How SOCaaS Can Lower the Cost of Threat Detection and Response

As organizations embark on new digital initiatives that expand their attack surface, they often struggle to stay ahead of the latest threats. Attackers are always adapting their tactics to the latest security measures, using multi-stage campaigns, and mimicking legitimate activities. And because of the global cybersecurity skills shortage, most businesses now have more work than people to go around. According to Fortinet Training Institute’s 2023 Cybersecurity Skills Gap Global Research Report, 68% of organizations face additional cyber risks as a result of the cyber skills shortage. With a global cybersecurity workforce gap of 3.4 million people, most organizations are struggling to hire and retain experienced security professionals for critical 24x7 security operations. Finding, paying, and retaining skilled workers is more difficult and expensive than outsourcing security services, where economies of scale are more easily achieved.

One notable trend is the rise of SOC-as-a-Service companies. Many businesses don’t have the resources to build or offer a fully operational security operations center (SOC) and they are looking for the pricing flexibility and time-to-service that come with managed detection response. A SOC-as-a-Service (SOCaaS) helps organizations meet these challenges by outsourcing some or all of their cybersecurity monitoring and incident response processes. SOCaaS solutions can quickly help fill in the gaps to help businesses prevent, maintain, and respond to threats.

What is SOC-as-a-Service?

Whether standalone or part of a broad security services offering, the SOCaaS definition refers to an outsourced security operations center that gathers, aggregates, correlates, and analyzes real-time security data across an organization’s digital environment. Using a combination of skilled professionals and detection and automation technologies, SOCaaS providers monitor the environment to identify, prioritize, and respond to security threats.

Using a subscription payment model, organizations outsource the 24x7 operation and maintenance of a fully managed security operations center to a third-party services provider.

So what is SOCaaS used for? A SOCaaS provider offers managed security monitoring, threat detection, and incident response capabilities. As organizations look to improve their security posture and mitigate risk, many turn to a service provider with the technology stack and team of cybersecurity experts needed to:

• Gather and analyze threat intelligence for visibility into new cyberthreats
• Help develop a comprehensive strategy to address breaches and keep data secure
• Enhance network security by using next-generation firewalls (NGFWs)
• Monitor user and device access to business resources
• Collect and analyze the forensic data necessary to achieve compliance outcomes

Although some organizations outsource all security activities to a SOCaaS provider, many companies of varying sizes use the solutions to augment their current internal security team capabilities. With SOCaaS, organizations benefit from security experts who manage the day-to-day security activities that act as the foundation of a robust security program.

Market Trends Driving SOCaaS for Businesses

Today, many organizations struggle to find and retain certified cybersecurity staff. As cybersecurity challenges grow, many organizations are turning to SOC-as-a-Service providers for expert assistance in mitigating and managing cyberthreats. Finding experienced security analysts who can manage complex, interconnected environments can be hard to do, and many organizations turn to automation to overcome challenges like:

• High volumes of alerts
• Lengthy manual processes
• Lack of team collaboration

At the same time, cyberattacks continue to evolve and remain as pervasive as ever. Organizations face a constantly and rapidly evolving threat landscape that includes more aggressive tactics and an increase in attacks because of Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) and the weaponization of artificial intelligence (AI). With regular changes in tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), security teams and the broader organization must stay alert to reconnaissance-stage tactics that are an early foothold to ransomware.

Cyberthreats are often specifically designed to bypass traditional prevention-oriented security technologies such as signatures, heuristics, and reputations. Now, cybercriminals are even using AI to reduce the time it takes to establish a foothold, find their targets, and execute an attack.

Organizations that are still using manual investigation and response tactics are facing challenges from sophisticated multistage campaigns and increasing costs. By deploying security automation with outbreak detection, organizations can automatically identify and respond to threats before they can do as much damage, limiting the impact and cost of a breach.

Where Does SOCaaS Fit within an Organization’s SOC?

SOCaaS can either replace or support an organization’s existing SOC. With SOCaaS, organizations can establish a SOC baseline and manage the SOC response side of the business and operations. Or an organization can expand or scale its current SOC. SOCaaS extends an organization’s incident management process with additional tools and staff, essentially outsourcing SOC operations they don’t have the personnel to manage.

