Data breaches and other cybersecurity incidents are on the rise, and if you’re running a small business, you need to be prepared to address the threat. You may not be able to afford a fully staffed, in-house security operations center (SOC), but that doesn’t mean you’re locked out of this tier of security just because you’re small.
These days, you can outsource your SOC operations to a company that sells SOC as a service (SOCaaS). An SOC can extend your cybersecurity detection and response across endpoints, emails, networks, clouds, and more to provide comprehensive security that meets the challenges posed by today’s biggest cybersecurity threats. Here’s what you can get from SOCaaS for a reasonable price.
Round-the-Clock Security Monitoring
Most SOCs use security information and event management (SIEM) technology to monitor your entire network for suspicious activity 24/7. Round-the-clock monitoring means your network will be protected even during off hours for your business, when your network would otherwise be at its most vulnerable without employees keeping an eye on it. Much of this monitoring is automated, which makes it much more affordable than hiring staff to do it manually. However, you will still have access to security analysts and round-the-clock threat detection and incident response.
Rapid Security Responses
The faster you can respond to a cyberattack, the less damage you’ll sustain. You can depend on an SOC team to deliver rapid and effective responses to any encroachment on your network security. You will have access to a whole team of security professionals who can bring their collective knowledge and experience to bear when responding to threats.
Network Visibility in One Place
Network configurations are more complicated than ever. Especially since everyone started working from home, many businesses are now running an elaborate network that includes employees’ personal devices, cloud storage, company endpoints, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Having so many types of devices on your network and having people connect to your network remotely can open up new network vulnerabilities. A good SOC tool can give you an overarching view of your network, complete visibility in one dashboard. It can also help you find those vulnerabilities in your complex network and address them.
Comprehensive and Up-to-Date Response Tools
When you use an SOCaaS provider, you can get access to more comprehensive and robust threat protection from up-to-date response tools powered by machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI). These are tools that are built not just to detect, mitigate, and prevent threats, but to learn to recognize new threats so that they’re always evolving their capabilities and their threat detection mechanism isn’t dependent on a threat library that may or may not contain the right definitions for the malware your network is facing.
Regulatory Compliance Help
If your business is one that has to adhere to regulatory guidelines, then you need an SOC tool. A managed SOC or SOCaaS tool can offer you the resources and expert guidance to remain in compliance with any regulations that apply to your industry and your security framework. They can even help you detect potential compliance violations before they become an issue for your organization. When issues with regulatory compliance do come up, as they sometimes will, a managed SOC could provide technical support and help getting back into compliance with regulatory guidelines.
Reduced Costs
As a small business, you probably can’t afford an in-house SOC. That’s okay, because there are managed SOC and SOCaaS solutions out there for small businesses like yours. You can have the same robust and extensive cybersecurity threat protection that larger companies have, but without the expense of hiring a whole team of people to do it for you.
When you use a managed SOC tool, you can get access to that team of experts for a fraction of the cost of hiring all of them to only work for you. SOCaaS providers have the best, most experienced cybersecurity professionals on their teams and they have enough of them to manage the needs of many companies. You’ll find that outsourcing your SOC needs can get you better cybersecurity for less money, and save you money by more efficiently addressing threats and preventing costly data breaches.
Does your small business need better cybersecurity? It’s time to think about getting an SOC. You can get efficient, expert security help for much cheaper than hiring your own security professionals, and you might even get a higher quality of service, too.