Most organisations recognise the importance of establishing a SOC as the centralised hub for their security activity. However, building, staffing and managing a dedicated, on-premise 24/7 SOC is costly, time-consuming and difficult. It can take years and costs millions of dollars to simply become operational. And despite best efforts and money spent, a Ponemon Report found that only 42 percent of organisations rate their SOC as highly effective.
Many factors are overwhelming the SOC as it functions presently, including the dynamic threat environment, alert fatigue, SIEM frustration, tool complexity, the cyber skills shortage and rising costs. Even the largest enterprises with money to spare are embroiled in the battle. In light of this, SOC-as-a-Service has emerged to enhance and extend the capabilities and operations of an existing cybersecurity team and provide an answer for the headaches associated with many on-premise SOCs.
What is SOC-as-a-Service?
SOC-as-a-Service, also sometimes referred to as SOCaaS, is a pay-as-you-go, subscription-based model for managed threat detection and response. The service provides organisations with the tools, technology and human expertise needed to detect, investigate and respond to ransomware, malware, data theft, spear phishing attacks and more.
SOC-as-a-Service combines all of the essential elements of a 24/7 security operations centre (SOC) but without the high costs, complexity and frustrations that come with building, staffing and managing one. Organisations are able to outsource the people, processes and technology needed for a SOC, which is operated and managed offsite and delivered as a cloud-based service.
Why outsource rather than build your own?
There are a number of key considerations when deciding whether to operate your own on-premises SOC or to partner with a SOC-as-a-Service provider.
- Facilities: The cost of acquiring, fitting and securing a space, with room for enough staff with 24/7 HVAC, can be significant.
- Personnel: Good staff members are hard to find and harder to keep, whether from burnout or a better job offer elsewhere. This leads to the need to constantly be recruiting, on-boarding, and training new team members.
- Technology: The cost of procuring, deploying, configuring, integrating and maintaining the various products required to operate an effective SOC needs to be considered.
- Compliance and certifications: Achieving and demonstrating compliance on an on-going basis can be a time-consuming and expensive process that needs to be factored into the total cost of ownership for a SOC.
- Effectiveness: According to Ponemon, “SOCs that are highly effective cost an average of $3.5 million versus $1.96 million if the SOC has very low effectiveness.” But a high price tag alone does not guarantee SOC success. It requires a combination of the right people, processes, and tools to detect, investigate, triage, and remediate a broad range of threats. Not only that, threats are constantly changing, meaning staff needs to be motivated to be constantly learning and tools need to be regularly reviewed and updated to match up with the threat landscape. It takes effort and human knowledge to consistently run a powerful, capable SOC.
Making the case for SOC-as-a-Service
Reliable, accurate, 24/7 cyberthreat detection and response is a major undertaking. By building a virtual SOC, Cysiv makes it possible for enterprises to take their security to a higher level, find a resolution for ongoing security issues, and achieve their goals in an affordable, scalable way.
Creating the business case for building a SOC or outsourcing requires a clear understanding of how and why a SOC, and SOC-as-a-Service, can improve your organisation’s security posture, reduce cyber risk and costs, and enhance business agility.
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