomalies that traditional alerts miss. It also helps to centralize log data and correlate it across systems. Make sure analysts aren’t overwhelmed with false positives so they can focus on what really matters.
Holding regular threat hunting exercises is a great way to reduce dwell time proactively. In short, to shrink dwell time, you need better data, smarter detection, and focused people.
2. 61% of organizations say it takes too long to detect threats.
That’s more than half of teams feeling behind the curve. A big reason for this is alert fatigue. SOC teams are bombarded with thousands of alerts daily. The key is to prioritize high-confidence alerts and use automation where possible.
Also, build detection playbooks so analysts know exactly what to look for when suspicious activity happens. Don’t underestimate the power of continuous training.
Your team should stay sharp and ready to spot the latest attack patterns. Lastly, reassess your tooling. If your current SIEM or EDR isn’t surfacing threats quickly, it may be time for a change.
3. 77% of alerts are not investigated.
This stat is alarming. Most alerts don’t even get a second look, which leaves doors wide open for attackers.
The reason? SOC teams are short-staffed and overburdened. One fix is to automate initial triage. Use SOAR platforms to enrich alerts and auto-close false positives. Also, suppress noisy rules or duplicate alerts.
It’s better to have fewer, more meaningful alerts. Another approach is tiered escalation. Let L1 analysts focus only on clear-cut issues, while more complex alerts go to L2.
Consider outsourcing alert triage during off-hours. By reducing alert volume and adding automation, you’ll ensure fewer alerts fall through the cracks.
4. Only 13% of organizations can detect threats within minutes.
Fast detection is rare. To join that elite 13%, you need real-time visibility and fast processing. First, ensure your monitoring tools are set up to ingest data without delay. Lagging logs can’t support fast detection. Second, deploy detection rules that trigger immediately on known threat patterns.
Third, connect all data sources—endpoint, network, cloud—so no threat slips between the cracks. You should also implement AI-driven analytics that constantly learn and improve.
Lastly, prepare your team with playbooks and drills. The more familiar they are with common attack paths, the quicker they’ll recognize the signs.
5. The average SOC responds to an incident in 6 hours.
Six hours can be an eternity in cybersecurity. Attackers can move fast—real fast. That’s why response time must improve. One way to shorten this is by automating repetitive tasks.
For example, isolating machines or pulling logs can be done automatically with SOAR. You should also set clear escalation paths.
Everyone on the team should know their role when an incident hits. Pre-approved response actions can also speed things up. Instead of waiting for approvals, define rules for when certain actions can be taken.
Constantly test your response process. Tabletop exercises help identify where delays occur and how to fix them.
6. 69% of SOC teams say alert triage takes too long.
When it takes hours to figure out if an alert is real, attackers gain time. Fixing triage starts with better data enrichment. Give your analysts more context up front. Also, consider using AI-assisted investigation tools that suggest next steps or flag likely threats.
Keep your alerts tightly tuned—no one should be spending time on low-quality signals. Another trick is to tag alerts by risk level. That way, teams focus on the most dangerous events first.
Finally, gather feedback from your analysts regularly to see which alerts waste the most time and need adjusting.
7. Median detection time for ransomware is 3 days.
Three days is long enough for ransomware to encrypt large parts of your network. To cut detection time, deploy endpoint detection tools with behavioral analytics. Look for early signs—file renaming, encryption routines, or abnormal file access. Keep backups separate and immutable.
They’re your safety net. And always patch known vulnerabilities, especially those exploited by ransomware gangs. Fast detection also relies on deception techniques like honeypots.
These can alert you the moment attackers poke around. Don’t forget to monitor user behavior. Insider misuse can be an early signal of upcoming ransomware events.
8. Only 34% of SOCs use automation for incident response.
Manual processes slow you down. By using automation, teams can quickly isolate systems, kill processes, or collect forensics without waiting. Start with small wins. Automate the basics—like sending alerts to Slack, opening tickets, or tagging alerts.
Then move to more advanced playbooks. For example, if a known malware hash is found, auto-quarantine that device. When automation is used smartly, it becomes a force multiplier.
It doesn’t replace analysts—it frees them up to focus on strategic threats. The goal is not full automation, but smart automation in the right places.
9. 47% of SOC analysts say they lack visibility into cloud assets.
If you can’t see it, you can’t protect it. Cloud environments add complexity, and many SOCs haven’t caught up. The fix? Deploy cloud-native security tools. These integrate directly with AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
You also need identity and access monitoring across your cloud stack. Many breaches start with stolen credentials.
Ensure you’re collecting logs from all services, not just compute instances. Use tools like CSPM to scan for misconfigurations. Your SOC should treat cloud just like on-prem—complete with visibility, detection, and response coverage.
10. On average, it takes 212 days to identify a breach.
This stat is shocking. 212 days is nearly 7 months. Breaches stay hidden because attackers know how to blend in. To fix this, focus on continuous monitoring. Set up user behavior baselines and flag deviations.
Also, correlate data from multiple sources—one alert may mean nothing, but three together tell a story.
