A Sociotechnical, Practitioner-Centered Approach to Technology Adoption in Cybersecurity Operations: An LLM Case

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Hahn, Francis, Mamoon, Mohd, Bardas, Alexandru G., Collins, Michael, Lende, Daniel, Ou, Xinming, Rajagopalan, S. Raj
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
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author Hahn, Francis
Mamoon, Mohd
Bardas, Alexandru G.
Collins, Michael
Lende, Daniel
Ou, Xinming
Rajagopalan, S. Raj
author_facet Hahn, Francis
Mamoon, Mohd
Bardas, Alexandru G.
Collins, Michael
Lende, Daniel
Ou, Xinming
Rajagopalan, S. Raj
contents Technology for security operations centers (SOCs) has a storied history of slow adoption due to concerns about trust and reliability. These concerns are amplified with artificial intelligence, particularly large language models (LLMs), which exhibit issues such as hallucinations and inconsistent outputs. To assess whether LLM-based tools can improve SOC efficiency, we embedded two PhD researchers within a multinational company SOC for six months of ethnographic fieldwork. We identified recurring challenges, such as repetitive tasks, fragmented/unclear data, and tooling bottlenecks, and collaborated directly with practitioners to develop LLM companion tools aligned with their operational needs. Iterative refinement reduced workflow disruption and improved interpretability, leading from skepticism to sustained adoption. Ethnographic analysis indicates that this shift was enabled by our sociotechnical co-creation process consistent with Nonaka's SECI model. This framework explains the common challenges in traditional SOC technology adoption, including workflow misalignment, rigidity against evolving threats and internal requirements, and stagnation over time. Our findings show that the co-creation approach can overcome these old barriers and create a new paradigm for creating usable technology for cybersecurity operations.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_21679
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Sociotechnical, Practitioner-Centered Approach to Technology Adoption in Cybersecurity Operations: An LLM Case
Hahn, Francis
Mamoon, Mohd
Bardas, Alexandru G.
Collins, Michael
Lende, Daniel
Ou, Xinming
Rajagopalan, S. Raj
Cryptography and Security
Technology for security operations centers (SOCs) has a storied history of slow adoption due to concerns about trust and reliability. These concerns are amplified with artificial intelligence, particularly large language models (LLMs), which exhibit issues such as hallucinations and inconsistent outputs. To assess whether LLM-based tools can improve SOC efficiency, we embedded two PhD researchers within a multinational company SOC for six months of ethnographic fieldwork. We identified recurring challenges, such as repetitive tasks, fragmented/unclear data, and tooling bottlenecks, and collaborated directly with practitioners to develop LLM companion tools aligned with their operational needs. Iterative refinement reduced workflow disruption and improved interpretability, leading from skepticism to sustained adoption. Ethnographic analysis indicates that this shift was enabled by our sociotechnical co-creation process consistent with Nonaka's SECI model. This framework explains the common challenges in traditional SOC technology adoption, including workflow misalignment, rigidity against evolving threats and internal requirements, and stagnation over time. Our findings show that the co-creation approach can overcome these old barriers and create a new paradigm for creating usable technology for cybersecurity operations.
title A Sociotechnical, Practitioner-Centered Approach to Technology Adoption in Cybersecurity Operations: An LLM Case
topic Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.21679