undefined
BLOGS

What is SOC As a Service? [2023]

calendar icon August 4, 2021

The need for risk and cybersecurity management solutions has grown exponentially in the last few years, as data breaches and security incidents endanger businesses across multiple industries. SOC As a Service is a new type of cloud service model that comes with a built-in SOC. SOC stands for security operations center. A SOC is a collection of all the information security operations and main components that are needed to detect, prevent, and respond to security incidents.

56% of security decision-makers report that targeted phishing attacks are the top security threat as they disrupt business operations. Moreover, the annual damage associated with cybercrime has hit $6 trillion in 2021.

As a result, protecting your organization’s information and managing cyber risk has become a collaborative effort for IT teams, executive teams, and third-party providers. So, it’s no wonder that many firms today are turning to Security Operations Centers (SOCs) to help secure their assets and alleviate risks. However, some firms don’t have adequate resources to recruit a complete SOC team internally. 

Organizations who want to begin handling their security risks and protecting their data but can’t create an in-house team can greatly benefit from SOC-as-a-Service.

What is SOC-As-A-Service?

For many IT experts, the term “SOC-as-a-Service” is often used while discussing  IT services and infrastructure security. SOCs are effective because they are more thorough than run-of-the-mill managed security services and offer more features as well.

However, it is important to understand that multiple factors impact a firm’s ability to run and operate a mature and effective SOC in-house. But building this security team in-house can be a costly endeavor because the lack of cybersecurity talent makes it difficult to find and retain proficient personnel.

In addition, effective cybersecurity demands investment in a range of security solutions designed to mitigate a wide variety of potential threats.

But when businesses outsource their security needs to a company that provides SOC-as-a-Service, they can find quick solutions to their issues without breaking the bank.

That’s because SOC-as-a-Service offerings allow your organization to leave its security accountabilities and worries to a competent third-party provider. Instead of operating a SOC in-house, you can give the full responsibility to the managed SOC provider for around-the-clock network defense and monitoring required to safeguard against advanced cyber threats.

The SOCaaS includes more than merely outsourcing security operations and managing alerts. Instead, it offers co-managed, fully managed, or hybrid options based on your needs.

Benefits Of Working With A SOC-as-a-Service

Adopting and maintaining a complex security operation center can be expensive for the overwhelming majority of medium and small-sized enterprises.

This is also true for finding the essential IT talent to create and run a security department that meets the ever-evolving requirements in the IT sector. Another significant challenge for companies is to deal with the often-conflicting interests of departments and teams across their administrative structure. 

When working with a SOC-as-a-Service, an enterprise hands off their security responsibility to a skilled team that manages it and provide various benefits such as:

Proactive Threat Detection

Organizations that generate a massive amount of data find it challenging to identify threats. It’s quite time-consuming to scan all the data for malware, phishing, or other cyber-criminal activity. 

While SIEM solutions make it simple to detect malicious activities, a managed SOC service provider ensures that potential threats are detected and addressed proactively.

They let you see the bigger picture concerning security incidents and events. With SOCaaS, it becomes easy to understand the security information, drastically increasing the likelihood of preventing or acting on cyber-attacks.

Managed SOC services vary from alerts and threat detection to safeguarding and threat hunting. 

When a threat is detected, the service provider can instantly protect the company’s entire network from being compromised. Moreover, the managed SOC provider communicates with the company’s security systems and proactively protects the whole system, preventing damage.  

Security Experts Assess Your Network Round-The-Clock

SOC-as-a-Service means you give the third-party complete responsibility for your company’s security operations. As a result, you enjoy 24/7 security expert support, which costs you considerably less as compared to having an in-house monitoring team around the clock. In addition, SOC-as-a-Service solutions allow you to monitor your organization’s network at all times.

Moreover, the professionals leverage their expertise and knowledge to log your network’s activities in order to detect, analyze, and address any security concerns that may arise. Finally, they make sure that your SIEM solutions work optimally by closely collaborating with threat researchers.

Compliance With Industry-Specific Regulations

 Cybersecurity isn’t merely about safeguarding your organization from the financial repercussions of a cyberattack.

Industries that handle critical information, such as financial records or customer health data, must be careful about those who access their networks. If this information falls into the wrong hands, it can result in serious consequences, including state, federal, and local penalties, along with loss of revenue and permanent damage to your company’s reputation.

By leveraging SOC-as-a-Service, you can take advantage of the tools and expertise that allow you to address compliance and security needs and concerns with effective policies.

Access to Threat Intelligence 

Data security and cyber-attacks are evolving at a faster pace than the tools to combat them. But an advanced SOC-as-a-Service solution can give you both threat intelligence and proactive cyber defenses, including protection and research against unknown threats/risks. 

Only a company specializing in cybersecurity services has the adequate resources, knowledge, and personnel to facilitate a threat intelligence department, effectively finding and detecting all kinds of malicious code.

By partnering with a managed SOC-as-a-Service provider, you get access to an experienced threat intelligence team that depends on in-house research and access to updated threat databases, resources, and tools for efficient data exchange.