SOC as a Service: Definition, Advantages and How to Choose
With every passing year, SOC as a Service & data security continues to become a top security concern for businesses regardless of their type and size. Thanks to the ever-increasing cyber-attacks that are widespread, sophisticated, and rapid.
Throughout the government, healthcare sectors, and government, attacks can strike in any form despite the advanced security system in place. Over 1/3rd cases occur within seconds, leaving the victims little time to overcome their losses.
Organizations today are more prone to cyber-attacks.
Threat actors continue to launch new and more advanced forms of assaults such as viruses, phishing, ransomware, and denial-of-service attacks that can spread across your network and computers.
Therefore, you always have to be in defense mode. If you lack the right solutions and expertise to protect your system, you can lose your valuable data sooner or later. Just one security loophole can lead to unpleasant outcomes.
That’s why enterprises need to invest in an equally robust and efficient security system.
If you think that your business is too small to be attacked, you need to think again. Organizations of all sizes are at risk. You must think beyond a simple antivirus to protect your critical information from being stolen or compromised.
Here comes SOC-as-a-service.
What is SOC as a Service?
SOC stands for Security Operations Center.
SOC-as-a-service, also known as SOC as a service, is a subscription-based service to manage and monitor your clouds, network, devices, and logs. It offers the skills and knowledge to deal with cybersecurity threats.
Generally, the primary goal of a SOC is to identify and prioritize cybersecurity incidents that could negatively affect your data.
In SOC as a Service, you outsource your cybersecurity to a third party or SOC vendors. This way, you can minimize the need to hire in-house cybersecurity experts to handle advanced cybersecurity threats.
Once you subscribed to SOC as a service, you get a third-party team of experts who monitor your cybersecurity from their remote location. This service is generally affordable and doesn’t require you to invest in certain hardware, software or staff. All you need to hire them.
A SOC team includes cybersecurity experts, security analysts,s and engineers who are trained to analyze, detect and respond to cybersecurity incidents and threats, and to prevent them from taking place. They have programs and analytical tools that help businesses stay on top of the latest security threats in the digital world.
Their tools are designed to spot vulnerabilities and prevent possible occurrences of cybersecurity issues. When new viruses take place and start to affect systems, SOC teams prevent the spread of these viruses as well as remove the existing bugs from the systems of the companies.
SOC team stays updated with the latest threats and develops solutions to ensure cybersecurity to their clients.
SOC-as-a-Service protects your IT assets and information wherever they are located, including cloud, on-site and SaaS applications.
This way, you can have your networks and assets guarded by a managed security professional. It allows you to focus on your core strengths and also get the benefits of the expertise of cybersecurity professionals.
What are the Benefits of Using SOC as a Service?
With SOC-as-a-service, you create a robust security barrier that is otherwise challenging to create with your standard hardware or security tools.
The risk gets multiplied as soon as you connect your system to the internet.
SOC-as-a-service improves your cybersecurity by adding protection layers to blunt even those sophisticated cyber-attacks.
You get dedicated security engineers who ensure better peace of mind knowing your systems are in safe hands with advanced cybersecurity.
SOME KEY BENEFITS OF USING SOC as a Service ARE
Reducing Cost:
With SOC-as-a-service, you can minimize the expenses generally associated with cybersecurity yet get protection against cyber intrusions. Since the SOC teams operate remotely, the hardware systems that are needed to deal with today’s threat actors are all set up elsewhere to protect your business.
Incorporating the Machine and Human Elements:
SOC-as-a-service teams use the expertise and sophisticated tools to detect threat across your network. When malicious activity is spotted, the SOC-as-a-service team notifies all the companies that could potentially be impacted by such threats the moment any inconsistencies occur on the radar. Above all, the team monitors these activities around the clock to make sure that not vulnerability or threats go unnoticed for any length of time.
Some hackers also carry out their operations during the wee hours of the morning even when most workplaces are closed. This lets these threat actors a window of time to affect networks and get their hands on most data. However, it can be prevented as SOC-as-a-service team work around the clock to eliminate such loophole.
Ranking Alerts, Threats, Severity and Assets:
SOC-as-a-service team lets organizations rank the crucial layers of data and determine the severity of threats that occur on the radars of computer networks. As with PC antivirus software, threats can occur at certain levels on a computer system, many of which are not harmful. Others do need action.
For many organizations, tracking cyber threats is an overwhelming and time-consuming process due to the wide range of harmless and more serious discrepancies that occur on network radars. With SOC-as-a-service, organizations can more easily classify real threats and respond with urgency and focus.
Managing Responses:
SOC-as-a-service is also important as it offers proactive detection and security against cyber-attacks. Some of the worst cybercrimes are those that aim at the particular companies for highly classified info, such as the credit card informant and identities of account holders of a company. Read out the Infographic for more information.
SOC-as-a-service also addresses these issues that are often lurking within a network.
Offering Sophisticated Planning, Threat Assessment Training and Intelligence Gathering:
As threat actors become more sophisticated in their techniques, security standards should be updated to prevent the risk.
