The past financial year has been a difficult one for all businesses. Uncertainty and changes in policies worldwide has caused organisations to be cautious with their budgets. With that in mind, you may be thinking that now is not the time to invest in a SOC. Here are several reasons why now is the perfect time to invest in a SOC.
1. Cyber crime is on the rise
With threat actors on the rise and new malware constantly being developed, reliance on antivirus is not enough, especially with threat actors using code and tactics to bypass malware and antivirus software. A correctly established SOC and tailored SIEM tool, combined with skilled analysts, will help catch any malware that slips through your defences from causing bigger issues.
2. Growing pains and remote working
A SOC provides clear visibility of your assets and organisations scope. As your organisation grows in size it can become more difficult to understand your environment and ensure visibility. A SOC is scalable and marries your business requirements.
3. Compliance and insurance
A SOC can tailor the environment and carry out behavioural analysis of logs and activity, ensuring people are who they say they are, and ensuring your legal, regulatory, and professional requirements are being met.
4. Rapid Incident response
Even a SIEM tool is not a one stop solution, having skilled analysts who know when to monitor activity and prevent recurrence, and when to pull the plug is important. Not all breaches happen like the movies. Threat actors can be inside your network for weeks, months, sometimes even years before they are discovered. SOC analysts will be able to guide you through the necessary steps to protect your assets.
5. Save money
Proactive investment in security can actually save you money, not to mention the cost of reputational damage to your organisation if something goes wrong. It can help identify improvements and cost saving measures. A lack of visibility/ awareness is never the answer. Just because you don’t see a data loss doesn’t mean it won’t cost you. With so many people utilising the dark web for both security and to sell data for profit it’s not a case of IF someone finds out you have been breached, but when. Being proactive helps keep insurance costs, fines, and effects on public opinion to a minimum.
6. KPI’s and Quantifiable information lead to better business decisions
A SOC provides reports and KPI’s on security events, activities within your network, security improvements and recommendations on ways to further enable your organisation to carry out its objectives.
A good SOC becomes an extension of your team, identifying unpatched machines, unsupported assets, BYOD and guest devices that can all be missed by a stretched security team. A SOC provides a wealth of technical knowledge for your IT team and business to tap into.
If you want to find out more about our Managed SOC service, click here.
Tom Clarkson
Senior Information Security Advisor
