by Anastasios Arampatzis
When it comes to Operation Centers, I can’t think anything less than a well hidden and protected infrastructure, where operators – experts of their kind – work with cutting edge technology, special tools and equipment to monitor and support ongoing operations in a timely manner. Accurate and timely decisions of great importance are taken, to assure that operations run smoothly like a well-oiled machine.
You will find Operation Centers running in many public organizations and private companies – Armed Forces, Police, Civil Protection, cargo and shipping companies. Everyone wants to monitor and control its operations. The same concept applies for a Security Operations Center (SOC): it monitors and detects possible threats and shores up digital environments against cybersecurity incidents.
What is a SOC?
A Security Operation Center (SOC) is a function within an organization, where personnel, procedures, processes and high tech equipment monitor, control and improve the security posture of an organization. SOC is responsible to detect, analyze and respond to cybersecurity threats as fast as possible, since reaction time is a critical factor, the bigger the delay, the bigger the cyber-attack impact on the organization’s tangible and intangible assets.
As a central hub, SOC monitors all organization’s IT infrastructures, devices, and networks residing in house or in the cloud. It gathers security information and logged events from different sources within its boundaries of interest; it analyzes incidents, makes decisions upon them and acts in a way that minimizes the cybersecurity risk.
How does it work?
SOC implements at the tactical level the organization’s security strategy developed by the CISOs and CSOs. The security strategy and policy has to be clearly defined, otherwise SOC teams can’t support operations effectively. Once the strategy is approved, SOC team is capable to strengthen the resilience of the organization and meet stakeholders’ needs.
In order to accomplish its mission, SOC is equipped with special tools and equipment: A security information and event management (SIEM) system, IPS/IDS, Firewalls, Incident detection tools, Advanced sandboxing mechanisms, Threat Intelligence feeds, Security Automation and Orchestration (SOAR) platforms and many more. On top lays the personnel, the security experts: SOC manager, security analysts, security investigators, incident responders, auditors. The SOC staff cooperates tightly with other internal teams to mitigate all security events by reducing their impact on organization’s operations; they monitor, correlate and analyze the IT infrastructure continuously to detect any abnormal sign that can be a potential cyber incident and take defensive actions. Advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data, assist security teams to act accurately and timely.
Reduced cost and 5 more benefits of a managed SOC
Given the increased threat surface and cybercriminals’ sophisticated attack techniques, the need for a SOC is more than necessary. In-house SOC tends to prove costly for an organization to implement and even more difficult to keep it at a high level of efficacy. Expert employees, special training, equipment procurement and tools maintenance need a lot of funding to keep optimized.
Thus, a lot of companies and organizations, especially the small ones, outsource their cybersecurity efforts as an all-in-one security solution to a managed security services provider (MSSP), through a cloud based service, a specialized managed SOC. Apart from cost, the following are five advantages of having an active SOC service subscription:
1. Minimal setup effort – Immediate access
By the time you sign the SOC service contract, your company has access to expertise. The service provider team audits your IT exposure and provides you with the best cybersecurity protection scheme, tailored to your needs with minimal implementation efforts.
2. Knowledge you can afford
Why bother yourself if your employees are skilled enough to deal with high tech cyber threats? If they have access to updated threat databases, tools and related information? And if they have, what will be the cost for you in order to keep them and their equipment updated? Managed SOC teams live together with the newest threat information; they update their skills and tools every single day setting more holistic SOC security controls. Advanced analytics, threat intelligence, and access to the cybersecurity global community are some of the tools provided through Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services. These experts work for you and care for the cybersecurity health of your company.
3. Regulatory compliance
The requirement to comply with a big volume of security, privacy, and industrial regulations, can become a painful procedure. Things will become more painful if your company fails to comply with certain norms, due to lack of personnel experience. Having a subscription with a certified and accredited MSSP, guarantees that your company remains at the legit side, adhering to regulations.
4. Flexibility and scalability
As your company grows, so does the investment you have to make to scale and maintain SOC operational flexibility. Otherwise, you will end up performing cybersecurity poorly. With a managed SOC service you pass that burden to industry professionals, who have everything needed to scale up your cybersecurity needs and to ensure the optimal cybersecurity performance of your business.
5. Clear roles
Outsourced teams have a well defined structure, with clear roles and responsibilities. This eliminates the conflicts between various departments within an organization, usually observed with in-house SOC implementations, resulting in increased implications and poor efficacy as far as security awareness and alert is concerned.
Keep your operations safe – Gain peace of mind
Cybercriminals are everywhere, and they lurk to access your valuable data and harm your business.
Do you feel that you are adequately protected? Or do you believe that your security team and equipment does not perform well, is outdated, and lags behind the new threats?
ADACOM, a reputable MSSP has the solution; our experts provide ΜSIEM, MDR, 24×7 SOC, Incident Response and Forensics Investigation services, providing fast response to cybersecurity incidents that your company may have, assuring that you are always protected.
We encourage you to contact us for any question or enquiry you may have.