With each new security upgrades, hackers come up with new tactics to outwit the security parameters.
Therefore, new skills are needed to deal with these threats. SOC-as-a-service teams include professionals who are equipped with the most advanced skills for handling the kinds of attacks that are carried out by today’s cybercriminals.
It makes it possible for businesses to remain protected against the most sophisticated threats by delivering a coordinated approach to cybersecurity.
With updated threat assessments, businesses can create more safe plans for security response the moment potential threats are detected.
SOC-as-a-service helps you gain the insights needed to implement the solutions when threats are detected. By doing so, they can take their cybersecurity to a new level.
Generally, by incorporating SOC-as-a-service, companies become more skilled on the important matters of system security and how such matters change with each generation of firewalls and threats.
Reporting:
SOC-as-a-service is delivered at various levels to meet the unique requirements of the vast range of organizations. For the company that is looking for basic security against cyber risks, SOC-as-a-service is available at standard levels that include daily monitoring and status reports throughout the year.
For those who are looking for the most advanced level of protection, the premium SOC-as-a-service plan generally contains hourly monitoring and status report throughout the year.
For smaller businesses that don’t own vast databases or operate high-tech infrastructures, the basic level of SOC-as-a-service is often the most ideal method of security.
On the other hand, companies that work on huge networks with huge critical data will generally require the most advanced levels of SOC-as-a-service.
HOW TO CHOOSE A SOC-AS-A-SERVICE PROVIDER?
By this point, you must have understood how SOC-as-a-service can help you improve your cybersecurity level.
That said, you cannot just hire any random SOC services provider.
Here are important factors to look for while choosing a SOC service provider.
Are They Available 24/7/365?
Overall tracking is an important factor you choose SOC for. Your in-house team might not have time as they have to watch their systems in the first place. Top of that, they have other tasks to do, so they are not able to respond to threats until they are notified. Some security tasks might be overlooked or forgotten, or, by the time notification comes, it might be too late.
Therefore, look for a vendor that can respond to potential threats before there’s an alarm or warning. They also should be available round the clock. After all, you never know when an issue can occur.
Are They Dedicated Cybersecurity Experts?
People who are familiar with the processes, systems, compliance requirements and security goals can ensure you the best service. Choose the vendor who has a dedicated cybersecurity expert for your organization.
Where They are Located?
Where is your service provider based?
You might not consider this much if you are using a virtual SOC as a Service provider, but location can still be crucial for certain reasons. Ask them if they operate from more than one location. With two or more sites, they can efficiently deal with disaster recovery and backup services.
Another think to ask about the location is to determine where their team is operating from. A virtual SOC means the team you work with could be located anywhere.
Are They Updated with their Technology?
When you look for SOC services, make sure to take note of the technology being used by them.
This is because the human interface is more eminent in SOC as a Service than technology.
However, your SOC as a Service provider must have real-time monitoring. They should also have analytical tools to help them assess this data. Besides, they should have trained and certified staff to use the tools they have implemented.
Can They Align with Your Security Requirements and Plans?
When you are considering SOC as a service, make sure your potential vendor can align with your business goals.
You might have specific security protocols in place. Some of these might even be needed for you to maintain compliance.
Any vendor you choose to work with should be able to incorporate what you already utilize. If they can’t, you should be switch to others.
Also, keep in mind that SOCs vary from enterprise to enterprise and are incorporated according to your cybersecurity priorities and risk tolerance.
Do They Have Reasonable Prices?
Cost is also a concern when it comes to choosing SOC solutions. It might be one reason your in-house team isn’t expanded as it should be. It might also prompt you to opt for SOC services.
However, pricing models can be complicated as they are mentioned as volume-based pricing, user-based pricing and node-based pricing.
Going to costly services can impact your budget. But that doesn’t mean services being available at lower prices can help you as they might be cutting the corner.
Always prefer value over pricing. The right provider might not give you services at the lowest price, but they will deliver quality services that you also want in a long-term relationship.
Are You Looking to Build a Long Term Relationship with Them?
As you look for an efficient SOC provider, keep in mind that this will be an on-going relationship. You will be working for a year or two, if not for 5-10 years.
Check if your vendor takes a step to create a relationship from the first contract. If they are not serious about providing great service or customized plans now, they are less likely to do it later.
Providing efficient cybersecurity needs an in-depth understanding of your business. A good SOC vendor knows that, encouraging them to understand your business and its requirements from the beginning.
Bottom Line:
SOC-as-a-service has become an important cybersecurity strategy to deal with sophisticated and new attacks. It takes your cybersecurity beyond those antivirus tools that might be easily outwitted by today’s attack.
Besides, SOC-as-a-service is ideal for small businesses who can’t afford to hire a security team due to little budget. With SOC-as-a-service by their side, they can outsource their security operations so that they can focus on the core line of business.
However, it is equally important to choose the right SOC-as-a-service as not all can match your expectations, budget and requirements as well.
What do you think? Will you consider SOC as a Service for your cybersecurity? Contact us for more Information.
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