A security operations center (SOC) is a facility housing cyber and information security experts. The team monitors the internet traffic, networks, desktops, servers, other endpoint devices, databases, applications, and various systems around the clock. They then analyze the logs and protect organizations from cyberattacks.
What does one mean by next-generation SOC-as-a-Service (SOCaaS)?
SOC-as-a-Service (SOCaaS) is a concept where security monitoring and administration tasks are outsourced to a third-party service provider, like Eventus Security. This helps organizations improve the adaptability, scalability, and flexibility of their operations. SOC-as-a-Service ensures that the company has access to monitoring services, advisory, and security expert services 24*7*365 days. The cybersecurity experts in the centers are in charge of incident response and compliance management as they are always on the lookout for "incidents of compromise" and "incidents of attack" in the client environment.
This leads to the next question – What are the differences between in-house SOC and SOC-as-a-Service?
An in-house SOC is where the SOC facility is established within an individual organization. The team managing the SOC will also be an internal team hired by the company. But when a company opts for SOCaaS, they allow a 3rd party which is an established SOC company like Eventus Security to monitor, analyze and resolve their cybersecurity issues continuously.
There are several other differences in the functionality of an in-house SOC and SOCaaS listed below:
- It isn’t easy to maintain the quality of an in-house SOC as it may not be aligned with the fundamental business competence of the firm. Lack of knowledge in curating the SOC to align with the company’s changing needs leads to the failure of the SOC itself. On the other hand, SOCaaS helps provide robust security by protecting businesses through all the stages of a security incident.
- An in-house SOC may be more flexible for customization. Business holders can implement it in any shape to match the specific needs of their business. But its initial setup and ongoing maintenance expenses may be higher than SOCaaS. However, SOCaaS may only be able to leverage generic solutions that users cannot adjust as per their requirements to meet the specific needs of their business, especially when the needs are incredibly dynamic.
- A SOCaaS provider will have appropriate experience and highly skilled resources, which can lead to a more effective threat detection and response strategy. In contrast, an in-house SOC team may not have the needed skills, experience and resources. It may be increasingly challenging for a company to manage many devices and systems with an in-house SOC because of potential scalability issues.
- An in-house SOC team may not provide monitoring and support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year, whereas a SOC-as-a-Service does so.
- An in-house SOC team may have difficulty managing more complex and sophisticated threats.
Who benefits from SOCaaS?
Every organization leverages data and technologies to conduct business operations. SOCaaS has the potential to provide advanced security capabilities and knowledge, increase scalability and be cost-effective, all while helping organizations stay in line with current regulatory standards. This is why SOCaaS can be advantageous to businesses of different scales and verticals in various capacities:
- When a business needs to set up and maintain an internal SOC, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) often lack the resources and expertise needed. With SOCaaS, these businesses can have cost-effective access to advanced security knowledge.
- Even though large organizations have the resources to build and staff an in-house SOC, they may choose to have their security operations handled by opting for SOCaaS. This is to gain access to cutting-edge tools and staff, increase scalability and reduce overhead costs.
- SOCaaS can be helpful for regulated verticals like healthcare, finance, and retail by facilitating continued compliance with regulations and standards like HIPAA, PCI-DSS and SOC2. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) are examples of such laws and regulations.
- E-commerce and online businesses: SOCaaS could help e-commerce and online businesses that rely heavily on the internet and technology by providing them with expertise to monitor and respond to incidents in real-time.
- Businesses that are distributed or have a remote workforce: Distributed businesses or businesses with a remote workforce can benefit from SOCaaS as it can offer them a central point of control for all their online activities. This is regardless of where the personnel are located.
While the benefits of adopting SOC-as-a-Service are many, they too come with their own set of challenges.
Some difficulties may arise when businesses adopt SOC-as-a-Service, and these may include the following:
- Some SOCaaS providers may have limited flexibility to customize their services and cannot meet all requirements of the client organization.
- Sharing sensitive information with a third-party provider might raise concerns about data security, especially if the service providers themselves are not security compliant.
- Integrating a third-party SOC service with an organization's existing systems and processes can be difficult. It may require a lot of resources, experience and incur expenses that certain businesses would not be prepared for.