With a SOCaaS provider, organizations can map their attack surface to mitigate risks associated with threat actor reconnaissance activities by identifying misconfigurations, discovering visibility gaps, and locating security tool detection and logging problems, including fine-tuning configurations.

SOCaaS can enable organizations to implement better detection rules for high-fidelity alerts that identify malicious activity such as phishing and anomalous activity arising from credential-based attacks and malware installed on systems.

For organizations that need additional staff with specialized expertise, SOCaaS gives them the support necessary to investigate ongoing threat actor activities across the cyber kill chain, including identifying whether attackers:

• Gained access to systems while evading detection
• Exploited system weaknesses, misconfigurations, and vulnerabilities to gain higher-level system permissions
• Compromised security software or abused trust processes to hide in systems
• Used stolen credentials to gain access to systems and remain undetected
• Gained system and network knowledge to explore what they can control
• Moved through multiple systems to find their target or used multiple accounts to gain access to it
• Gathered information about target sources, like capturing screenshots or logging keyboard inputs
• Communicated with their own systems from inside the compromised network
• Transferred data from the compromised system

SOCaaS also helps the organization respond to the impact of an attack by collecting forensic evidence, ensuring adversaries have been eradicated from systems, and helping restore disrupted services.

Primary Benefits of SOCaaS

The main benefit is the full-service, hands-on nature of SOCAAS, meaning these solutions give companies all the tooling and support staff necessary for mitigating data breach risks. When considering the costs of purchasing the tools to defend against threats, hiring and retaining staff, and the time it takes to identify false positives and deal with incidents, SOCaaS is an economical option for organizations looking to reduce their risks from cyberattacks.

SOCaaS can be a cost-effective alternative with 24x7 security event monitoring and detection to identify potential threats and suspicious activity. It also can help organizations reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) for security, compensate for the cybersecurity skills gap, and enhance visibility into complex environments.

SOCaaS can improve detection and remediation times. Alerts can be quickly triaged using advanced AI and machine learning (ML), which helps to mitigate the volume of alerts and false positives and notifies organizations about any anomalous activity that requires a response. And using a cloud-based portal, analysts can track escalated alerts, view insights into detected incidents and threats, and communicate in real time with experts while continuously improving their SOC effectiveness.

With AI-assisted, around-the-clock incident triage, SOCaaS provides fast and accurate 24x7x365 active monitoring, detection, and response with global coverage and expert recommendations. SOCaaS can reduce detection and response costs with advanced automated security operations technologies.

As companies move toward zero-trust architectures, they need solutions that combine security and networking. SOCaaS services help enable these initiatives by implementing and maintaining firewall policies, rules, and configurations.

In some cases, organizations use SOCaaS to augment or outsource security operations so that their internal staff can focus on other critical elements of security. With a SOCaaS, companies benefit from:

• Simplified operations by offloading end-to-end use cases, minimizing exposure, and reducing workload
• Refocusing skilled resources on priority business scenarios
• Offloading all tier-one analysis of security events generated by the firewall
• 24x7 continuous monitoring and triaging

When organizations deploy security tools, they often lack the resources to update security configurations and operations when they add new technologies. A SOCaaS provides a cost-effective option for fast-tracking security operations by providing a ready-for-consumption service.

Deciding Factors between SOCaaS vs. In-House SOC

When trying to determine whether to maintain an in-house SOC or outsource capabilities, many companies feel that they must choose one or the other. However, as with everything else cybersecurity-related, the answer isn’t binary. It's important to consider the security requirements of the organization and its potential vulnerabilities.

Although some organizations use SOCaaS to outsource all of their security operations, others use it to augment their in-house teams. When trying to determine the types of SOCaaS support necessary, organizations should consider whether they:

• Have staff with the necessary specialized skills for incident response
• Have 24x7 staff coverage
• Can afford to recruit and retain talent with the required expertise
• Can afford the response-specific costs
• Have concerns about sharing access and information
• Plan to build or expand a SOC
• Can afford full-time employees to support their initiatives

Having expert assistance to scale a SOC can help reduce staff burnout and provide additional resources and skills. Extending the SOC with additional tools and staff essentially outsources the SOC operations that the organization doesn’t have the personnel to manage, freeing security staff time for critical tasks required to protect the enterprise.

