Download our ebook: Insource vs. Outsource – Cost Comparison for Building a 24/7 Security Operations Center
If you have considered building a Security Operations Centers (SOC) for your organization, take a few minutes to download the ebook, Insource vs. Outsource: Cost Comparison for building a 24/7 Security Operations Center.
We will take you through the exact costs of building an internal SOC for a medium-sized business and compare it to the costs of outsourcing to a cybersecurity firm like Cybriant.
Benefits of Outsourcing Security Operations Centers (SOC)
Lower Operational and Labor Costs
Mitigate Risk
Faster Meantime to Value
Staff Augmentation
Access to Security Best Practices
Improved Security Functions
What is a Security Operations Center?
An information security operations center (“ISOC” or “SOC”) is a facility where enterprise information systems (websites, applications, databases, data centers and servers, networks, desktops and other endpoints) are monitored, assessed, and defended.
A SOC is related to the people, processes, and technologies that provide situational awareness through the detection, containment, and remediation of IT threats. A SOC will handle any threatening IT incident, and will ensure that it is properly identified, analyzed, communicated, investigated and reported. The SOC also monitors applications to identify a possible cyber-attack or intrusion (event) and determines if it is a genuine malicious threat (incident) and if it could affect business.
Regulatory requirements
Establishing and operating a SOC is expensive and difficult; organizations should need a good reason to do it. This may include:
- Protecting sensitive data
- Complying with industry rules such as PCI DSS.
- Complying with government rules, such as CESG GPG53
SOCs typically are based around a security information and event management (SIEM) system which aggregates and correlates data from security feeds such as network discovery and vulnerability assessment systems; governance, risk and compliance (GRC) systems; website assessment and monitoring systems, application and database scanners; penetration testing tools; intrusion detection systems (IDS); intrusion prevention system (IPS); log management systems; network behavior analysis and Cyber threat intelligence; wireless intrusion prevention system; firewalls, enterprise antivirus and unified threat management (UTM). The SIEM technology creates a “single pane of glass” for the security analysts to monitor the enterprise.
Why You Need a Security Operations Center
“At its most basic level, a security operations center is dedicated to correlating and analyzing data related to what is occurring within an organization with special attention on timely detection.” (TechTarget: Why Security Operations Centers are the Key to the Future).
We have seen many organizations purchase a SIEM technology for Regulatory Compliance reasons and simply try to run it in-house with their existing IT team members. As we discuss in the ebook, this is incredibly common, but only works if you have a large portion of your budget dedicated to security. Budget is the first step, then comes hiring and training the right people.
One of the biggest reasons organizations use a security operations center is because of regulatory compliance. Most compliance regulations require some sort of 24/7 security monitoring product and service. This is so when you are audited, you can produce a report of the logs from the monitoring tool.
A SOC can be used for so many more items than just compliance. Here are the 5 top reasons you need a SOC:
- Proactive Detection
- Threat Awareness
- Vulnerability Management
- Awareness of Hardware and Software Assets
- Log Management
If you have questions about any of these items, please let us know.
Be Picky when you Outsource!
A MAJOR problem we see in the industry today is companies that claim to ‘monitor a SIEM’ but that means that whenever they receive an alert, the outsourced company simply emails that alert back to you to remediate the concern.
You may also find that you’ll receive alerts 12 or more hours after the alert originally took place. This leaves too much time for the potential breach to spread further and do more damage. We have teams of security analysts working around the clock, with our threat intelligence and expertise, we’ll notify you immediately when a critical alert happens.
If you would like to see how we do it, please view our recorded webinar, “Guide to Cyber Security Management.” You’ll see from a real-world point of view how our SOC manager views a potential breach and involves the end client until the problem is resolved.
Not only do we alert you on only the critical alerts, but we help you understand how to remediate them.
Convince Your Boss You Need These Managed IT Security Services