Threats to Internet users, both individuals and organizations, are growing in both quantity and quality. There are many reasons for this growth, but the biggest one is probably the ease of cybercrime – we have easy access to online tools, we don’t need to travel to the target, and it’s almost risk-free and very profitable.
Often, cybersecurity is seen as a technological challenge, a problem that can be solved with technological solutions.
Cybersecurity is a business issue in any organization, and the human factor is important. Organizations outsource security operations to IT professionals.
But they typically rely on the wrong competencies – we probably wouldn’t entrust the security of a house to a bricklayer, even if he is an expert in houses, we would look for a qualified security expert.
It consists of people, processes, and technology. To successfully protect the digital assets of a company, its customers, stakeholders, employees, and other stakeholders, the proper integration of these three components is crucial, as can now be seen in security operations center as a service that is customized for a particular company.
The need to deploy cybersecurity operations centers (SOCs) to detect cyberattacks is growing every month. The number of attacks, their vectors, and even more so their focus can be a cause for serious concern.
Modern forms of attacks, especially ransomware, have moved from the business environment to the private sphere. But this does not mean that organizations are not vulnerable.
Retrospective and current challenges for using
Over the past 25 years, UnderDefense have done a lot to detect and prevent intrusions. The first firewalls and the first SOCs were about as old as that. Since then, technology development has also dictated changes in the approach to building and operating a SOC.
They also developed intrusion detection systems, intrusion prevention systems, data leakage prevention systems, antivirus software, secure internet gateways, secure email gateways, APT detection and prevention systems, SIEM systems –
I’m sure I’ve missed another important weapon in the fight against intentional or unintentional abuse, disruption, disclosure, etc.
One of the new major challenges is, of course, the exponential growth of networked devices, on the one hand, smart mobile devices and, on the other, Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
Cloud services are also blurring the boundaries of the system we are protecting. Even such issues are evolving, which means that SOC is also turning into VSOC in some places.
But what is a SOC? The definition of a SOC is that it is a group consisting primarily of security analysts, organized to detect, analyze, respond to, report, and prevent cybersecurity incidents, and equipped with the appropriate technologies and processes.
The full definition of the SOC system
To learn more about a security operations center as a service, you need to understand that it is a specially designed system to meet the standards for integrating the necessary electronic circuits of many computer components on a single integrated circuit.
Instead of a system that connects several chips and components to a printed circuit board, SOC assembles all the necessary circuits into a single unit.
The challenges of SOC include higher prototyping and architecture costs, more difficult debugging, and lower chip performance. ICs are not cost-effective and take a long time to produce. However, this is likely to change as the technology continues to develop and be used.
SOC components
An SoC typically contains various components, such as:
- An operating system
- Software applications for widgets
- Voltage regulators and power management circuitry
- Synchronization resources such as control systems or oscillators
- Microprocessor, microcontroller, or digital signal processor
- Peripherals, such as real-time clocks, time counters, and power-up generators
- External interfaces such as USB, FireWire, Ethernet, universal asynchronous receiver, or serial peripheral interface
- Analog interfaces such as digital-to-analog converters and analog-to-digital converters
- RAM and EEPROM memory
SOC steps
- Memory controller: it is important to explain that when the processor accesses RAM, it does not do it directly, but there is a set of circuits that are responsible for performing this task, and if these circuits are inside the chip, we will reduce the time to access RAM.
- Memory: This is a significant component that allows programs to run and all system instructions to execute properly.
- Graphics card: Many new SoCs include 3D-enabled graphics cards, which prevents us from having an additional graphics card on board.
- External interfaces: Allows you to connect to multiple devices, such as external drives or USB dongles.
- Buses: They allow for the proper transfer of information between different elements of the system.
- Communications: Provides support for Wi-Fi and other networking technologies.
These are the basic components of an SoC, and we also have other elements available such as GPS services, security, higher screen resolutions, more pixel capacity in cameras, and so on.
Advantages and disadvantages of using SoCs
All new technologies are designed to make the life of the end user easier by offering products with the best standards, but not always 100% of the features are suitable, these are some great points and others are not so much in SoC chips:
- Undoubtedly, the integration of all components in one chip is its main advantage, as it provides all the power in a small size.
- Better communication channels between all devices
- Maximum efficiency
- In case of failure of any component, a replacement will be very difficult because the SoC is welded to the board.
- The increase in the heat with numerous components in one circuit can affect its optimal performance.
So now it’s easier to determine whether to buy a security operations center as a service.
What else do you need to know to make up your mind
Many vendors try to convince us that their tools are unique, automated, and 99.99% successful. All of us who have been working in the IT industry for many years, particularly in cybersecurity, or more broadly in information security, know that there is no such thing as complete protection. It’s even less true that security can be implemented and maintained with technology alone.
Even the most technically sophisticated cybersecurity system will not help us if we have not answered the key questions about our environment from the outset.
- Must use competent specialized experts.
- Must include appropriate processes for organizing cybersecurity.
- Implementing security operations.
- Responding to foreseeable security incidents.
- Continuously training and raising awareness of our information systems.
Business operations can even be made not only safer but even more convenient. For example, the paper “Transaction Monitoring for HMG Online Service Providers” describes more SOC benefits.
And creating or hiring a SOC is the right way to reduce cybersecurity risks in your organization.