Red teaming can expose blind spots in your detection process. Also, review access logs regularly. Stale accounts or unusual access patterns are often the first clue something’s wrong. Finally, rotate credentials and enforce MFA to limit attacker movement.
11. 62% of SOC teams experience alert fatigue.
Tired teams make mistakes. If your analysts are burned out from nonstop alerts, you need to change the system.
Start by measuring how many alerts are actually valuable. If only 5% lead to action, the rest are noise. Adjust your SIEM rules to reduce false positives. Also, rotate analysts so no one is stuck in triage forever.
Provide breaks and mental health resources. And remember—more alerts do not mean better security. Quality over quantity always wins. Empower your team to suppress low-value alerts and focus on critical signals.
12. 59% of threats are detected by external parties.
When someone else tells you that you’ve been breached, that’s a red flag. It means your internal defenses didn’t catch it. To improve, invest in threat detection tools that look beyond signatures.
Use behavior-based detection and threat intel feeds. Make sure logs are being collected and analyzed in real time.
Build detection rules for common tactics and techniques. And always run simulations. Test whether your SOC can detect specific actions—like credential stuffing or lateral movement. If they can’t, adjust your rules and tools accordingly.
13. 45% of SOCs do not have 24/7 coverage.
Attackers don’t work 9 to 5. If your SOC shuts down at night, you’re at risk.
Consider using a managed detection and response (MDR) partner to fill coverage gaps. You can also rotate shifts internally or outsource alert triage during off-hours. Make sure after-hours procedures are clear and well-documented.
If something happens at 2 AM, your team should know exactly what to do. Even if full 24/7 staffing isn’t feasible, coverage for key assets and high-priority alerts is a must. Don’t leave your crown jewels unprotected overnight.
14. 74% of SOCs say they need better threat intelligence.
Good threat intel helps teams spot threats faster and respond smarter. To improve, use both internal and external sources. Subscribe to trusted feeds and customize them for your environment.
Build your own internal threat library with IOCs you’ve seen. Integrate threat intel into your SIEM and detection tools. And always contextualize. Knowing a hash is bad is one thing—knowing it’s targeting your industry is even better.
Also, teach your analysts how to use threat intel during investigations. It’s not just data—it’s decision-making fuel.
15. 51% of SOC analysts say tool complexity slows them down.
Too many tools can become a problem. Jumping between dashboards wastes time and causes confusion.
Streamline your stack. Choose platforms that integrate well. Ideally, your SIEM, SOAR, and EDR should all talk to each other. Reduce overlap—don’t have three tools doing the same thing. Also, standardize workflows.
Create shared dashboards and common alert formats. This helps analysts move faster and with less friction. Provide training on your core tools and keep documentation up to date. Simpler tooling leads to faster, better decisions.
16. 48% of SOCs say staffing shortages limit their response speed.
Lack of people means slower reactions, delayed triage, and burnout. To address this, invest in automation for repetitive tasks. Use playbooks to guide less experienced analysts so they can take on more responsibility.
Also, look at cross-training IT staff to help during peak incidents. Don’t be afraid to use external partners for specialized tasks like threat hunting or forensic analysis. Consider hiring remote SOC talent to expand your pool.
And most importantly, make your workplace attractive to cybersecurity professionals. That means offering career growth, work-life balance, and ongoing learning opportunities.
17. 55% of SOCs report difficulty in managing too many alerts daily.
Too many alerts equal paralysis. The solution starts with tuning. Eliminate duplicate alerts and fine-tune noisy rules. Use correlation to combine related alerts into one. Prioritize alerts by severity and business impact.
Implement machine learning tools that can score alerts by risk. Educate your analysts on which alerts to escalate immediately and which ones can wait.
Review your alerting rules every quarter, especially after tool updates or architecture changes. And always track alert-to-incident ratios to measure effectiveness.
18. Only 18% of SOCs run daily threat hunts.
Threat hunting is proactive security. It helps find what automation misses. Daily hunts might seem ambitious, but even short, focused hunts can add value. Assign one analyst per day to explore a specific hypothesis—like checking for unusual RDP usage.
Use threat intel to fuel your hunts. Make it routine, not reactive. Keep track of findings, even if you discover nothing. That builds a baseline. Automate parts of the hunt, such as log collection.
Over time, your hunts will get smarter and faster, making your SOC more efficient and resilient.
19. The average SOC handles 11,000 alerts per day.
No human team can handle this volume manually. That’s why automation, suppression, and triage rules are essential. Start by breaking alerts into categories. Some should auto-close after correlation; others need human eyes.
Build suppression rules for known-good behavior. Integrate alerts into a SOAR system that automatically enriches and assigns tickets. Monitor your daily alert count and aim to reduce noise every week.
It’s a constant tuning process, but one that pays dividends in detection speed and analyst sanity.
20. 43% of SOCs lack visibility into encrypted traffic.
Encrypted traffic hides threats. To gain insight, deploy SSL inspection where legally and ethically appropriate. Use endpoint tools to monitor behavior instead of content. Network metadata—like traffic volume, timing, and destinations—can reveal patterns even without decryption.
