The SOC Magnificent Quadrant: A Framework for Measuring SOC Performance

In cybersecurity, measuring the effectiveness of your SOC is crucial for maintaining robust defense mechanisms. Whether you’re evaluating an outsourced SOC team, your internal L1 SOC team, or an AI-powered SOC, understanding performance metrics can help you optimize your security posture and resource allocation.

The Four Quadrants of SOC Performance

The SOC Magnificent Quadrant framework provides a conceptual model to evaluate SOC performance based on two critical dimensions: accuracy and escalation rate. This framework divides SOC performance into four distinct categories, each with its own distinct characteristics and implications.

Quadrant 1: High Accuracy but High Escalation Rate

In this quadrant, your SOC prioritizes accuracy in threat detection, even if it means escalating more issues to higher-tier analysts. This approach ensures critical threats are identified but comes with a higher workload for your security team. While effective at catching threats, it may strain resources and lead to analyst fatigue over time.

Acceptable scenarios for Quadrant 1:

• Highly sensitive environments where missing a threat could be catastrophic
• Periods of known increased threat activity
• Training new SOC analysts who need oversight

Quadrant 2: High Accuracy and Low Escalation Rate

The ideal state for most organizations, this quadrant represents optimal threat detection with minimal resource use. SOCs operating in this quadrant demonstrate efficiency and effectiveness, accurately identifying genuine threats while minimizing false positives that would require escalation.

Key benefits of Quadrant 2:

• Reduced analyst fatigue
• More focused attention on genuine threats
• Better resource utilization
• Higher overall security posture with lower operational costs

Quadrant 3: Low Accuracy and High Escalation Rate

This represents the least desirable state for a SOC. Low accuracy in threat detection combined with frequent escalations creates an inefficient system that overwhelms security teams with false positives. This can lead to alert fatigue, wasted resources, and missed threats as analysts become desensitized.

Warning signs you’re in Quadrant 3:

• Analysts complaining about alert fatigue
• High number of false positives
• Increasing backlog of security incidents
• Missed genuine threats due to overwhelmed resources

Quadrant 4: Low Accuracy but Low Escalation Rate

While this approach may seem efficient from a workload perspective, it represents an ineffective threat detection strategy. The low escalation rate provides a false sense of security, and the low accuracy means real threats could be missed entirely.

Risks of operating in Quadrant 4:

• Potential for significant breaches to go undetected
• Difficulty measuring true security posture
• Misplaced confidence in existing strategies and tools

Applying the Framework to Different SOC Models

For Outsourced SOC Teams

When evaluating a managed security service provider (MSSP), the quadrant framework provides clear metrics to assess their performance. Request data on their accuracy rates and escalation patterns to determine in which quadrant they typically operate.

The best providers will demonstrate consistent performance in Quadrant 2, with occasional shifts to Quadrant 1 when necessary during critical incidents.

For Internal L1 SOC Teams

For organizations with in-house security teams, the framework provides a valuable training and performance measurement tool. Track team performance across the quadrants over time, identifying trends and improvement opportunities.

Use the framework in analyst training to help team members understand the balance between thoroughness and efficiency.

For AI-Powered SOC Solutions

AI and machine learning solutions promise to revolutionize security operations, but they need proper evaluation. Use the quadrant framework to benchmark AI performance against human analysts.

Effective AI solutions should progressively move toward Quadrant 2 as they learn from your environment, reducing both false positives and false negatives over time.

Attaining Quadrant 2 SOC Performance Status

Regardless of your/your vendor’s/your service provider’s current position in the Magnificent Quadrant, the goal should be continuous improvement toward Quadrant 2. This journey requires:

1. Regular performance measurement and benchmarking
2. Balancing automation with human expertise
3. Creating feedback loops to learn from both successful and unsuccessful detections
4. Continuous refinement of detection rules and playbooks
5. Investment in analyst training and tools (for your internal L1 SOC team)

How Intezer Performs in the SOC Magnificent Quadrant

We’re proud to say our Autonomous SOC is firmly positioned in Quadrant 2 (High Accuracy and Low Escalation Rate), as demonstrated by our 2024 performance metrics:

High Accuracy

• 97.68% accuracy rate for alerts classified as requiring no action.
• 93.45% accuracy rate for escalated alerts.
• Overall, 80.93% of alerts were definitively classified as either confirmed threats or false positives

These metrics reflect our commitment to delivering highly accurate threat detection, giving security teams confidence in the verdicts provided. 

Low Escalation Rate

• Only 3.81% of alerts required escalation to higher-tier analysts.
• 68.40% of alerts were resolved without further action needed.
• Alerts were processed in an average of just 2 minutes and 21 seconds.

This efficiency allows security teams to focus their attention on the small percentage of alerts that truly require human expertise, dramatically reducing alert fatigue and optimizing resource allocation.

This combination of high accuracy and low escalation rates provides the optimal balance between effective threat detection and minimal resource consumption—exactly what modern security operations require.

Scale and Breadth

Our solution’s performance is particularly noteworthy given its scale of operations. In 2024, Intezer’s Autonomous SOC processed over 5.4 million alerts across 500+ customer environments. The platform tackled a diverse array of alert types, spanning endpoint, cloud, identity, and network, among other security domains.

Verification Process

We maintain our Quadrant 2 position through a rigorous verification process:

• Approximately 5% of all alerts undergo manual review by our analysts and users
• Random sampling by expert analysts provides ongoing performance evaluation
• Direct user feedback from security professionals adds real-world validation
• Results are calculated with a 95% confidence level and margin of error less than 2%

You can read more about our rigorous accuracy testing in our 2024 year in review blog post.

Sustainable SOC Performance

The SOC Magnificent Quadrant isn’t just a measurement framework—it’s a strategic tool for thinking about security operations. By understanding where your SOC performance currently falls and where you want it to be, you can make informed decisions about investments, training, and process improvements.

Today, finding that sweet spot of high accuracy with low escalation rates is essential for sustainable security operations that protect your organization without burning out your team. 

Intezer is committed to helping you achieve and maintain Quadrant 2 status. Take a tour of our platform to learn more.

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