A Checklist for Outsourcing Your SOC

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Cybercrime is on the rise. This trillion-dollar industry is only gaining momentum with ransomware and business email compromise attacks, and recent trends show that the odds of becoming a breach victim are about 50%.

Not to mention that the skills shortage gap continues to plague organizations, with many stating they would need five or more employees to fill it.  

These two factors, along with the fact that cybersecurity costs are rising as fast as ransomware payments, make it impossible for many organizations to consider a fully in-house security operations center (SOC). They are turning to outside help, but there’s a lot of tools on the marketplace, and there’s not a one-size-fits-all solution.

Outsourcing can fill a critical gap in a company’s security defenses, but what capabilities should your outsourced SOC possess to deliver the level of protection your business needs to operate safely and securely? 

The Most Critical Elements of a SOC 

Real-Time Threat Monitoring 

Monitoring threats and responding to alerts is something that must be done at all hours of the day—cybercriminals aren’t restricted to standard business hours. However, security information and event management (SIEM) tools are incredibly noisy, which makes it difficult for a sparsely staffed security team to filter out false alarms and perform adequate forensics on security alerts that truly matter. 

Keep in mind that alert fatigue is more than just an annoyance; it comes with long-term implications, including staff burnout, employee turnover, and a diminished ability to respond to verified threats.

Nonetheless, for a SOC to be reliable, it must offer 24×7 continuous monitoring with a focus on threat detection services and forensics for all security incidents.  

Fast Incident Response 

In addition to detection, a SOC must also include incident response. Your organization needs a partner that can help facilitate a swift, accurate, and effective response, whether you’re dealing with a false alarm, DDoS, ransomware, or a data breach. 

Effective incident response is critically important to minimizing the depth, severity, and cost of an attack. If the SOC does not supply 24×7 incident response, then it’s not truly a SOC. 

Your SOC should follow a tried-and-tested approach to identify, contain, and remove threats. It needs to ensure your organization returns to normal quickly. There also needs to be a feedback loop to help your organization learn from how attacks breached your security architecture so you can heighten your security posture and prevent such attacks in the future. 

 Strategic Consulting 

As they monitor the network and hunt for new threats, dedicated security engineers acquire a deep understanding of your organization’s network topology and location of critical assets that need to be protected with an in-depth security strategy. 

In addition to cloud-based, scalable technology, well-defined incident response processes, and trained security engineers, strategic consulting from your SOC offers insights into your overall security posture. Long term, this enables your organization to manage business risk more effectively. 

Compliance Management 

In an increasingly onerous regulatory environment, a SOC must play a role in compliance, whether that involves CCPA, GDPR, GLBA, HIPAA, HITECH, PCI DSS, FFIEC, or other standards applicable to your organization. It needs to provide templates for required and recommended security controls, as well as include vulnerability assessments that gauge how well your organization abides by regulatory standards. 

Penalties for non-compliance can add up, so make sure all risks are managed by your SOC provider. 

Predictable Pricing 

Pricing should not fluctuate based on the number of monitored devices or the amount of log data being ingested from one week to the next. Instead, A SOC provider should offer a fixed pricing model based on the number of users and sensors. 

Having a predictable pricing model is important for organizations of any size, as it helps manage security-related costs. Otherwise, your costs can greatly change depending on activity levels, which makes budgeting difficult if not problematic.  

A Portfolio of Robust Security Tools 

To best protect your organization, experts assigned to your SOC must have access to the latest technology to support their efforts. 

  • Security Information and Event Management: A security information and event management (SIEM) solution should form the basis of the SOC’s operations. It allows the team to analyze vast amounts of data to uncover threats. 
  • Behavioral monitoring: When a SIEM is coupled with behavioral monitoring, SOC analysts can uncover abnormal activity that points to security threats. 
  • Intrusion detection: If an attacker attempts to breach your company’s defenses, the SOC team should use intrusion detection to uncover the attack quickly and immediately deploy appropriate countermeasures. 
  • Asset discovery: From a proactive perspective, using asset discovery tools ensures an accurate, up-to-date understanding of every system and enables the creation and deployment of relevant controls. 
  • Vulnerability management: Conducting periodic vulnerability assessments is critical as it allows the security team time to uncover and remediate weaknesses before they can be exploited. 

There are a lot of requirements to keep in mind when outsourcing your security operations, regardless of your company’s size. Defending against unrelenting attacks requires 24×7 monitoring, detection, and response. If using an outsourced team, ensure they proactively monitor the threat landscape and the overall effectiveness of your organization’s security program in combating threats. After all, it only takes one weakness to expose your organization and open the door to a successful cyber attack. 

Learn how much an organization can save by outsourcing their security operations. 

Understand the Global State of Security Operations. 

Arctic Wolf

Arctic Wolf

Arctic Wolf provides your team with 24x7 coverage, security operations expertise, and strategically tailored security recommendations to continuously improve your overall posture.
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