Should SMEs consider SOC as a Service?

Cyber security breaches, ransomware, critical vulnerability and other cyber-attacks. These have made the headlines more often and are becoming a fact of life. It’s no surprise that these threats remain on top of the minds of IT executives of large enterprises, and even Small to Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).

SMEs are now facing cyber threats and attacks that previously are only common for larger enterprises. However, with the shift of cyber-attack strategies and landscape, threat actors are now taking the opportunity in exploiting the weaker players in the supply chain as a backdoor to the network of larger enterprises. Therefore, SMEs – part of the supply chain is now a prime target. If successful, these cyber-attacks could cripple, disrupt and even to the extent of bankrupting an SME.

However, with competing resources within SMEs, it is often perceived that having a hardened cyber security posture is costly, and something that is only affordable under an enterprise-level budget – from cyber security talents to enterprise-level tools. Furthermore, the threat and technology landscape is evolving at a pace that SMEs are unable to keep up with, let alone keeping up with advanced tactics by cybercriminals. The concern or even the ‘reluctant acceptance in balancing ‘good enough’ security level and risks as the world suddenly shifted to a new way of working remotely. How does an SME balance such critical decisions between acceptable risks and operations? What about the need to also consider talents, budget, digital transformation, compliance and governance and others?

Let’s not forget about internal threats, such as malicious behaviour by internal employees. So how does an SME track malicious user behaviour from within? Managed Security Operations Centre (SOC) or SOC as a Service may very well be ideal for SMEs to consider in terms of cost-effectiveness and security.

A Managed SOC is exactly what it sounds like – a company you outsource to manage, monitor and respond to cyber threats or incidents – as compared to building and maintaining an in-house SOC.

Why is Managed SOC necessary?

The ongoing focus on digital transformation and acceptance of cloud services to improve efficiencies, agility and managing of limited resources has significantly expanded the attack surface for most SMEs. With no clear answer of balancing between remote work or the need to return to the office, business owners are accepting the new normal of their workforce becoming increasingly mobile and remote, accessing applications, systems, data and services on-premise and even in the cloud outside of their corporate network. With this new working style, the risks are compounded and IT teams are left with an opened pandora’s box.

This does not help in securing sensitive and confidential data, and with various compliance in place, GDPR, DPTM, PCI DSS

The Benefits of Managed SOC for SMEs

• Managed SOC no doubt is cost-effective. There are many tangible and intangible costs to build a SOC. Traditionally, setting up a SOC requires various tools, both hardware and software, construction costs and should be supported by technical experts 24x7. With the technology landscape evolving pace, the cost of adapting to security changes are high in the area of acquiring new technologies to address new threats and staff churn. The overall cost in terms of CAPEX is large, may skyrocket quickly and will easily cripple the financial cash flow of SMEs. Engaging a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP), SMEs will be within reach of cybersecurity experts and much-needed security recommendations, detections and response.
  
  
• Managed SOC monitors your environment in real-time. The cybersecurity experts or analysts monitor networks, servers, endpoints, applications, clouds and users continually. If you are the owner of an SME, you will know that your IT team would not have the time or the ability to monitor this on a daily basis, as the key focus of your IT team should be on daily operations and other key IT projects. We have not even mentioned the daily stream of alerts & notifications from multiple cybersecurity tools. With more applications onboard and digital transformation underway, and with a lean IT team, alert fatigue will kick in. With Managed SOC, a threat can be detected early with lower false positives, and the risk of a data breach will be reduced significantly. These could save hours of managing alerts, responding to critical incidents, and avoiding downtime that cripples business mission-critical operations – which can greatly make or break an SME.
  
  
• Managed SOC balances SMEs time and resources. By engaging a Managed SOC service, the MSSP can respond to incidents quickly, contain the threat and conduct remediation almost immediately, without the need of an internal IT team. To run an in-house SOC, as mentioned above, will be costly in terms of CAPEX and manned station 24x7 in shifts. With the ability to resolve incidents as quickly as possible, SMEs will be better protected. The internal IT team can therefore stay focused on daily operations and key projects.

On-demand Webinar

Everything Detection & Response with Stellar Cyber OPEN-XDR

In this webinar, gain key insights into the threat landscape, how Netpluz SOC detects real threats from false positives and responds quickly.

1. Not enough skilled people and the current team has tool and alert fatigue?
2. Not enough budget to cover existing security gaps?
3. Being one step behind malicious actors?
4. Keeping up with new solutions that help to outsmart the hackers?
5. Huge challenge of balancing 'good enough' security & risk for the remote workforce vs. onsite operations?
6. Many competing needs for people and budget, digital transformation, cybersecurity, compliance and governance, financial reporting systems?

If you answer YES to any of the points above, then this webinar is definitely for you!