Data breaches and cybersecurity incidents present significant challenges for today’s businesses and MSPs. Not only are the recovery costs extensive – nearly $4 Million according to IBM’s most recent analysis – but consumers and regulators are increasingly punishing companies that can’t protect their data or infrastructure.
As a result, many business leaders view cybersecurity as a top challenge to their organization’s growth, development, and sustainability. The 2021 Global CEO survey found that 71% of CEOs are “extremely concerned” about cyber threats. For many, their fears are not misplaced.
It takes the average company more than 300 days to detect and contain a cyber incident while threat actors continue to leverage existing vulnerabilities and novel techniques to compromise cybersecurity and data privacy.
To improve response times while mitigating the consequences of an attack, companies are creating Security Operations Centers (SOCs). These are dedicated teams of highly-trained cybersecurity specialists equipped to monitor enterprise networks for security threats and vulnerabilities while responding with industry-leading defensive best practices. Most importantly, such professionals are focused on the network edge, the greatest point of leverage in an effective cybersecurity strategy.
Additionally, today’s SOCs provide:
- always-on on network monitoring
- incident investigation capacity
- regulatory compliance oversight
- data analytics and threat pattern assessments
- threat detection and defense
A company’s SOC is akin to a team of Navy Seals. They are well-trained and hyper-focused on the mission of securing all endpoints and protecting clients from the most advanced threats..
At the same time, IT teams are tasked with keeping digital resources operational. That’s why many businesses segment these responsibilities, developing Network Operations Centers (NOCs) that bring the same level of SOC expertise to bear on operational continuity. These teams are the unseen foundation of a company’s digital environment.
NOCs help businesses provide a safe, secure, and reliable online experience by focusing on incident response, system monitoring and troubleshooting, proactive maintenance, help desk ticketing, and more. For instance, one consumer survey found that 90 percent of shoppers have left a website because of poor performance. In addition, it’s estimated that the average business website is down for three hours each month, costing companies customers, conversions, and future sales opportunities.
With so much on the line, NOCs ensure that a company’s digital infrastructure is operational and functioning efficiently. In some ways, SOCs and NOCs overlap in their responsibilities, sharing an end goal of providing a secure, compliant, and accessible online experience. When coordinated appropriately, these teams of designated tech professionals can produce incredible outcomes for companies and their customers.
The problem at most MSPs today is they don’t have enough personnel to maintain a dedicated NOC and SOC. Instead, most companies turn to a Level 3 Engineer or a cybersecurity enthusiast to play double duty, managing cybersecurity, as well as network infrastructure responsibilities. Unfortunately, this arrangement is not sustainable. There are far too many cybersecurity risks hitting on a daily basis for a shared resource to stay on top of everything happening, as well as close out tickets for their traditional day job. Over time, this leads to fatigue, burnout, and reduced functionality in both roles. Ultimately, this creates a chink in a strong cybersecurity armor that lets a major threat into the organization.
MSPs can mitigate these cybersecurity and operational concerns by turning to external SOC services. Our team supports those efforts, leveraging 50+ years of armed forces heritage and cybersecurity expertise to defend MSP clients from cybercrime and financial loss. BLOKWORX deploys Next Generation Firewall Security, SOC, and cloud protection services without the expense (time, money, and risk) of running it yourself. Contact us today or visit www.blokworx.com to learn more.
