Building a Global SOC Framework: Integrating SIEM and SOAR for Effective Cross-Border Cybercrime Prosecution

by

Prabhu Rajasekar

CyJurII Scholar

on 26 August 2025

Abstract

The growing complexity of transnational cybercrimes necessitates the establishment of a coordinated Security Operations Center (SOC) model that integrates Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) systems. Such a framework, operated regionally and connected globally through the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), can serve as a central hub for collecting, analyzing, and sharing evidence across multiple jurisdictions working with Public and Private sectors as Cyber Security works well only if there is shared responsibility. This article explores the urgent need for this model, emphasizing how proactive, reactive, and interactive monitoring of attack vectors, offenders combined with integration of law enforcement agencies and judicial authorities, Public sectors, private sectors that can accelerate the path from crime reporting to prosecution and conviction. A crypto-investment scam case study illustrates how a UN-driven SOC could strengthen evidence collection and ensure timely disruption of organized cybercrime networks.

Keywords: Security Operations Center (SOC), SIEM, SOAR, UNODC, Cybercrime, Digital Evidence, International Criminal Law

1. Introduction

Cybercrime is borderless, fast-moving, and increasingly organized. Criminals exploit jurisdictional gaps, while victims and investigators remain trapped in fragmented national systems. Traditional investigative approaches are too slow to respond to crimes that evolve in real-time, particularly financial fraud, ransomware, and online scams. The solution is the creation of a UNODC-operated global SOC network, equipped with SIEM and SOAR technologies. Unlike siloed national efforts, such a system would act as both a nerve center for monitoring threats and an evidence vault for securing digital proof before it disappears. By combining technology with the authority of the UN, this framework would enable proactive detection, reactive investigation, and interactive support for live cases, shortening the path from crime reporting to conviction.

2. The Case for a UNODC-Operated SOC

Breaking Down the Acronyms

• SOC (Security Operations Center): A 24/7 command hub where cybersecurity experts monitor, detect, and respond to threats.

• SIEM (Security Information and Event Management): Tools that collect and analyze logs, alerts, and traffic patterns across systems, helping investigators spot anomalies early.

• SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response): Platforms that automate incident responses (e.g., blocking IPs, freezing accounts) and coordinate workflows across teams.

• UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime): The UN body responsible for combating organized crime, with the global reach and legitimacy to coordinate international cybercrime responses.

2.1 Regional/Cluster-Level Hubs

• Regional SOCs would act as clusters, connecting law enforcement, prosecutors, and courts across neighboring states.

• They would pool resources, share cyber threat intelligence, and provide states with limited technical capacity access to world-class infrastructure.

• At every level like cluster, regional, states and international level all the Public and Private sectors Point of Contacts from Cyber Crime are integrated for a expedited coordination at transnational level uniting mutiple jurisdicational level.  

2.2 Global Integration via UNODC

• Regional hubs would link into a UNODC-coordinated global SOC, ensuring standardized evidence handling and compatibility with international instruments such as the Budapest Convention and the forthcoming UN Cybercrime Convention.

• This would create a cross-border chain of custody for digital evidence, reducing disputes about admissibility in prosecutions.

2.3 Functional Capabilities

• Proactive Monitoring: Scanning the internet, messaging channel platforms, social media, and dark web for attack vectors and threat actors. We can use the National Interest, Vital Interests, Legitimate Interests as tool from data protection act and use homomorphic encrytion during monitoring without exposing the actual data in a secured way of monitoring. 

• Reactive Response: Preserving evidence in real time when crimes are reported.

• Interactive Operations: Assisting live investigations with joint intelligence feeds, coordinated raids, and judicial collaboration when there are multiple jurisdication dependency is there.

3. Case Study: A Cross-Border Crypto Scam

The Crime:

1. Criminals create a WhatsApp “investment group.”

2. Victims are lured with small payouts to build trust.

3. Larger investments are solicited under the promise of high returns.

4. The group disappears with the victims’ money.

How a UNODC SOC Framework Would Work:

• SIEM flags suspicious activity patterns across telecom and online platforms when the victim raises a incident in the respective jurisdication. 

• SOAR automates evidence collection: phone numbers, WhatsApp groups, IP addresses, geolocation data, blockchain transactions, and linked social media accounts.

• Regional SOCs correlate the evidence and map it to persons of interest in the respective jurisdication and linking all Public/Private Sectors.

• The UNODC global SOC coordinates law enforcement across jurisdictions, freezing assets, issuing rapid legal orders, and arresting suspects. An expedited evidence collection and the respective Public sectors, Private sectors from the jurisdiction works to collect all evidences effectively before they disappear.

Outcome: Instead of losing valuable evidence or letting criminals vanish, investigators would build a prima facie case supported by primary, secondary, and corroborative evidence, leading to swift prosecution and conviction. Victim reports the case in the respective Jurisdiction and the incident related evidence is collected aligning with all Public, Private sectors and assigned to respective Law enforcement, Judiciary for prosecution and conviction. This way there is expedited investigation, collection of evidences in a forensically sound manner, Paralegal works are automated, Litigation can be drafted easily and litigation is handled in the correct jurisdiction through this AI enabled SOC systems and making the Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) tool of the UN System to make it effective and possible.

4. Conclusion and Policy Postulates

The creation of a multi-layered SOC framework, regionally clustered and globally connected through UNODC, is no longer optional, it is essential.

4. 1. Current reality (de lege lata): Evidence gathering is slow, jurisdiction-bound, and prone to evidentiary loss.

4. 2. Future vision (de lege ferenda):

• Establish regional SOCs integrating law enforcement and judiciary.

• Link them globally under UNODC governance.

• Deploy SIEM and SOAR for real-time event detection, automation, and evidence preservation.

• Incorporate tri-modal intelligence:

  • Proactive (attack vector monitoring)

  • Reactive (crime reporting response)

  • Interactive (live case support).

Such a framework would not only speed up prosecutions and convictions but also send a strong deterrent message: cybercriminals can no longer hide behind digital borders and keep them anonymized. Security Operations Center (SOC) with SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) and SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response integrating Public and Private sectors all levels from the states to UNODC being the top umbrella liaising and working with multijurisdictional making the Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) to yield positive results.