With an increasing number ofthreats in the world, small and mid-sized businesses are facing numerousissues. They are keen to find security services which fit their budgets and yetprovide proper security services. An important problem that SMBs (small andmid-sized businesses) face is lack of personnel to build and function their ownSOC (Security OperationCenter). Due to this, the Security Information and Event Management(SIEM) process is out of reach. Eventually, many such organizations are turningtowards the way of outsourcing SOC as a Service which can suit theirorganization's needs and improve the security posture. Several small tomid-sized companies face the "trio of the cyber security troubles" asfollows:
· Recent ransomware like Petya andWannaCry caught the world in their evil grip but in a more modern way.
· With the increasing number ofcyber threats, there is an increase in the security expertise scarcity creatingover 3.5 million cyber security openings by 2021.
· As per the Verizon’s DBIRreport, hackers are targeting on small and mid-sized businesses and creating ahavoc in them as they lack proper SOC (Security Operations Center) services.
As a consequence, small andmedium-sized businesses (SMBs) are finding ways on how they can deal with somany upcoming challenges. Therefore, they are going to the reputed securityservice providers who can implement SOC as a Service. Although, this is aright decision, yet exploring and choosing the correct SOC service provider isnot that easy. If your vendor lacks proper and mandatory amenities for theeffective SOC with a plain focus on managed detection, then this canturn to a bigger loophole in your security posture.
If you too are stuck on how tochoose a smart security provider, then you can follow the below checklist. Itguides you to search for a comprehensive SOC service. The checklistincludes:
Complexity level
A recent Gartner study identifiedthat MDR (managed detection and response) is a fast-growing market. Thedetection is obviously used to recognize the threats, but the SOC should alsoprovide prevention and IR (incident response) in case of a disaster.
A comprehensive security packagelike decisive and effective IR, protection from DDoS attack, ransomware,data breach, and disaster recovery is all you need when you consider a SOC. Ifthe vendor doesn't provide 24/7 SOC and IR services, then it should not betermed as SOC.
Real-Time Threat Analysis
Monitoring the threats inreal-time with the use of detection services and forensics is a crucial taskfor SOC. It should be for all the security incidents on the basis of24/7. The scanty staff in the security team can't handle the noisy and complexSIEM (Security Information and Event Management) tools. They can't strain outthe false alarms and hence the performance level doesn't stay up to the markfor vital security matters.
You have to make sure that the SOCprovider has the abilities of smart detection of the threats round theclock so that you can sleep peacefully.
Armed Threat Hunting
With the burgeoning techniques ofhacking and hackers getting smart, it is very tedious to detect every singletype of attack. Staying armed means, the network has to stay prepared inadvance and search for the threats proactively. This would result inauto-adjustment of the network as per the latest cyber-attacks which could bejust a few hours ago. This is a huge responsibility of the securityspecialists. It calls for learning the different and unique requirements of theclient's network and hunt down the threats which can still pass on through thedetection process. For this method to work, we need relevant and efficientthreat-intelligent sources, machine learning techniques, and choosingeverything which can help in one or the other way to find valid securityincidents impacting the consumers.
Compliance Control
Compliances are a vital factorwhile implementing the SOC. Every SOC should compulsorily have somecompliances like PCI DSS, HITECH, HIPAA, GLBA, FFIEC, and some other standardsthat high-quality industries must bind to. The compliance organizations mustprovide templates for recommended security checks and vulnerability assessmentsand see whether the businesses are abiding by the given regulatory measures.
Not just hackers can cost you bigbucks, but not having required compliances can lead you to pay penalties aswell! You must make sure that all these things are handled by your SOC serviceprovider.
Strategic Advising
After monitoring the network andhunting for the upcoming threats, the security engineers will get an in-depthunderstanding of your company's network. This knowledge of network topology,places of the vital assets will help them to protect those with a properdefense strategy. You should demand this from the outsourced SOC provider asthis contributes to designing and improving the security posture.
Instead of having a just scalable cloud-based technology,an outlined IR (Incident Response) process and a team of well-trained securityspecialists shall persuade the clients to get insights into theirorganization's security posture. Further, this helps in improving and runningthe business processes more effectively.
Defined Pricing
Pricing is the issue whicheveryone faces. Make sure that your prices don't fluctuate every single timebecause this would deteriorate the trust of your consumers. The SOC serviceprovider should make fixed pricing plans. The rates shall vary on the number ofsensors and users instead of log data's volume and servers monitored. Suchpredictable and defined pricing models are essential for small and mid-sizedbusinesses (SMBs). These organizations struggle with the fluctuating costs andcan't afford highly expensive managed services. Therefore, the SOC providersshould not have unpredictable costs.
To summarize
All these factors are important toconsider while choosing the SOC provider. This checklist will guide youto know which things you should not compromise when you want to outsource theSOC provider. You can further read why SOC is important here.
