Have you noticed how technology has become such a crucial part of our daily lives? As a business owner, you know how important it is to make sure your company's IT systems and data are protected from cyber threats. It's no secret that these threats are becoming more advanced and frequent, right? And with that comes the pressure to make sure your company is secure. But let me tell you, building a top-notch security infrastructure is no easy feat. It takes a lot of money and resources to hire skilled personnel, implement advanced technologies, and maintain a whole team. That's why many businesses don't focus on creating a defense-in-depth security solution.

Gartner Predicts By 2025 Cyber Attackers Will Have Weaponized Operational Technology Environments to Successfully Harm or Kill Humans.

Let’s evaluate the benefits of a Managed SOC, or Managed Security Operations Center.

What is a Managed SOC?

Managed SOC, is a real-time monitoring and managed security service. It's basically a team of experts who monitor and detect potential threats, attacks, and intrusions. They're experts in identifying and responding to security threats. They use advanced technology and techniques to monitor your network and identify any potential vulnerabilities. And if a threat does arise, they're quick to jump into action, neutralizing it before it can do any real damage. These services are often provided by Managed SOC service providers or managed security service providers (MSSP).

“Eighty-eight percent of boards regard cybersecurity as a business risk rather than solely a technical IT problem. Cybersecurity leaders are burnt out, overworked, and in “always-on” mode,” said Sam Olyaei, research director at Gartner

What makes a Managed SOC so effective?

The effectiveness of a managed SOC is built on three fundamental pillars: people, process, and technology. This means MSSP has the resources to deploy and maintain state-of-the-art next-generation tools as well as the competence to implement, integrate, and manage disparate sources. Let’s see how these 3 pillars protect a business.

1. Best-in-class expertise for comprehensive security

When you opt for an MSSP, you get access to a team of best-in-class IT security experts. The managed SOC team is made up of different groups with different levels of expertise to play various roles and responsibilities. They have a team of security analysts who continuously monitor evolving threats, a team to manage and maintain the technology platform, and a team for incident response and incident investigation, who can take charge as soon as an incident is reported. This way, each team member can focus on their specific area of expertise and quickly and effectively detect and respond to security incidents or breaches, as well as recover your organization. It’s important to keep in mind that new threats are popping up all the time; so it's crucial to have a team that's up-to-date on the latest identification methods. Security monitoring is a specialized skill that requires real-time attention, and it can’t be just an added responsibility for other IT or security staff. The SOC team needs to have a wide range of skills because they are responsible for monitoring a variety of technology assets. And that’s why experience and in-depth knowledge are so important for an effective SOC operation.

2. Well-designed processes for an effectively Managed SOC

Every business follows a set of rules and processes to protect its IT systems. The managed SOC provider has an important and crucial role in every step of the security life cycle, from detecting and responding to incidents, to controlling and recovering from them. The process includes identifying technology assets that need to be monitored, identifying potential risks and triaging, implementing measures to address vulnerabilities and test the system’s resilience to attacks, implementing backup and recovery procedures for quick retrieval, notification, and escalation processes, developing incident response plans, and compliance procedures to improve the effectiveness of the process. By having tested and proven processes and procedures, you can achieve both consistent and successful outcomes. The process requires the effective collaboration of the client and the SOC team to keep the business safe from cyber risks.

3. Latest technologies to ensure the highest possible level of service

When you choose a Managed SOC, you're not just getting access to a team of IT security experts, you're also getting access to their extensive and up-to-date security tools and technologies. These tools such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and behavior analysis tools are used to detect and respond to security incidents by analyzing and correlating activities across different technology systems and comparing them against known attack tactics and procedures. Imagine, IT systems create hundreds or thousands of log events per second, depending on the level of activity. Collecting and storing such massive volumes of data from various technological systems is a complex task, but with the help of a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution, the Managed SOC team can collect, store, analyze, and correlate large quantities of data in real-time. This way, the team can respond quickly and effectively to any security incidents, minimizing the impact on your organization. The SOC team needs the experience to interpret these log files and create rules to discover patterns for faster threat detection. Automating these processes minimizes false alerts and optimizes the efficiency of security operations, ensuring your business stays safe from cyber threats.

Leaders who integrate cyber risk management into their organization’s decision-making processes are more likely to report high levels of cyber resilience. 

Soffit as a Managed Security Service Provider

Soffit is a technology-driven solution powered by an experienced team of IT experts with more than 20 years of hands-on knowledge. In a remarkably short span of time, Soffit has emerged as a leading provider of managed security services, earning a reputation as one of the top players in India. Our services include continuous monitoring, incident response, vulnerability management, and compliance management, all designed to keep your business one step ahead of cybercriminals.

Soffit’s managed SOC is important for mitigating cyber security risks as it allows to:

• Access to our best-in-class IT experts who understand IT Infrastructure, operations, and digital security and have extensive experience in designing, integrating, and managing data centers.
• Improve the client’s security posture and ensure that your business is protected around the clock.
• Provide around the clock monitoring to detect, investigate, contain, and respond to potential threats and provide you with a holistic view of your security posture.
• Assist organizations in complying with audit and advisory services by ensuring that they have the necessary controls to protect sensitive data in place.
• Improve incident response and recovery time and prevent future incidents by learning from past events to detect patterns, improve detection capabilities, and implement preventive measures.
• Enhance the business’s efficiency by improving productivity and reducing the huge capital investment.

Don't let the cost, risk, and complexity of building and maintaining an in-house SOC hold your business back. Contact us today to learn how we can help secure your business.

Further reading:

Business leaders and cyber experts can defeat online threats- but only if they work together

As cyber attacks increase, here's how CEOs can improve cyber resilience.

To make it cybersecure, CEOs must truly get to know their business

Top cyberthreat predictions for enterprises in 2023

Prepared and Published By

Priya PK