Hackers, breaches, firewalls: inside the world of cybersecurity analysts

Cybersecurity
Design

Type Insight
Published 19 June 2025

Cybersecurity is often associated with firewalls, hackers in hoodies, or long strings of code. But behind the blinking dashboards and the encrypted layers, nothing would happen without the SOC analyst — the Security Operation Center specialist who defends the system from within. In a world where threats evolve by the minute and downtime is measured in millions, this profile doesn’t chase headlines — they prevent them. Quietly, methodically, relentlessly.

Anticipate, detect, react: the core of the job

SOC analysts don’t just monitor. They anticipate vulnerabilities and cyberattacks — 24/7.

While the rest of the company sleeps, they’re watching traffic spikes, scanning for anomalies, geolocation mismatches, and ghost API (Application Programming Interface) calls. A sudden burst of DNS (Domain Name System) activity might be harmless — or the start of a breach. Either way, it’s their call.

Their role sits at the intersection between vigilance and action. One foot in deep technical analysis, the other in fast-paced decision-making. There’s no room for doubt. When a potential breach occurs, it’s seconds — not hours — that count.

SOC analysts protect critical systems where failure means huge risk.

From hospitals facing ransomware that locks patient data to defence systems, from finance battling fraud on signing platforms to large-scale attacks on massive ticket sales for an international concert tour.

They don’t just detect threats—they actively defend by blocking attacks and isolating breaches in real time, keeping vital services secure and resilient.

What truly defines the SOC analyst is not just what they do, it’s how they think and behave: calm under pressure, detail-obsessed, ten steps ahead. Always simulating the hacker’s next move. Because the attacker is already out there. Testing, probing, adapting. And the analyst knows: if they blink, someone gets in.

Monitoring © Thales
Analysing © Thales
Monitoring dashboards © Adobe Stock

The Daily Reality: complexity, tension, fatigue

By 6:00 a.m. the SOC is alert and drinking coffee. Dashboards flicker. Logs stream. Threat-intel feeds refresh every few seconds. In this room silence is not calm; it’s focus. The SOC analyst—cybersecurity manager, sentinel, first responder—scans thousands of data points, knowing one missed anomaly can turn into a headline before lunch.

“Typical day” doesn’t exist. Alerts come in waves—99% noise, 1% critical. Tools overlap, logs pile up, escalations cascade. The pressure is constant, the fatigue real. Add to that:

Real-time decisions based on incomplete data
Cross-functional coordination — IT, risk, legal and ops when minutes matter
High financial and reputational stakes
Invisible victories but public, loud failures

And yet, they stay — not for the praise, but for the impact. Stopping an attack before it starts? That’s the win.

I was buried in SIEM alerts (Security Information and Event Management) when I spotted a login from a known malicious IP — into the CFO’s account. MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) had been bypassed. This wasn’t noise; it was a live breach. We isolated the threat, shut down sessions, and uncovered a planted backdoor via a reverse proxy. It was a near miss — a high-critical fraud, stopped just in time.
That day reminded me: trust your instincts, move fast, and never underestimate the hackers.

Cybersecurity, a moving target

The work doesn’t just get harder — it gets smarter.

Hackers have always been relentless — constantly probing for weak spots to steal data, take control, or trigger damage. Today, they’re faster and smarter. With AI, they mimic user behaviour, launch phishing at scale, and deploy malware that hides in plain sight.

The attack scope keeps growing:

Cloud services
Remote endpoints
SaaS platforms
Legacy systems still running side-by-side with modern infrastructure
...

Security teams must constantly retrain, rethink, and retool. Yesterday’s detection logic can be obsolete by noon. SOC mindset, strategy in motion—always predict tomorrow’s breach.

Tools of the trade: When speed meets precision

To keep up with evolving threats, the SOC analyst depends on a robust Thales ecosystem. Meaning fast, reliable, integrated tools. Their environment includes:

SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) platforms for correlating and visualizing events
Threat intelligence feeds for contextual insights
SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) tools, a set of services and tools that automate cyberattack prevention and response
WAFs (Web Application Firewalls) and DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service), shields for real-time perimeter defense
Encrypted storage and data protection systems to secure what matters most

At Thales, our mission is to help them act faster, see clearer, and stay in control. Our cybersecurity products are designed to provide:

Real-time detection of anomalies
Automatic correlation of multi-source alerts
Behavioral analysis to identify subtle threats
Encryption, identity & access management built into every layer

Because under real attack, you don’t get a second chance.

Designing for a SOC analyst: A different kind of responsibility

When we design for a SOC analyst, we don’t design “features.” It’s about enhancing situational awareness, sharpening critical decisions and removing friction when every second counts and every click could make — or lose — millions.

Understand the constraint: three seconds to grasp the situation.
Co-create: “Pair Up” working with analysts by aligning business goals and user realities; “Four in a Box” aligns PMs, Tech Leads, Security Managers, UX Designers.
Amplify clarity: Clear visual hierarchy, one-click containment, context auto-surfaced—no hunting.
Bulletproof simplicity: Interfaces must be intuitive at 3 a.m. after an eight-hour shift.

Every alert, every dashboard, every response flow — it must just perfectly work. Because when your user is a SOC analyst, “usable” is never enough.

SOC analysts won’t appear on stage or in press releases, but they are the reason systems keep running, data stays private, and reputations remain intact. Designing for them is both privilege and responsibility: every pixel we place can help them make the right decision in the seconds that count.