[Paper Review] Sonification in security operations centres: what do security practitioners think?

Louise Axon, Bushra Alahmadi+3 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Jul 17, 2018

User Authentication and Security Systems33 references4 citations

TL;DR

This study investigates security practitioners' perspectives on integrating sonification—using sound to represent network data—into Security Operations Centres (SOCs). Through surveys and interviews with 41 SOC professionals, the research identifies peripheral monitoring and anomaly detection as key use-cases, while highlighting challenges related to fatigue, complexity, and integration, leading to design requirements for effective, low-fatigue, flexible sonification systems in high-pressure SOC environments.

ABSTRACT

In Security Operations Centres (SOCs) security practitioners work using a range of tools to detect and mitigate malicious computer-network activity. Sonification, in which data is represented as sound, is said to have potential as an approach to addressing some of the unique challenges faced by SOCs. For example, sonification has been shown to enable peripheral monitoring of processes, which could aid practitioners multitasking in busy SOCs. The perspectives of security practitioners on incorporating sonification into their actual working environments have not yet been examined, however. The aim of this paper therefore is to address this gap by exploring attitudes to using sonification in SOCs. We report on the results of a study consisting of an online survey (N=20) and interviews (N=21) with security practitioners working in a range of different SOCs. Our contribution is a refined appreciation of the contexts in which sonification could aid in SOC working practice, and an understanding of the areas in which sonification may not be beneficial or may even be problematic.We also analyse the critical requirements for the design of sonification systems and their integration into the SOC setting. Our findings clarify insights into the potential benefits and challenges of introducing sonification to support work in this vital security-monitoring environment.

Motivation & Objective

• To understand how security practitioners in SOCs perceive the integration of sonification into their daily workflows.
• To identify practical use-cases where sonification could enhance monitoring and detection tasks in SOCs.
• To uncover challenges and design requirements for sonification systems in real SOC environments, particularly regarding fatigue, complexity, and usability.
• To inform the development of effective, user-centered sonification tools tailored to the unique demands of SOC operations.

Proposed method

• Conducted an online survey with 20 security practitioners to gather initial perspectives on sonification use-cases.
• Carried out semi-structured interviews with 21 SOC practitioners to explore attitudes, challenges, and design needs in depth.
• Developed and demonstrated a network-packet sonification prototype during interviews to ground discussions in tangible auditory representations.
• Refined use-cases through iterative feedback, discarding those deemed impractical or unbeneficial based on practitioner input.
• Analyzed interview data to extract design requirements focusing on sound complexity, personalization, and fatigue mitigation.
• Used qualitative analysis to identify integration challenges related to SOC noise, network complexity, and cognitive load.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 In what specific contexts of SOC work could sonification provide tangible benefits?
• RQ2 What challenges do security practitioners foresee in integrating sonification into their existing workflows?
• RQ3 What design requirements are essential for sonification systems to be effective and usable in real SOC environments?
• RQ4 How do practitioners perceive the risks of distraction and listener fatigue in sonification-based monitoring?
• RQ5 What role does sonification play in supporting peripheral monitoring and anomaly detection compared to traditional visualization tools?

Key findings

• Security practitioners identified peripheral monitoring—especially while multitasking or outside the SOC—as a primary and promising use-case for sonification.
• Anomaly detection using sonification was seen as a viable complement to existing visualization techniques, particularly for identifying deviations from normal network behavior.
• Listener fatigue was a major concern, with many practitioners warning that prolonged exposure to sonified data could impair performance and reduce usability.
• There is a strong need for low-complexity auditory displays to minimize cognitive load, especially for non-primary monitoring tasks.
• Practitioners emphasized that sonification systems must be flexible, customizable, and adaptable to different SOC types, network baselines, and job roles.
• Training and system tuning were identified as critical challenges, with significant time required to calibrate sonification to a network's 'normal' behavior and to train users to interpret the sounds effectively.