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Quick Guide: Security as a Service (SECaaS)

Organizations are challenged to stay ahead of a rapidly changing threat landscape and a shortage of security talent and resources. To overcome these challenges, organizations are adopting the Security as a Service (SECaaS) model or outsourced security.

Outsourcing - Business Background. Blue Arrow with _Outsourcing_ Slogan on a Grey Background. 3D Render..jpeg

What is Security as a Service?

Security as a Service allows the organization to outsource challenging security tasks like log monitoring and management, incident response, and reporting to a third party or Managed Security Services Provider.

A Security as a Service provider can offer an array of unique capabilities that accelerate your organization’s security operation maturity.

Benefits of Security as a Service

When outsourcing security functions, many organizations benefit dramatically. First, cost-savings is substantial benefit when outsourcing your security to a third-party provider. The costs required to staff, train, and build a Security Operation Center that operates on a 24x7x365 basis can be prohibitive. Companies can leverage SECaaS to replace CAPEX costs on hardware and software with a monthly OPEX expense through a security provider. Upfront and sunk costs are greatly reduced in the SECaaS model.

A Security as a Service provider can proactively hunt for threats and use proprietary and open source threat intelligence feeds to detect the latest threats. One of the major benefits of working with a security service provider is that they work with cutting-edge security solutions. They can offer your organization access to the latest SIEM tools, next-generation endpoint protection, advanced security analytics and heuristics, artificial intelligence, and more. 

Security Incident and Event Management (SIEM) tools can require many manual hours for the review of logs and alerts. If your organization has a difficult time finding IT and security professionals to manage and monitor IT infrastructure security, then a Security as a Service provider may be a helpful solution.

SECaaS allows you to overcome many technology adoption barriers as well. Once you purchase a security solution, your security team must learn how to configure the new device or software properly. With a security provider, a trained and experienced security provider can configure and deploy your solutions in minutes versus days.

Another benefit of using a Security as a Service provider is your time to value. Leveraging SECaaS means you accelerate the maturity of your security operations in the fraction of the time it would take to hire, train, and deploy security resources and devices.

Types of Security as a Service

There are many different areas a SECaaS provider can cover. Depending on your organizational needs and your compliance and regulatory requirements, your organization might consider some of these common offerings:

  • Threat Monitoring and Attack Defense – 24x7x365 advanced monitoring, analysis and investigation of threats
  • SIEM & Log Management – Collect, normalize, and store logs from virtually any technology or IT asset
  • Incident Response & Event Investigation – Containment and eradication of threats & minimize the impact of breach
  • Managed Security Assets – Continuous monitoring and updates to your infrastructure for optimization 
  • Threat Protection Services – Active threat detection and protection against zero-day and targeted attacks
  • Vulnerability Management Service – Manage and monitor configuration changes, patches, and vulnerabilities
  • Data Loss Prevention – Prevent or protect users from sending sensitive information outside the corporate network
  • Identity and Access Management – Manage and monitor user access to resources and applications 
  • Security Assessment & Auditing – Navigate requirements, identify processes needed, maintain compliance
  • Web Application Security – Manage the security of websites, web applications, and web services
  • DDoS Mitigation – Manage the impact of Distributed Denial-of-Service attacks on the network(s)
  • Encryption Management – Create and deploy cryptographic keys to protect data in use, in transit, and at rest
  • Email Security Services – Manage the inflow of messages to corporate inboxes to mitigate phishing attacks 

As you can see, a security provider can fill in gaps in many areas. You may already have resources to handle some of these areas but perhaps you can pick up additional competencies through a managed security services provider.

What Should Your Potential Security as a Service Provider Provide

  1. Security Talent & Expertise

The SECaaS vendor’s team should offer you years of experience in the cyber security field. The third-party team should offer tailored security strategies and offer insightful research on the latest threats.

  1. Delivers Managed Detection and Response

A reputable SECaaS provider will improve how your organization detects and responds to threats as well as monitor infrastructure assets continuously. The security provider should have strong skill sets in security event management and security analytics.

  1. Offers the Latest Security Infrastructure

The SECaaS provider needs to offer the latest tools and technologies in security. When interviewing a potential security partner, make sure to ask about the solutions that are used to monitor, detect, and respond to security incidents and events.

  1. Understands Compliance & Regulatory Challenges

A SECaaS provider must understand any compliance or regulatory challenges that applies to your organization’s industry. Experienced and certified security providers will have experts across PCI DSS, HIPAA, FISMA, SOX, ISO, FFIEC, and any others. Regulatory environments change frequently, so it’s essential that your provider can help you meet compliance requirements.

  1. Dependable Customer Support

Lastly, as you onboard with your chosen SECaaS provider, you need to know how issues are handled and resolved. Ask about the escalation paths for a security event and exactly how the security provider handles it.

Security as a Service is now a contemporary area of information security. Organizations faced with a lack of time and resources can significantly improve their security posture through a SECaaS provider. Consider the following whitepaper on building versus buying a Security Operations Center. The whitepaper shares an eye-opening estimate on the cost of building a Security Operations Center yourself versus outsourcing, so you can evaluate which model is right for your business.

Build versus Buy Security Operations Center

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Cipher Cyber Security Blog authored by Marc von Mandel. Read the original post at: http://blog.cipher.com/quick-guide-security-as-a-service-secaas