The security operations centre as a service (SOCaaS), or SOC as a service, is gaining traction. The reason is that it addresses some of the key challenges faced by most enterprises, while also addressing other objectives, such as financial, security and compliance, among other benefits achieved by SOC.

Essentially, the term SOCaaS refers to a type of cloud-based managed security service (MSS) built on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform with the ability to serve multiple customers at the same time in parallel.

SOC as a service goes beyond MSS with offerings from traditional managed security service providers (MSSPs). It brings together monitoring, detection, incident response (MDR), vulnerability analysis and intrusion testing solutions.

Like MSS, SOCaaS includes all monitoring and management of firewalls, antivirus and antispam systems, virtual private networks (VPNs), endpoint protection (EPP) and endpoint detection and response (EDR).

In addition, SOCaaS provides access to a team of analysts to resolve all alerts, identify and analyse indicators of compromise, analyse and respond to attacks to minimise the impact of security incidents, providing assistance in optimising an organisation's protection, detection and response resources through ongoing assessment and reporting, including guidance on security strategies and policies.

This capability is why SOCaaS is considered an evolution of MSS and MDR. Although the term SOCaaS is more current, organisations that have been in the market longer still offer solutions that meet the definition of SOC as a service within MDR offerings.

So it's important to remember that organisations should focus on the benefits of solutions that meet the definition of SOC, rather than worrying about whether those services are called SOCaaS or not.

The term SOCaaS is gaining popularity in a threat landscape that requires companies to have comprehensive detection and response capabilities that go beyond the boundaries of the corporate environment. And it is set to become the dominant term among organisations looking for the best business security management.

Is SOC synonymous with peace of mind?

The attack surface for most enterprises has expanded. And it is set to grow further as workforces become increasingly remote, with people accessing corporate network applications, systems, services and data from anywhere, thanks to the cloud. This trend translates into opportunity for cybercriminals.

Companies have invested in monitoring tools to keep data protection up to date. However, for many of them, security alerts generated daily pile up, creating an avalanche of data that goes unanalysed.

SOC as a Service solves the gap. And it also offers a solution to other critical challenges in enterprises, including:

• The need to expand security monitoring to include cloud, operational technology (OT) and Internet of Things (IoT) devices;
• Many companies acquire prevention technologies with the conviction that the tools are sufficient, forgetting that, along with the acquisition of new resources, it is necessary to coordinate training, implement usage policies and define goals to be achieved;
• Finding, training and retaining experienced security professionals has become a major hurdle for companies of all sizes;
• Difficulty in understanding day-to-day operational procedures;
• Building your own Security Operations Centre is expensive;
• The need to generate more value from the resources applied in security, so that the entire leadership can visualise that the cost of not investing in protection can be much higher;
• Spending energy on the business risk rather than the operation;
• Specific data protection laws must be obeyed.

A SOCaaS analyses the risk to which the company is exposed and, from there, draws up the most appropriate response strategy. The knowledge of the Threat Intelligence team, which continuously researches and collects information, is added to Artificial Intelligence (AI) learning. The result is a Detection and Response Service (MDR) that eliminates alert fatigue and false positives, and promotes a faster response, specific to the reality of the organisation.

Safety triad

The basis of the work of a SOCaas needs to be what we call the security triad: people, processes and products. A set of talents, technology and experience in protecting, so that companies have a security architecture that follows the most reputable practices in the market. Thus, a SOC in this format is capable of serving any organization, regardless of the security structure it has, and the complexity and maturity of the environment. It monitors the various existing technologies, in a holistic and borderless manner, and acts on any surface.

The security triad reaches the following structures of the companies:

Cloud - visibility into the cloud environment, across all major platforms used by the market;

Network - monitoring capable of reaching the different network architectures of the companies;

Systems - constantly searches for alerts across multiple operating systems;

Applications - the range of business applications today is huge; SOCaaS checks them all;

Devices - the range of end devices is increasing, such as workstations, smartphones, tablets and servers; the SOC looks at each one, without boundaries.

SOC-as-a-service offerings address critical challenges of the digital age. As such, they need to be in any mature cybersecurity strategy.