If you are taking an ad hoc approach to cybersecurity, or if the task of securing your network falls on the shoulders of a few IT employees, SOC as a Service can give you a more organized defense. SOC as a Service centralizes all your security operations and unburdens your staff. Instead of making additional work for your team, you can rely on your SOC partner to focus entirely on system security.
Your outsourced SOC acts as the operational core for system monitoring, threat detection, and incident response. It ensures you stay compliant with security regulations, so your staff doesn’t need to. If there is an incident, you’ll get an automated alert, and your partner will spring into action to rectify the situation.
Organizations that don’t maintain an SOC usually take a reactive security posture. That means they don’t act until a threat has already been active for some time, which is usually too late. With SOC as a Service, a team of security professionals, armed with a comprehensive security software suite, will actively monitor your network, updating and patching your solutions to eliminate as many vulnerabilities as possible.
Most importantly, they’ll be proactive about threat detection and analysis. You’ll dramatically reduce your risk of a security incident in the first place.
You partner will also provide you with both incident response and security information and event management (SIEM) services. You’ll receive automated alerts about security threats and real-time analysis about incidents directly from your security partner.
Your partner will also help you develop and deploy a plan for responding to incidents. If there is a threat, you won’t have to worry about allocating additional business resources to identify it and formulate a response. Your SOC as a Service partner will provide the personnel and processes to respond to threats immediately.
Building an in-house SOC requires you to hire several security experts, but it also requires you to purchase and deploy multiple security software solutions. Putting together an effective security technology stack is a time-consuming and expensive undertaking.
With SOC as a Service, your partner will have a security suite ready to deploy from the start of your relationship. They’ll install firewalls, intrusion detection systems (IDSs), automation tools, and more during a comprehensive onboarding process, so you won’t have to assemble these solutions yourself.
Cybersecurity service providers also utilize some of the most advanced security technologies on the market. By partnering with an SOC provider, you’ll be able to integrate security solutions like robotic process automation (RPA), security orchestration automation and response (SOAR), and AI-enhanced data analysis into your security processes.
The more you know about your systems, the easier it is to identify attacks and vulnerabilities. SOC operators not only gain a full understanding of your computing environment, but they also provide you with clear visibility and reporting. This gives you a high-level view of what’s happening in your network and why.
Your SOC will create a thorough inventory of all your organization’s IT assets. Throughout your partnership, they’ll keep you updated on security incidents with regular reports, data visualizations, and a security dashboard that’s easy for every stakeholder to access and understand.
Finding and hiring cybersecurity professionals to staff an in-house SOC is a daunting process, especially in today’s hiring environment. SOC as a Service removes this variable from the security equation. You’ll gain instant access to a security staff who will apply their expertise directly to your organization.
If you have questions, your outsourced security staff will provide answers as if they are right down the hall from you. The best way to safeguard your organization from any threat vector is through a comprehensive SOC team, which includes both engineering and security personnel.
Finally, one of the clearest benefits to SOC as a Service is the predictable cost. Your organization won’t have to waste time and money onboarding solutions that may or may not be suitable for your security environment. Instead, you’ll pay a regular fee to your SOC as a Service provider to take advantage of their technology and expertise.
Uvation provides its clients with a fully outsourced SIEM service delivered through a comprehensive SOC as a Service partnership. We don’t just provide security software. We also provide analysts, engineers, and other personnel, as well as a comprehensive suite of security processes to protect your systems.
Leverage the latest technology and expertise to ensure your network remains secure throughout the lifetime of your organization. With advanced threat detection, incident response, and network vulnerability management, Uvation and its partners help you mitigate the risks associated with cybercrime and proactively respond to emerging threats.
Uvation and its partners work proactively to identify security vulnerabilities that could put your data at risk, then rectify them quickly. We implement critical security solutions to ensure your data is secure from outside threats, while also instilling robust internal protocols to keep your data safe while you use it and transfer it across your network. We also stay appraised of all relevant security compliance regulations so you can operate in every available market.
If your organization operates a data center or another type of computing facility, we will consult with you to deploy a robust set of security protocols to keep your facilities safe from security threats. Your equipment is paramount to your success. We can help to keep your resources safe and prevent unwanted access to your data at the source.
SOC as a Service has emerged as one of the most important industries in the cybersecurity landscape. Now, more than ever, organizations of all sizes need their own SOC to prepare them for an ever-expanding list of security regulations and to protect them from constantly evolving security threats.
The SOC as a Service market is projected to grow from $471 million in 2020 to $1.656 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 26.6%.
Organizations spend an average of $2.86 million annually on their in-house SOC.
73% of IT professionals say their SOCs are either “essential” or “very important.”
63% of companies said their data was potentially compromised within the last twelve months due to breaches in their operating systems, firmware, or hardware.
94% of malware arrives on computers via email.
Phishing is the number one cause of cybersecurity breaches
34% of CIOs see security and risk management as the number one driver of IT spending.
To address these challenges, many companies have sought to outsource their cybersecurity functions or augment their internal teams with outsourced cybersecurity professionals. Over the years, this industry has evolved from a simple managed IT service model to the managed security services provider (MSSP) model which has come to define the industry.
