What is a Managed Security Operations Center (SOC)?

A Security Operations Center (SOC) is critical to the effectiveness of an organization’s security posture.

Security Operations Center | This article discusses the advantages of using a managed SOC rather than setting up and administering your own in-house 24×7 security center.

What exactly is a Security Operations Center?

A SOC is a facility where specialized personnel monitor and enhance an organization’s cyber security. The team is typically composed of professionals such as incident responders, security analysts, and engineers. They are responsible for 24/7 monitoring of cloud and on-premises infrastructure. In addition, the SOC is responsible for the configuration and ongoing monitoring of all security technologies used to identify and respond to potential security issues.

A Managed SOC service is a convenient and cost-effective option for companies unable to build their own internal SOC. An Outsourced SOC minimizes the complexity of managing multiple and different security technologies by deploying, configuring, and maintaining your security products, as well as providing the security experts, threat intelligence, and automated actions required to hunt for threats 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Reasons to Use a Managed Security Operations Center

The following are some of the benefits of a managed SOC:

Stress reduction for internal IT staff

In addition to network maintenance and administration tasks, internal IT staff are often tasked with ensuring security. Many security systems generate a significant number of alerts. Without a dedicated team of professionals committed to reviewing them, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and develop cyber security alert fatigue. A managed SOC solution relieves your IT team of day-to-day stress and can reduce employee burnout.

Increased return on investment

Many firms are looking for more efficient ways to detect and eradicate risks. However, despite the necessity of preventing significant financial and reputational harm, the expense of establishing an in-house SOC frequently limits this option to huge organizations.

According to research, the more successful the SOC and the broader its security coverage, the higher the cost. Even when organizations make that commitment, barely half of them rate their in-house SOC as effective, according to Devo Technology and the Ponemon Institute research. Furthermore, just 24% of organizations claim to be able to handle security problems within hours or even days. A managed SOC provides a more consistent choice and higher investment return for organizations lacking the funds and resources to develop an in-house operation.

Improved Mean Time To Detect (MTTD)

The average time it takes to detect a cyber breach, or MTTD is an essential cyber security metric. When an organization has multiple security breaches over time, the data can be used to create an average figure for the time each discovery lasted. Unfortunately, while most security professionals are confident in their ability to detect cyber threats, far fewer are aware of how long detection truly takes. This is a severe problem for organizations that are continuously striving to improve their ability to respond to and detect problems. This type of critical detection measurement and management is handled for you in a managed SOC, offering improved insight and increased cyber security.

Constantly updated security knowledge and technology

A SOC should be able to identify threats across an organization’s networks and endpoints by leveraging a combination of deception, prevention, and detection technologies, as well as a variety of in-house and external cyber threat information sources. Endpoint detection and response (EDR), extended detection and response (XDR), security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR), security information and event management (SIEM), vulnerability scans, and other security technologies are controlled by SOCs. Maintaining consistent visibility into all sorts of technologies simultaneously and ensuring that they are maintained up to date is difficult for organizations to do in-house.

A managed SOC lowers the difficulty of managing various security systems by deploying, configuring, and administering selected security tools around the clock.

Threat intelligence is constantly updated

The ability to access the most recent threat intelligence and incorporate it into the threat detection process is essential to the effectiveness of a SOC. However, implementing this within your organization may be difficult and time-consuming. An effective managed SOC may acquire the most recent intelligence, such as signs of compromise, and use it to improve the efficiency of detection systems and procedures. This knowledge may be obtained through intelligence-sharing agreements, internal cyber research, and red team insight. While this might be difficult to do internally, a well-managed SOC solution should incorporate updated threat intelligence.

Expert knowledge and abilities

A diverse workforce with a wide range of skills is required to ensure a SOC has the ability and competence to deliver consistent performance – all day, every day. Likewise, diverse talent is required to ensure the continued success of a SOC, from cyber security analysts to engineers to cyber incident responders. However, finding the specialized personnel needed for continuous monitoring, detailed data analysis, and incident response is not always straightforward. For example, organizations require a minimum of 10 personnel to cover three eight-hour shifts every day, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This amount can reach 30 or more in very large organizations.

With the worldwide skills shortage ongoing, it can be costly to recruit, retain, and regularly train personnel for the proper operation of a SOC.

Even when they do discover and recruit the appropriate individuals, organizations face significant SOC staff turnover due to exhaustion and stress, especially when organizing a 24/7 shift rotation. A managed SOC solution will have the proper professionals in place, saving you the time and effort of recruiting and keeping them on your own.

Choosing the Best Support for Your Company | Security Operations Center

SOC services come in various flavours, including SOC-as-a-service, virtual SOC, and managed SOC. Because there are so many possibilities, distinguishing between services and choosing the best supplier might be difficult. Before contacting a provider, ensure you understand the type and quality of support you require, such as cloud monitoring or incident response services.

Many organizations increasingly turn to Managed Detection and Response companies’ advanced detection and response capabilities (MDR). This service provides a comprehensive, turnkey solution. Which includes the people, tools, and intelligence required to detect, disrupt, and contain cyber attacks, as well as the support of an external SOC, which is overseen by security experts 24/7.

How Rhyno Cyber Security’s Security Operations Center can assist

RhynoGUARD, our award-winning MDR solution, provides the personnel, technology and cyberattack intelligence needed to scan for threats on your organization’s networks and endpoints. At the same time, assisting in shutting them down before they cause damage or failure.