Cybersecurity is quickly becoming vital to a company’s smooth operations regardless of its size. Without a comprehensive approach to security measures, both large enterprises and small startups risk losing valuable data, hurting their reputation, and even going bankrupt.
A security operations center (SOC) is a team of cybersecurity experts who work on preventing cyberattacks and responding to threats in real-time. While it may be possible to deal with cyber criminals without SOC, the chances of missing an important measure and succumbing to an attack are high.
Let’s take a closer look at what managed SOC does, and whether you need one.
A security operations center is a team of IT security experts who focus on maintaining cybersecurity for your company. These specialists design cyberattack prevention plans, analyze the integrity of your security measures, respond to cyber threats, and much more.
Depending on your needs and your budget, this team can take care of cybersecurity 24/7, provide proactive support, ensure security compliance, and help you leverage the right security tools.
SOC monitors your devices, networks, systems, cloud storage, and any other place where you keep your data. Its goal is to find loopholes in your IT environment and close them before cybercriminals gain access.
By implementing SOC in your daily operations, you can keep your data safe, maintain industry compliance, prevent cyberattacks, and more. Since the number of cyberattacks is rapidly increasing, a security team is no longer an option. It’s a necessity.
You have a choice of hiring an in-house team of security experts or working with a managed security operations center.
Not all companies can afford to maintain a security operations center in-house. A team of cybersecurity specialists will take a while to assemble. You would need to take care of recruitment, salaries, benefits, and retention.
With an experienced cybersecurity expert making around $100,000 a year, the overall costs of the internal team can be extremely high. Meanwhile, the high turnover trends make it even costlier to focus on in-house team building. That’s why many companies turn to a managed SOC provider.
A managed SOC is a team of experts who work on your cybersecurity issues without being a permanent part of your team. You outsource cybersecurity to a company that specializes in managed security services.
With a managed security operating center as your partner, you don’t have to worry about nuances associated with recruitment, onboarding, and retention. You gain access to a large team of specialists who handle cybersecurity for you.
The cost-effectiveness of using managed services can be impressive. You get the same quality as you would with an in-house team for a fraction of the price of maintaining one.
If you are thinking about whether you need a managed SOC for your business, here are a few things to keep in mind when making a choice.
Cybercriminals don’t honor business hours. In fact, they know that many companies only monitor their systems while their IT specialists are at work. As soon as the office hours are over, the cyberattack time begins.
To respond to a cybersecurity threat in real time, a managed SOC provider has a team of experts who work during the night and on holidays. When you work with this team, you don’t have to worry about facing a cybersecurity disaster during the most inconvenient hours.
Cybersecurity teams monitor your systems and networks remotely. However, if necessary, they can arrive at the site within minutes.
Responding to a cyberattack requires a quick reaction. In a matter of minutes, a hacker can achieve their goals and steal your data. However, if you manage to catch the attack at its very beginning, it’s possible to interfere with the process.
Since a security operation center monitors your network continuously, it has a unique opportunity to react to an attack almost immediately. This can help save your data, avoid downtime, and provide information about loopholes in your systems.
SOC service provider works out an effective incident response plan and executes it seamlessly, so you can continue business as usual.
When you work with a managed SOC, you can cut costs significantly in several different ways:
Wages – you don’t have to create an in-house cybersecurity team and pay new employees high salaries. You don’t need to worry about recruitment, benefits, retention, and turnover. All you have to do is sign a contract with SOC and delegate all responsibility to the professionals.
Downtime – since SOC can react to any cyber attack in a matter of seconds, you don’t have to face downtime related to data loss and breaches. This doesn’t just save your reputation but prevents you from losing customers. Meanwhile, you don’t have to face the costs of cyberattack recovery.
While many SMBs can benefit from such a cost-effective partnership, large enterprises are considering it as well.
Cybersecurity is a complex and ever-changing field that requires significant expertise. It may not be easy to find a team of cybersecurity experts that can fit your organization’s needs. By choosing a reliable managed SOC, you gain access to a number of specialists that can address your security challenges.
These specialists can work closely together with your team to achieve top security results. You wouldn’t need to worry about training or onboarding. These experts have sufficient experience working with companies across many industries.
Security compliance can be a serious issue for many companies, especially when they work with patient data or other sensitive information. Ensuring full compliance with industry requirements can be complicated, especially if they change frequently.
When you choose to work with a managed SOC, you delegate security compliance to compliance professionals. They evaluate the current needs of your business, study industry requirements, and make changes to your security framework accordingly.
With top-notch security specialists at the helm, you don’t have to worry about non-compliance fines, reputational problems, and constant monitoring of the ever-changing requirements.
The main reason why so many cyberattacks are successful isn’t lack of security measures. It’s human error. Employees share login data, create easy passwords, download attachments, and open links. They also don’t report suspicious activities on time.
If you have a SOC, these specialists can educate your employees about cybersecurity measures. They can arrange effective training to make sure human error doesn’t lead to a breach.
Additionally, SOC team members share security insights with the management to help them adjust company operations to the most effective security measures. Regular training and education can help prevent security breaches and take cybersecurity to a new level.
Cybersecurity isn’t just about diligent monitoring and fast response times. It’s about prevention. Once SOC establishes excellent cybersecurity measures and relevant plans, its work doesn’t stop.
Cybersecurity specialists continue monitoring the latest cybersecurity solutions for your business and make suggestions. They learn about technological developments and possible new loopholes in advance. This helps these specialists maintain the integrity of your cybersecurity plan.
Since the approach to cybersecurity changes frequently, monitoring the latest trends is a time-consuming process. With managed SOC, you delegate it to the professionals and allow your team to focus on their direct tasks.
Having a professional SOC as part of your team can improve your business reputation. The importance of high-quality cybersecurity services is clear to business partners, clients, and employees. If your company is investing in managed SOC services, it cares for its reputation.
This can help you attract new clients, improve the satisfaction rates of existing customers, and keep your employees happy. Meanwhile, it can encourage your loyal clients to become brand ambassadors and streamline your marketing efforts.
The cost of a security operation center depends on several factors, including your location, the size of your business, the services you need, and much more. By working with a managed SOC provider instead of hiring an in-house team, you can save a significant amount while gaining access to top security specialists.
If you work in an industry that requires a special approach to cybersecurity to ensure compliance, a SOC can help you achieve it. These specialists have experience with many industries and monitor all the latest changes to ensure full compliance with related requirements.
Since SOC monitors all of your systems 24/7, it can respond to a security threat within seconds. This can help stop the attack and keep your data intact. SOC specialists analyze the attack diligently to figure out how to prevent it in the future.
When choosing the best managed SOC provider for your business, you need to check reviews, find out about the team’s qualifications, and ask for recommendations. Reliable SOC providers work with many clients who are often willing to provide feedback.
Establishing a security operations center is imperative for a smooth operation of your business. Whether you are dealing with sensitive information or just want to protect your data and reputation, you need to work with qualified security specialists.
Hiring an in-house team to arrange SOC can be costly. That’s why many companies choose to work with SOC service providers. You can delegate all cybersecurity issues to a team of specialists, who will monitor your systems continuously, prevent attacks, and protect your reputation.
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