Comparing Security Services: SIEM vs. SOCaaS

With an alphabet soup of security solutions, organizations need to understand how SOCaaS relates to and differs from the broader technology, cybersecurity, and service offerings.

With a security information and event management (SIEM) solution, the company hires cybersecurity staff and pays costs upfront. With SOCaaS, the company outsources the staff who use security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR), SIEM, and other tools without having to own the technologies or processes. This is crucial for companies with high technical demands and complex networks.

What to Look for in a SOCaaS Provider

When exploring SOCaaS options, organizations should start by identifying whether the provider owns the technology end-to-end. When providers are invested in capital, resources, and technology, their services often cost less because the security stack is well-integrated.

After determining how much or little support the organization needs from a SOCaaS solution, it should compare vendors’ capabilities across the security incident life cycle. When making this comparison, an organization should look at five key areas.

Monitoring

Continuous monitoring capabilities are the foundation of SOCaaS. When evaluating a provider, organizations should determine how they provide 24x7 monitoring. Do they have SOCs across the globe? Do they use a “follow the sun approach” to ensure that when a shift in North America ends another begins in APAC?

Detection

To overcome alert fatigue and high volumes of false positives, a SOCaaS should provide advanced threat detection capabilities. Providers should have a robust threat intelligence solution with tightly integrated security technologies. Organizations should also find out how the provider reduces noise caused by false positives and alerts and how quickly they notify customers after discovering suspicious activity.

Investigation

The faster a SOCaaS identifies the root cause of an incident, the less damage attackers can do. When evaluating a provider, organizations should look at the technologies they use and determine staff experience level. Do they combine human analysis with automation, like a SOAR, to reduce investigation times?

Response

After identifying the root cause, the SOCaaS needs to contain the attacker, remediate vulnerabilities, and restore systems. Organizations should understand the incident response procedures and processes. How does the provider coordinate a response with in-house security teams? Can they identify the attacker's footprint across the network? Can they identify whether the attacker escalated privileges? How do they determine whether attackers have been eradicated? How do they collect forensic evidence?

Management

Cybersecurity is a never-ending process of review and iteration, and SOCaaS provides insights into areas of improvement. Organizations should understand how the provider helps in-house teams improve their capabilities. How do they identify ways to improve processes? How do they help the organization fine-tune technologies? What are their key performance indicators for measuring the cybersecurity program’s effectiveness?

How Fortinet Can Help

With FortiGuard SOCaaS, businesses can quickly and affordably obtain the necessary monitoring and detection without substantial upfront investments in personnel, time, or tools. The Fortinet team of security experts leverages AI and ML technologies, such as instances from Fortinet FortiAnalyzer and FortiSOAR, along with human analysis to detect potential threats around the clock, 24x7.

If a threat is detected, timely notifications are provided based on the severity of the incident, detailed information on what is happening, why it is happening, and recommendations on how to quickly remediate the issue. Additionally, an intuitive dashboard, customized reports, and quarterly meetings allow for further insights and discussions on escalations, SLA performance, and how to strengthen the environment from threats and reduce noise.

By partnering with Fortinet security experts, businesses can free themselves from the demands of security monitoring and focus on their business forward, knowing that their cybersecurity defenses are being proactively monitored and managed.

Organizations using FortiGuard SOCaaS also gain access to FortiGuard Labs, the industry’s most comprehensive threat intelligence and research organization, designed to protect them from sophisticated cyberattacks. Composed of 500+ threat hunters, researchers, analysts, engineers, and data scientists, FortiGuard Labs continuously monitors the worldwide attack surface using millions of network sensors and 480+ intelligence-sharing partners. It analyzes and processes this information using AI and other innovative technology to mine that data for new threats. With this timely, actionable threat intelligence from Fortinet, organizations can better understand and defend their threat landscape.

Ready to take your protection to the next level with the latest technology? Find out how Fortinet integrates AI and machine learning capabilities across our Security Fabric to detect, identify, and respond to threats at machine speed.