- As a service provider, a company must ensure that its SOC meets all regulations and industry standards and is familiar with the industry in which its customers work. The challenge is that many clients are not aware of the regulations, and this puts them in a tough spot when choosing a SOC service provider.
- An in-depth evaluation of the benefits and drawbacks of SOC-as-a-Service, and their specific needs, should precede any final choice. It is also crucial to have a clearly defined service level agreement (SLA) and regularly check the service to ensure that it meets all requirements of the organization.
This is why it would be in the best interest of everyone involved to determine what best practices are followed when adopting next-generation SOC. What are the best practices we recommend?
As a SOC-as-a-Service provider, we at Eventus Security follow industry standards and use the following 10 best practices to give our clients a complete and effective security solution:
Proactive threat hunting:
Several undetected cyberattacks are skulking at the door of an organization's network. To prevent such attacks, cyber specialists must use preventive measures like Proactive Threat Hunting that helps detect and identify anonymous threats within an organization's network. In this process, security professionals will scan the organization's ecosystem and disclose details about the breach by monitoring and surveying the cyberattack.
Automation and orchestration:
Cyberpunks and hackers constantly try to penetrate an organization's defences. Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) promote security operations in three essential domains of an organization - threat and vulnerability surveillance, security operations automation and incident response. Robust and best SOAR tools can help security specialists orchestrate and automate several redundant tasks to simplify threat detection and response techniques.
Integration:
Integration combines two or more cybersecurity tactics or multiple security solutions to identify vulnerabilities. Unlike proactive solutions, it allows businesses to comprehensively identify and detect threats, which only block malware from various sources.
Continuous monitoring:
Security professionals leverage automation techniques and tools to scan the network and detect security risk issues. Continuous Security Monitoring (CSM) automates surveying cyber threats, vulnerabilities, digital attacks, information security controls, and other offensive manoeuvres.
Compliance:
Cybersecurity compliance is the convention of protecting, maintaining, identifying, interpreting, and improving an organization's security system. It is an essential part of cybersecurity, which intends to make cyberspace safe for the involved parties in meaningful ways. Cybersecurity compliance also helps build trust among customers and strengthens brand reputation.
Collaboration:
Every organization runs a data-centric business, and such approaches need a robust security environment that can prevent attacks by hackers. Security collaboration helps organizations in the sector study, analyze the threats and cyberattacks witnessed by other companies, take proactive measures, and screen against such cyber threats.
Comprehensive reporting:
To dig deep into the security posture of any organization, experts must thoroughly evaluate the security reports to identify the loopholes. Comprehensive reporting provides insights into the latest threats and preventive measures. It keeps business stakeholders and owners aware of cybersecurity initiatives with a clear understanding of critical factors contributing to cyber threats across the business.
Scalability:
Scalability is one of the foremost aspects that decide how robust current cyber security measure is in an organization. This means providing diverse security solutions in dynamic environments. Scalability becomes critical for organizations to ensure that cyber security approaches and services tackle all the threats and adverse consequences.
Cybersecurity expertise:
Cyberattacks and hacking practices are now sophisticated. So, every organization is becoming increasingly dependent on cyber experts to protect data and valuable information against cyber threats that lead to data breaches and financial losses.
Data privacy:
As the name suggests, data privacy is a concept for all organizations and governments to lock their data from falling into the wrong hands. Businesses prioritize data privacy first to prevent security breaches and identity theft. It is a process of handling proprietary and sensitive information against data breaches.
As one of the leading and distinctive SOC service providers, we at Eventus Security stay ahead of the market needs and potential cyber threats. This is because we use artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) to improve our NextGen SOC's ability to identify cyber threats and take responsive actions against them. Our NextGen SOC includes threat intelligence services which is a distinctive Eventus Security service offering. Its cutting-edge solutions ensure that these measures implement features like proactive threat hunting as a part of threat intelligence services. This helps us safeguard clients who are in need of such preventive measures as it helps them to stay ahead of the competition. As part of the threat intelligence service, we also keep an eye on the dark web, and if one of our customers has a data breach, we help them take preventative measures and advise them.
