5 Key Benefits of an Outsourced Security Operations Center

Posted on July 1, 2021 Security

Do you want to reduce the impact of a cybersecurity attack targeted at your company?

Today, 43% of cyberattacks are against small businesses, costing them an average of $200,000. If you are a small business owner, avoiding this situation is your priority. Consider outsourcing a security operations center (SOC).

We’ll focus on the top five benefits of using outsourced SOCs. To help you better understand what we’re talking about, we also included a short introduction to SOCs. Read on and learn more.

What Is an SOC (Security Operations Center)?

Before getting to the key benefits of outsourcing a security operations center, let’s talk about the concept. A security operations center is a central IT and security hub for your business. It is the core that detects, responds, reports, and prevents cyber-threats. 

It is the network security solution to accomplish these tasks. Now, you may be curious and wondering about what SOCs do. Often, SOCs follow a specific structure, allowing them to better organize. 

The structure allows SOCs to perform their functions and responsibilities without interruption. An example is network monitoring services. It allows the SOC to have complete visibility over every user’s activities within the network.

Having these features allows SOC personnel to detect irregularities. When they find any in a network, they will use a variety of prevention techniques for containment. It prevents unknown risks from taking over and corrupting your data.

Other than that, it’s also the SOC’s job to detect threats and know the origin of the threat. The system records all encountered anomalies and data in a comprehensive report. Like all these other tasks, the SOC team must also design, manage, and write a security plan. 

There are many more responsibilities and functions of a SOC we want to discuss. However, these are the most essential ones. Learn the key benefits below.

1. Outsourcing SOCs Reduces the Impact of a Breach

Now you know what happens in a security operations center, let’s discuss how it can help you. As a business owner, you want to protect your business against cyber threats. The best way to keep your business secure is to have a plan. 

To prepare for cybersecurity threats, consider outsourcing a security operations center. As we mentioned earlier, the cost of a data breach nowadays can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. It may not seem like a big cost to big companies, but this amount is no laughing matter for smaller businesses.

The good news is that outsourcing a SOC team can help reduce the impacts of a breach. It won’t always refer to the monetary costs associated with these incidents. It also includes a breach’s effect on your employees’ morale, productivity, and others.

How will a SOC minimize the impact of a cybersecurity breach? It’s through the use of threat intelligence, allowing them to have clear visibility into your assets. When the SOC sees everything from a bird’s-eye view, it’s easier to prevent small breaches from getting worse. 

For example, let’s say a breach is ongoing within your network. Your SOC will first get the details about the ongoing attack before analyzing and formulating a solution.

They’ll ask questions, like “When did it start?” or “How was it carried out?” From there, the SOC analysts will decide the best route. Either way, they aim to solve the issue while using the least resources.

You might wonder what happens after the attack and after recovering your data. Your SOC of choice is will help improve your web security protocols. More on this topic below, so keep reading. 

2. It Allows for Organization-Wide Visibility

Keep in mind that your SOC team can’t protect assets unknown to them. The good news is that it has good visibility over your whole organization. By visibility, we’re referring to organization-wide security visibility. 

This security visibility includes any device that can compromise the network’s integrity. It includes databases, devices or endpoints, websites, and more. From these assets, the SOC team will use each data log in a checking and analysis area. 

A SOC team gains visibility over the entire environment within minutes after installation. It’s how they find ongoing attacks, behind-the-scenes attacks, and more. These capabilities mean hiring them is a priority.

With this visibility, your SOC team can also get a view of typical behaviors and activities within the business. It helps you learn whether someone is laundering your money when you’re not looking. Included in the proper SOC best practices is to report any unusual activity.

Also, having high visibility over the network means they can prevent further errors. For example, let’s say you have some employees being careless when handling spam emails or files. As soon as the SOC team discovers them, they can recommend remediation actions.

3. You Gain More Transparency and Control on Security 

A good outsourced SOC team will also report as soon as possible with their findings. It allows everyone to “see through the walls” of your business, so to speak. They’ll also work and manage data recovery better and faster compared to most in-house security options.

Plus, when you use a singular SOC, it reduces the costs involved in maintaining security products. Often, the security operations center will also take care of all the equipment and tools. 

4. It Can Improve Incident Response Times and Management Practices

Less than half of small businesses have no idea how to stay protected from cyberattacks. The effect is worse if they’re not prepared for cyberattacks. Even if they were, if they don’t have backup plans to combat other forms of cyberattacks, they’re done for. 

If you have an outsourced SOC team, your business will survive the worst scenarios. It’s because they will give a well-laid-out cyber threat response plan. They’ll include everything important, from cloud storage to local information security.

As we mentioned, making plans in case of a breach is one of the security operations center’s responsibilities. They’re not limited to one or two plans. They’ll likely create other backup plans in case other scenarios occur. 

The usual time it takes to identify and contain a breach is 280 days. You’re not only developing a timely response plan in case a breach happens. You also need to improve the speed of detection and investigation. 

Changing Incident Management Practices

SOC teams won’t stop at developing a good incident response plan. They will also revisit and revamp some of your incident management methods. They’re collaborative, meaning they’ll offer some suggestions and alternatives to certain steps contained in your plans.

With a SOC on hire, you gain access to malware and cyberthreat prevention tools. These include firewalls, antimalware, or antivirus software. They also use threat detection tools on your network and devices to ensure their safety from cybersecurity threats. 

If your employees don’t use these tools, the SOC will work with you or other management figures. You’ll discuss the best way to implement the changes, so your business employees follow suit. With time, it will soon become a habit for your employees to be mindful of the things they click or open online.

5. It Combines Automation and Human Resources for a Threat Response

The last thing you need to know is that they use the most reasonable and reliable resources to operate. For example, SOCs don’t only use humans to track your business security. They also use AI to help out with the more mundane tasks, like resetting schedules and others.

Keep in mind that human error is one of the major causes of large or serious organization-wide issues. The automated intelligence component of the SOC can weed out threats most humans won’t notice. It’s especially useful if your employees don’t check their computers or networks for background programs. 

Sometimes, it’s too late before one of your employees finds out about the breach. Remember, on average, the life cycle of a data breach can reach eleven months or 314 days. Within this time, it can already do a wide surplus of damage.

You can prevent more business losses if you have the right SOC for your business. Breach detection is faster and more efficient because of automation with them around. Never doubt their threat detection and response capabilities.

Find the Right SOC for Your Business Now!

Keeping your business secured can be tricky, especially with many cybercriminals operating online nowadays. It doesn’t mean you have no way of protecting yourself. Invest in the right SOC provider to keep your important data well-protected.

Regardless, we hope that this post encouraged you to consider hiring a security operations center. They offer security benefits you can’t achieve in-house efficiently.

Are you looking for high-quality cloud services for your business? We may have all the answers you’re looking for. Check out our contact page and feel free to talk or visit us anytime. 

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