If a cyber-attack threatened your organisation who would respond and stop it? Would anyone know it was coming? How would such an incident shape your IT security strategy going forward?   

These questions of course relate to who controls your critical IT infrastructure security, and more importantly the presence or lack of an effective Security Operations Centre (SOC). 

Comprising a team of expert IT security professionals, a SOC in essence continuously monitors, analyses, detects, prevents, and responds to cyber security threats. In turn, they use data-driven analysis from this activity to improve how an organisation may deal with future threats.  

The benefit they bring is clear. With a collaborative, professional, and cohesive approach to threat response, a SOC can reduce a business’s downtime, ensure legal compliance, protect reputation, and vital data, and give greater control to an organisations network, systems, and applications.  

With SOCs varying greatly in size and scope, in this article, we weigh up the two routes that you can choose, either by creating your own in-house team or outsourcing it to a third-party security provider. 

The benefits of a Managed Security Operations Centre (SOC):

Siemens Energy recently unveiled their managed SOC operation in Malaysia with a projected investment of up to €3-4million over the next five years. Of course, not all organisations have such a budget or requirement but nonetheless can benefit from an outsourced solution. 

Highly skilled and specialist team: Usually with a degree in Computer Science, a SOC cyber security analyst is highly trained, detail focused, and experienced with comprehensive technical skills. Part of a 24hr/7 team including cybersecurity engineers they will have a dedicated security focus with access to the latest technologies. 

Cost-efficient: Outsourcing reduces the need to hire new staff or continuously upskill your in-house team as threats evolve. It also means you don’t need to invest in sophisticated new tools and technologies as third-parties have the infrastructure in place. Advanced automated processes and analytics also means less money and time spent on manual in-house tasks. 

24/7 Monitoring and Support: SOC analysts and engineers undertake continuous surveillance and threat detection activities within your infrastructure and can provide rapid incident response and resolution to any threats or incidents encountered. The Managed SOC team can also assess and manage risks, implementing proactive security measures to test your infrastructure for potential security gaps. 

Compliance and Regulatory Requirements: Managed SOC teams often must adhere to legal regulations and standards such as the NIS-D regulations and GDPR requirements. Alongside accurate and efficient audit reporting of incidents and gaps, this helps organisations meet their specific industry security compliance and regulatory controls.  

The advantages of building an in-house Cyber Security team:

For some, outsourcing is not the preferred choice, rather they choose to keep their security controls and IT infrastructure access in-house. So, what are the benefits of doing this and building your own bespoke cyber security team? 

Control and customisation: you can build and tailor security policies, monitoring capabilities, and controls that perfectly fit your organisation whilst having 24/7 oversight of all security operations and IT infrastructure.  

Organisational knowledge with enhanced communication: an in-house operation allows security practices to align with business goals and helps with more effective cross-department communication, operational integration, and collaboration. 

Industry-specific expertise: in-house staff should know the environment your industry operates in inside out and the risks and threats to it. Because of this, they may be able to develop more tailored security solutions which can quickly adapt as business needs and requirements evolve. 

There is no one-size-fits all when it comes to selecting the most appropriate cyber security team for your organisation. What is clear however is that you must carefully assess your requirements, your staff capabilities, and your cyber security technology stack to come to the right answer.  

If you are still at the stage where you need to analyse and determine your requirements, why not speak to one of our expert team and discover how Brightsolid can help with our comprehensive managed detection and response service.  

We also have some effective recommendations to help boost your cyber resilience whilst you consider your position.