Apply machine learning to spot odd patterns in encrypted sessions. Make sure your monitoring tools support TLS visibility features. If you’re blind to encrypted traffic, you’re blind to most of today’s threat vectors. Fixing this isn’t easy, but it’s essential.
21. 38% of SOCs still use spreadsheets for tracking incidents.
This slows everything down. Spreadsheets are hard to update, lack accountability, and don’t scale. Move to a proper incident tracking system. Look for solutions that integrate with your SIEM and ticketing tools.
Use dashboards to track incident stages and response times. Automate updates and notifications. Assign owners to every incident with clear SLAs. This alone can cut response time significantly. The goal is to spend time solving incidents, not documenting them manually.
22. Only 29% of SOCs simulate real-world attacks quarterly.
Simulations help test your detection and response under pressure. Without them, you’re guessing how your tools and team will perform. Make simulations part of your quarterly routine.
Use red team exercises, purple team engagements, or tabletop drills. Start with known attack paths like credential abuse or ransomware delivery. Measure how fast alerts are triggered, how long triage takes, and how clearly roles are followed.
Then improve your playbooks based on the gaps. The more you simulate, the sharper your SOC becomes.
23. Median time to contain an incident is 11 hours.
Eleven hours gives attackers a big window. Reducing this starts with faster detection, yes—but also faster decision-making.
Predefine containment actions: When do you isolate a host? When do you disable a user? Build runbooks for different attack types. Automate early containment tasks through SOAR.
Give your analysts authority to act within defined parameters—no waiting for approvals when every second counts. Track containment times per incident type and look for bottlenecks. Faster containment often comes down to clearer roles and less red tape.
24. 66% of SOC leaders say their team lacks enough contextual data.
Context is everything in threat detection. Without it, alerts don’t tell a full story. To fix this, enrich every alert with data like asset value, user identity, past behavior, and threat intel.
Use automation to pull this info in real time. Set up dashboards that give analysts a 360-degree view of incidents. Train analysts on how to find and interpret context fast.
Use tagging systems to flag VIP assets and critical data flows. The more context analysts have, the better—and faster—their decisions.
25. 41% of SOC teams say they can’t prioritize threats effectively.
Too many alerts and not enough context lead to confusion. Prioritization should start with risk scoring. Use a combination of asset criticality, threat type, and likelihood. Tag alerts by department or function.
A ransomware alert in finance might be more urgent than the same in a test lab. Implement a scoring matrix and review it often. Use visuals like heatmaps in your dashboards to guide decision-making.
Also, teach your team to think like an attacker—what would you target first? That mindset helps sharpen prioritization instincts.
26. Only 22% of SOCs use threat modeling.
Threat modeling helps teams understand likely attack paths before they happen.
Even a simple model can improve detection. Use frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK to map tactics to your environment. Build models for key applications and services. Run “what if” exercises with your team.
Ask: What happens if an attacker gets past email filters? How do they move from workstation to server? Map defenses to each step. Threat modeling doesn’t have to be formal—just useful.
The insights you gain can feed directly into detection logic and response planning.
27. 50% of SOCs don’t track mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to respond (MTTR).
What gets measured gets improved. Without MTTD and MTTR metrics, you’re flying blind. Set up dashboards to track these numbers per incident type. Compare performance month over month.
Celebrate improvements and investigate setbacks. Break down detection and response by analyst, tool, and time of day. This data can guide hiring, training, and tool investments. It also helps make the business case for more resources. Don’t just track the numbers—act on them.
28. 58% of SOC teams rely on manual steps for investigation.
Manual investigations take longer and increase the chance of errors. Start automating wherever you can. Automate data collection—log retrieval, IP reputation checks, and user lookup. Use playbooks that walk analysts through each step with links and scripts.
Preload dashboards with relevant incident context. Over time, build a library of common investigation patterns. If analysts spend less time gathering data, they can spend more time making decisions. That’s where the real value lies.
29. 72% of SOC analysts say they need better training to keep up.
Cyber threats evolve fast. Training can’t be a one-time event. Offer regular short training sessions based on recent incidents. Set aside weekly “lunch and learn” times. Send your analysts to conferences or virtual events. Encourage certifications, but also reward hands-on skill building.
Build internal labs or simulations where analysts can test tools and techniques. Create a culture of learning. When analysts feel confident, they work faster and smarter. It’s one of the best investments you can make.
30. 60% of SOCs plan to increase automation in the next 12 months.
This is a positive trend. But automation works best when it’s strategic. Don’t automate everything—start with tasks that are repetitive, high-volume, and low-risk. Use automation to reduce time-to-respond, enrich alerts, and guide investigations.
Test every playbook before deployment. Monitor how automation affects accuracy and workload. Collect feedback from analysts to fine-tune the process. Done right, automation doesn’t replace analysts—it makes them stronger. It lets your SOC scale without sacrificing quality.
wrapping it up
SOC speed isn’t just about faster tools—it’s about smarter people, better data, and repeatable processes. Every stat here tells a story, but more importantly, each one points to an opportunity.
Whether your SOC is struggling with alert overload or slow response, there’s a path forward. Start with one stat. Make one improvement. And watch your team get faster, stronger, and more effective at keeping threats at bay.
