As ransomware attacks continue to rise exponentially across all business types and across the globe, there is one true advantage that these bad actors give the customer. When a bad actor successfully enters the environment, they spend an industry average of 212 days planning their attack. This planning entails learning the security tools you have in place, finding ways to move around the environment unnoticed, and building an inventory of your critical resources and data. This window allows the Security Operations Center (SOC) time to find the bad actor and prevent the attack, while fixing the exploits that gained them entry in the first place. The challenge is that a mature SOC is both expensive and takes a long time to build. Enter SOC-as-a-Service. (SOCaaS)
SOCaaS can be any cloud-based, managed security operations center. The terms MDR (managed detection and response) and XDR (extended detection and response) are thrown around loosely in the industry by security vendors. A true SOCaaS will be both MDR and XDR. The service will be managed, giving you the benefit of having security experts who analyze, respond to, and hunt for threats in your environment. The service will be extended. This means data will not only be gathered from endpoints, but will monitor IDS/IPS, VPNs, firewalls, cloud, and any other point in the environment where security telemetry resides.
Most organizations do not have a mature SOC capable of dealing with the amount of security telemetry and alerts that are present across the environment. Lack of time and skills makes it increasingly hard to recognize the value of existing security tools scattered throughout the environment. Business’ scale quickly and the SOC must constantly scale with it. Compliance and cyber-insurance requirements also drive the need for a mature SOC to consistently keep up with these requirements. SOCaaS allows organizations to take advantage of cyber security skill sets that are both expensive and increasingly hard to find, while staying compliant and secure.
SOCaaS will consolidate and correlate all security data into one point of truth. The correlation of security information will reduce the time taken to review false positives and narrow the focus on the true threats in the organization. Investment will be realized from existing tools in the environment, and IT employees can refocus their time on tasks that provide more value to the business, such as innovation and application support.
As organizations start to recognize the value of consolidating all security tools, the logical choice becomes SOCaaS. For small to medium sized organizations, a full SOCaaS may be required. For larger organizations, the need for SOCaaS may only be for blind spots, or compliance needs. Wherever your business falls, an investment in SOCaaS is an investment well spent. As everyone in the industry says, it is not a matter of if, but when a ransomware attack will occur in your environment. SOCaaS is your “eye in the sky” that makes it nearly impossible to move around the environment undetected.
SOCaaS is possibly the best cyber insurance an organization can have. Please contact Advizex to learn how SOCaaS can help your organization stay protected from cyber threats today, tomorrow, and into the future.