An efficient cybersecurity plan has traditionally included a 24-hour security operations center (SOC). Identifying, investigating, and addressing targeted cyber threats requires a SOC that is supported by both technologies as well as human resources.

It’s a wonderful thing that the market is improving, but there are still a few barriers to overcome. There are only a very small number of enterprises that can afford to devote the time, money, and effort to building and operating an effective security operations center. SOC-as-a-Service providers are increasingly being sought out by businesses in need of such assistance.

The Rise of SOC as a Service?

There are many advantages to having a specialized 24/7 security operations center, but they are outweighed by the high expenses, difficulties, and frustrations of setting one up and running one. Organizations can outsource the people, procedures, and technology required for a SOC to be run and managed offsite and offer a cloud-based service via a managed SOC service.

You can outsource a security operations center (SOC) to perform important security duties on your behalf. Ensure that you know exactly what you’re getting for your money before deciding on a SOC-as-a-Service provider. Compliance is a vital factor to keep in mind. Third-party security service providers must have SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 accreditation to provide SOC-as-a-Service or other similar services. As a result of this, you and your clients may rest assured knowing that your data is protected by the vendor’s policies and procedures, which are in use.

What is the difference between a SOCaaS provider and a Managed Security Service provider?

A SOC (security operations center) is so vital to today’s enterprises that organizations are looking for more comprehensive managed security than a standard managed security service provider (MSSP).

When it comes to basic services, a legacy MSSP is likely to offer them, like

  • Firewalls are constantly monitored and managed from a distance.
  • As part of an endpoint detection and response strategy (EDR),
  • There is a need for intrusion detection systems and virtual private networks (IDS)
  • Notification of common occurrences

When it comes to protecting your business from cyberattacks, SOCaaS provides advanced threat detection services and access to highly qualified in-house security analysts and specialists who function as a real extension of your IT or security staff.

How to Analyse SOC-as-a-Service

You should think about several things before selecting a provider of SOC services. Let’s look at them one by one.

A cutting-edge platform for innovation

It is not enough for a SOC-as-a-Service provider to include the fundamental features of a typical Security Information and Event Management system (SIEM). As a result, it needs a single, cloud-native platform that can handle a wide range of vital operations. Threat detection, hunting, investigation, triage, case management, and remediation must all be made faster and more effective on the platform.

Forensic investigators must also be able to quickly scan through vast volumes of data that have been gathered from several sources.

Monitoring

A SOC as a service as many relevant sources as feasible should be ingested by the service provider. It will be easier for the system (data science / automated detection engine) to identify suspicious or malicious activities if it has a complete and clear picture of what is going on.

In particular, the platform should make use of the following log sources and categories of data:

  •     Security events
  •     Infrastructure and authentication
  •     Enrichment data
  •     Application data
  •     SIEM data (optional)

Robotics and Data Science

Using cutting-edge data science approaches, the best SOC-as-a-Service providers can automate and optimize the detection process to make important correlations, reduce false positives, and improve confidence in the detections to be probed.

A combination of supervised and unsupervised machine learning, as well as rule-based and signature-based criteria, as well as behavior pattern-match detection methods, is needed to identify possible risks. To detect malicious conduct and improve security over time, it should make seamless use of extensive and timely threat intelligence.

Expertise gained through collaboration

The importance of technology cannot be overstated, but a tool is only as good as the people who use it. When it comes to security operations, no team can do without the human capital that an outsourced SOC as a Service provider can deliver. The following professionals should be a part of your team and act as an extension of your current group:

    Data Scientists to help with data acquisition and enrichment

    Data Engineers to build and deploy data pipelines that ingest data

    Security Analysts to monitor environments and investigate suspicious activities

    Security Engineers to deploy and integrate security products

    Threat Hunters to proactively anticipate, detect and eradicate threat actors

    Threat Researchers to collect and process threat intelligence

    Incident Response Specialists to take on triage investigations

An appropriate system of pricing

The price models offered by service providers vary, with a few offering more for their customers in terms of value and adaptability than others. For endpoint or server security controls or network IPS devices, look at when and how license fees are collected:

  • The start of the contract with an upfront flat cost. Even if licenses aren’t used, the fee is always the same under this arrangement.
  • As soon as possible after each billing cycle, based on the number of licensed users. This is a significantly better option, as it will save money in the long run.

Find out whether there are any up-front expenses for the services given and if a committed contract has a minimum term. In the current economic context, monthly billing is quite desirable.

SOC with Vaporvm

By cutting through the clutter, Vaporvm SOC enables SOC analysts to focus on the most serious threats to their organization and act quickly to reduce the financial and reputational damage that may be caused by a cyberattack. If you want to see how Vaporvm SOC works, then sign up for a free trial.