--- title: "Does the Applicant have a Security Operations Center (SOC) monitored 24/7?" url: https://insuranceposture.com/questions/network-and-logging/applicant-security-operations-center-monitored-24-7 category: "Network, logging and monitoring" canonical_key: q_aud_006 evidence_state: attested updated: 2026-08-24 --- # Does the Applicant have a Security Operations Center (SOC) monitored 24/7? URL: https://insuranceposture.com/questions/network-and-logging/applicant-security-operations-center-monitored-24-7 Section: Network, logging and monitoring Evidence state: Attested, not tenant-verifiable Ransomware is deployed at three in the morning on a Sunday for a reason. This question asks whether anyone is watching then. ## What the carrier is actually asking The carrier is asking whether security alerts are monitored around the clock, in-house or through a provider. It is asking about coverage hours and about the ability to respond, not only to observe. ## Why it is underwritten Attackers deliberately act outside business hours because the gap between detection and response is longest then. An alert raised at two on Saturday morning and read on Monday has bought nothing. Carriers price the response window because it determines how much of the estate is affected. ## Where the answer lives in Microsoft 365, Entra ID, and Azure Monitoring arrangements are contractual and procedural, so this is attested. The telemetry that feeds them is measurable. | Platform | Where the setting lives | What has to be true | | --- | --- | --- | | Provider contract | Coverage hours, response service levels, and escalation path | Genuine round-the-clock coverage with a defined response time. Attested | | Provider scope | Which sources the provider monitors | Identity, endpoint, and cloud control plane, not endpoint alone, which is a common and narrow scope | | Authority | What the provider can do without waiting for you | Ability to isolate a device or disable an account, since observation without authority delays containment | | Azure | Alert routing configuration and severity thresholds | High-severity alerts routed to the monitored destination rather than staying in the portal | | Testing | Whether the escalation path has been exercised | A test alert followed through to a human response, with the elapsed time recorded | **Check what the provider actually watches** Many managed detection contracts cover endpoint telemetry only. Identity-plane attacks, which is how most cloud intrusions begin, produce no endpoint alert at all. Confirming the source coverage is more important than the coverage hours. ## What a defensible yes requires - Coverage is genuinely continuous, whether in-house or outsourced. - The monitored sources include identity and cloud control plane, not only endpoints. - The provider has authority to contain, or your escalation path reaches someone who does within minutes. - Response service levels are contractual and measured. - The escalation path has been tested end to end. ## How this answer goes wrong The contract says round-the-clock and covers endpoint alerts only, so an identity-plane intrusion produces nothing to escalate. Or coverage is real and the escalation path ends at an on-call phone that nobody has answered in eighteen months because it has never been tested. ## If this answer turns out to be wrong Remote access exposure and log retention are what a forensic report describes first, which makes them the answers most often revisited after a loss. Whether anything follows from an inaccuracy depends on materiality, on the policy wording, and on the law of the governing state: [how an application answer ends in a denied claim](https://insuranceposture.com/glossary/claim-denial). The other consequence terms are collected in the [glossary](https://insuranceposture.com/glossary). ## Frequently asked ### Do we need our own security operations centre? No. An outsourced managed detection service is a normal and accepted answer for organisations of most sizes. ### What if we only cover business hours? Say so accurately. It is a common position and it affects how the carrier views your detection window. Overstating it is the thing to avoid. ### What sources should be monitored? Identity first, then endpoint, then cloud control plane, then network. Identity is where cloud intrusions start and where endpoint-only monitoring is blind. ### How do we evidence response times? Provider reporting on alert-to-response times, plus a test escalation with a recorded outcome. ## Related questions - [Is endpoint detection & response (EDR) deployed with central monitoring?](https://insuranceposture.com/questions/endpoint-and-patching/endpoint-detection-response-deployed-central-monitoring) - [Does the Applicant employ SIEM, log centralization, and audit logging across firewalls + IDS?](https://insuranceposture.com/questions/network-and-logging/applicant-employ-siem-log-centralization-audit-logging-across-firewalls) - [Does the Applicant employ intrusion detection/prevention?](https://insuranceposture.com/questions/network-and-logging/applicant-employ-intrusion-detection-prevention) - [Does the Applicant have a written Incident Response plan?](https://insuranceposture.com/questions/incident-response/applicant-written-incident-response-plan) --- Insurance Posture by SecValley. https://insuranceposture.com The question library is written in our own wording to reflect the control topics that recur across US cyber application and ransomware supplemental forms. No carrier form is republished. SecValley is not a law firm, an insurance broker, an agent, or a carrier, and holds no producer licence. Nothing here is insurance advice, legal advice, or a coverage determination, and no attorney-client relationship arises from reading it. Statements about what a party to a cited case did, knew, or intended are allegations drawn from court filings and contemporaneous reporting, not findings of fact. Your organization's authorized signer remains responsible for the accuracy of any application. Consult a licensed broker and qualified counsel before binding.