Today, cybersecurity organizations like Uvation offer a specific type of security service to help their customers reach a reliable security posture: Security Operations Center (SOC) as a Service. SOC as a Service provides an opportunity to augment your cybersecurity strategy, deploy robust defenses, incorporate new security technologies, respond to threats instantly, and reach your cybersecurity goals faster and for in a cost-effective way.
To understand how SOC as a Service works, it’s important to understand what an SOC is and why it’s important to your organization’s security posture.
01
An SOC is a centralized security function within your organization. It encompasses people, processes, and technologies that serve to monitor your organization’s computing environment. A SOC also detects, prevents, analyzes, and responds to cybersecurity incidents.
SOC teams are usually staffed by engineers, analysts, and managers. They are responsible for analyzing and monitoring your organization’s security posture, and they work alongside incident response teams to address security issues quickly once they are discovered.
Traditionally, a SOC might have looked like an office in a company building that was staffed with security personnel and technology, all of which work together to perform a security function. But SOCs today are increasingly remote and virtual, relying on automated software, AI, and remote experts to protect a network.
An SOC at your organization would do the following:
1. Act as a central point for monitoring your company’s security posture
2. Identify, analyze, and prepare a response to threats
3. Prevent cyber attacks from impacting business continuity
4. Ensure fast recovery in the event of a loss of data
5. Provide insightful reporting on compliance and risk
6. Keep other sectors of the business informed about relevant cyber attacks
Many SOCs can also conduct incident management in the event of a breach. They can even conduct forensic investigations to determine the results of a breach or attack.
02
In an SOC as a Service arrangement, you outsource some or all your security functions to an Managed security services provider rather than keeping them in-house. Your Managed security services provider provides you with the personnel, processes, and technology necessary to manage your security posture and respond proactively to threats.
Much like the Software as a Service (SaaS) model, SOC as a Service is typically provided on a subscription basis, and it could be provided alongside other types of IT services. For example, when you work with a partner like Uvation, you can incorporate SOC as a Service into other technology services, such as computational infrastructure engineering, managed IT services, and our DevOps and WebOps solutions.
SOC as a Service can be deployed in multiple ways, such as:
1. Fully managed
2. Co-managed
3. Custom-built
A fully managed SOC as a Service arrangement lets you rely on your partner to manage your security function entirely. They will provide personnel—including analysts and engineers—alongside the automations, software, and other technologies you need to maintain your security posture.
If you choose, you could deploy a co-managed SOC as a Service model, in which you maintain some ownership of your security function while augmenting it with your partner’s resources. Naturally, any SOC as a Service function can be custom-built to meet the unique needs of your organization and your computing infrastructure.
There are several technologies and processes involved in deploying a comprehensive SOC. Here are some that you should be aware of.
With SOC as a Service, your network may be protected some or all of the following technologies.
An IDPS monitors your network’s traffic in search of signs of a potential attack. It automatically takes action to prevent an attack when it detects dangerous activity.
SIEM software identifies and categorizes incidents and events throughout your organization’s infrastructure. It also analyzes incidents, providing reports and real-time alerts about potential security problems.
This software detects potential data breaches and exfiltration transmissions, then prevents them from happening by blocking sensitive data.
This powerful technology helps you organize and analyze threat data from multiple sources, so you can prepare a defense for potential threats.
This type of solution identifies, evaluates, and reports on security vulnerabilities in your systems and software.
Here are just a few of the processes you can expect your SOC as a Service provider to follow during your partnership.
Security experts constantly observe your information technology infrastructure to detect breaches, irregular activity, and threats.
This is the process of alerting relevant parties when a potential security incident occurs, often through automation.
Incidents that can’t be resolved through automated processes or minimal involvement by the security team are escalated to appropriate parties and given a higher priority level.
High-priority incidents are investigated by the SOC team to determine how they occurred, their scope, what steps must be taken to remedy them, and how to prevent them from happening in the future.
This is the process of recording an incident, including the time and date of the occurrence and any other relevant information.
Your security must comply with relevant security regulations put forth by governments and municipalities, including monitoring and updating hardware, software, and internal processes.
This refers to the process of communicating incident information and security data to relevant parties. Reports may be automated, occurring regularly, or sent shortly after an incident occurs.
It pays to be aware of what threats you face. Below are some of the most common types of cyberattacks leveled against businesses and organizations.
This refers to any software designed to cause damage to a network, server, or computer. Computer viruses, worms, and ransomware are all types of malware.
This is a type of “social engineering” attack, in which an attacker makes a fraudulent attempt to obtain sensitive information, such as usernames or passwords. Phishing attacks are often conducted via email.
This type of attack occurs when a criminal intercepts a communication between a sender and a receiver to steal potentially sensitive information, change data before the communication is received, or even impersonate one of the parties involved to further compromise the communication channel.
In this type of attack, the attacker attempts to overwhelm or disrupt a system, making it unavailable to its intended users.
This is a type of web attack in which the perpetrator injects code into a data-driven application to interfere with the queries the application makes to its database.
This exploit takes advantage of a software vulnerability that was previously unknown to security experts. The term “zero-day” refers to the first time that vulnerability is found and exploited.
DNS (domain name system) tunneling is when an attacker exploits DNS protocol to send malware or malicious data through a client-server model. The client-server model refers to the way a server, such as a web server, provides resources to clients, such as individual computers or software applications.
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