How Security Operations Center can be Established on a Limited Budget

How Security Operations Center can be Established on a Limited Budget

A SOC is unquestionably too expensive for small and medium-sized companies. The capabilities a SOC offers without the price should be the goal for those with smaller budgets.

A security operations center conjures images of a large, windowless room filled with large flat screen monitors from floor to ceiling. Security analysts diligently savor information from multiple screens while they work at their desks, ready to seize even the smallest anomaly.

For a small group of people, this idea of a SOC (security operations center) is grounded in reality. There are large enterprises, significant government agencies, or international finance organizations that have the setups and capabilities shown in these representations.

The justification is straightforward: Running an entire SOC is a huge undertaking that calls for sizable personnel and technology expenditures.

Small and medium-sized businesses frequently find it difficult, if not impossible, to pursue this kind of environment. Instead, they ought to try to construct a SOC that satisfies their requirements at a cost that is in line with their overall security expenses.

Challenges of Building a SOC

Security operation centers depend on both people and technology to function. Information security is a requirement for all businesses, which makes the competition for talent intense. In a competitive sector where there are currently more open positions than qualified candidates, organizations must commit to finding, hiring, and keeping professionals.

While using outside staffing companies can speed up the process, small businesses frequently cannot afford them. A Tier 1 analyst with only a few years of experience can ask for a significantly higher salary on the open market after being hired.

Also Read: Passwordless Authentication: A New Mode of Business Security

The difficulty with technology is another issue in addition to hiring. Although various security solutions fulfill a variety of crucial functions, a SOC’s excess of technology can become burdensome. As a result, team members experience “alert fatigue,” where they grow accustomed to the constant stream of security threats.

Employee burnout and poor performance may result from this. This can also be a result of receiving too many false positive alerts. About 40% of all alerts are false alarms, which reinforces the bad habit of ignoring these warnings, especially when things are busy.

Building on a Budget

A SOC is a good option for big businesses, but it is unquestionably too expensive for small and medium-sized companies. The capabilities a SOC offers without the price should be the goal for those with smaller budgets.

The primary objectives are to provide visibility into an environment, identify threats, and take appropriate action. With a sound monitoring strategy and a few key tools placed in the right places, smaller organizations can accomplish that. The best strategy is to begin gradually while gathering data logs from an environment’s most crucial sources.

Firms can start with IPS/IDS and endpoint protection systems, which already deliver security logs. This will enable IT teams to integrate applications into a single log management system while becoming familiar with the software and configuration options. After that, continue to add logs for high-fidelity programs that can give more visibility into the infrastructures, such as Windows, DNS, honeypots, applications, and databases.

Also Read: DNS Attack – The Average Cost Hovers Around A Million

Centralized logging can provide visibility into the environment, but it can be time-consuming to analyze log files from multiple sources. In order to provide context for these events and raise an alert for suspicious behavior, a SIEM can offer analytics, search, and reporting capabilities. Look for a SIEM solution that can use the log data on a budget.

Organizations can make sure they only receive actionable items with a SIEM that can manage alerts better. With the right SIEM, organizations can swiftly respond to critical threats while delaying responses to lesser threats until time permits.

A lot of similar functions of a SOC can be created using data logs and a SIEM without the high cost. While not everyone can afford a SOC, everyone can, with the right approach, afford the capabilities and a secure network.

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