Real-Time Threat Monitoring

This means having 24/7 continuous monitoring with a focus on threat detection services and forensics for all security incidents. Security information and event management tools are incredibly noisy, making it difficult for a sparsely staffed security team to filter out false alarms and perform adequate forensics on real security alerts that matter. Make sure your SOC provider is capable of detecting threatening activity all hours of the day, so that you have ongoing peace of mind.

  Complexity

Gartner recently identified a burgeoning cybersecurity market known as managed detection and response (MDR). The “detection” element, as covered above, is critical to identifying threats, but to be prescriptive, a SOC must also supply incident response (IR). Your organization needs a partner that can help facilitate swift, decisive, accurate and effective IR, whether you’re dealing with a false alarm, DDoS, ransomware, or a data breach. If it does not supply 24/7 IR, then it’s not a SOC.

  Proactive Threat Hunting

Cutting-edge, criminal hacking tactics are increasingly difficult to detect, which means that network configurations need to be continually adjusted based on the newest and wiliest cyberthreats. The onus is therefore on security operators to learn the unique network topology of their clients, and hunt for threats that are most likely to evade detection through traditional methods. This means utilizing relevant, threat-intelligence sources, applying machine learning and user behavior analytics, and leaving no stone unturned in the search for real security incidents that impact customers.

  Strategic Consulting

As they monitor the network and hunt for new threats, dedicated security engineers will acquire a deep under-standing of your organization’s network topology and location of critical assets, which need to be protected with a defense in depth security strategy. No less would be expected of an in-house SOC, so why not demand this of an outsourced SOC? In addition to the cloud-based scalable technology, well-defined incident response processes, and trained people (security engineers) will enable clients to gain insights into their overall security posture. Long term, this helps an organization manage business risk more effectively.

A SOC must be expected to operate with utmost regard for compliance, whether that’s HIPAA, HITECH, PCI DSS, FFIEC, GLBA or any other standards that highly regulated industries must conform to. This means providing templates for required and recommended security controls, and basing vulnerability assessments on how well these organizations are abiding by their respective regulatory standards. Hackers aren’t the only threats to your wallet. Costly penalties for noncompliance can quickly add up, so make sure all risk will be managed by your SOC provider.

  Predictable Pricing