How a Managed SOC Can Keep You Industry Compliant

We all live in an age where technology is imperative for storing your data, but at the same time, attackers are always trying to gain access to this information.

managed SOC compliance

On average, hackers attack every 39 seconds.

This should make every business owner recognize the value of cybersecurity.

For some industries, including healthcare, finance, defense-industrial base, etc., cybersecurity measures are mandated by external compliance agencies.

As an IT consulting company, we’ve heard our customers talk about the pressure of the regulations they must abide by. 

And our security team has felt the importance of it while considering industry regulations, such as HIPAA, NIST SP 800-171, GLBA, and PCI-DSS, during assessments and audits.

Often the answer to these specific security concerns is a managed security operation center (SOC).

What is a managed SOC?

Before we get into how managed SOC services help with compliance regulations, let’s review what this service does.

In the most basic sense, managed SOC services monitor and manage suspicious activity within your IT environment.

This service is another component of your cybersecurity strategy.

Using security information and event management (SIEM) software, your SOC gathers the information from your other security measures, such as antivirus, firewalls, DNS security, etc., and creates meaning from the data.

How does this help you meet your industry-specific compliance regulations? 

The relationship between managed SOC and compliance

Compliance measures, such as HIPAA, NIST SP 800-171, GLBA, and PCI-DSS, require policies to ensure your network is protected against cyberattacks. 

SIEM software quickly sorts through your cybersecurity data, but there is still a vast amount of data to review during an audit.

Many of these compliance agencies have moved toward audit log reduction, another capability of managed SOC services.

Additionally, SIEM software alone can’t respond to a suspected threat.

Your IT staff is likely busy with their day-to-day responsibilities of monitoring networks and resolving any issues; adding the responsibility to respond to threats can quickly overwhelm them.

By working with a managed SOC, you outsource this component of your IT management. When your SIEM software detects something is awry within your environment, your managed SOC team will be the ones to respond to it.

Your IT team is free to pitch in, but they won’t be solely responsible for this aspect of your IT environment.

To help you understand just what a managed SOC can do for your regulated business, let’s discuss the following:

  1. How a managed SOC analyzes data
  2. Beyond collecting SIEM data
  3. Managed SOC vs. a full-time internal security employee

Not only should these enhance your understanding of managed SOC services, but these points should also emphasize just how managed SOC services can help you stay compliant.

How a managed SOC analyzes data

One of the reasons to consider a managed SOC – for compliance reasons or not – is the insightful analytics it provides.

Your antivirus, DNS filter, and firewall are each capable of creating thousands of logs a day on their own. This makes it nearly impossible for a single person to analyze and create meaning from this wealth of information and do so accurately.

However, this level of insight is something many compliance agencies require because it provides a more thorough analysis of potential threats than cybersecurity measures alone. The problem is there is still so much data to sift through. 

Using SIEM software, a managed SOC centralizes how they collect data from cybersecurity events logged at a host level (desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones) and network-level (edge and core switches, routers, firewalls). 

In other words, empowered by SIEM software, your managed SOC can efficiently identify anomalous activity across your IT environment by looking at less yet more meaningful data.

In the compliance world, this is called audit log reduction, which is a requirement of many security regulations.

With a managed SOC, they are likely to detect a threat and handle it faster than if you had a single person trying to do this job on their own without a SIEM solution.

Beyond collecting security data

The data collection of a managed SOC makes it a valuable security tool, but managed SOC services go beyond that.

Along with collecting and analyzing the data, your managed SOC responds if a threat is detected.

First, you and your SOC will be alerted whenever the SIEM detects something suspicious.

Then, depending on your SLA agreement, your managed SOC will have an engineer help respond and mitigate the threat.

This early response can prevent vital information (client records, parented information, or even employee data) from being stolen or encrypted.

While compliance agencies require you to have a security threat response plan in place, there currently is no requirement on how fast that response must be. Still, many businesses that fall under a compliance regulation opt for 30-minute SLA time, as they recognize the importance of swift remediation.

Managed SOC vs. a full-time internal security employee

Whether or not you use a managed SOC, if you’re looking to abide by compliance regulations, you’ll still need to analyze your security logs and have a response plan in place.

Again, this goes beyond just having SIEM. While this tool takes some of the human error out of reviewing logs, it is susceptible – especially during early deployment – to false positives and negatives.

As far as who reviews that data, you can choose an internal SOC employee or a managed SOC. The latter has its advantages.

Having a full-time managed SOC employee means they’re dedicated solely to your business, but the resources it takes to employ one is unattainable for many small- and medium-sized businesses. (The salary alone is upwards of six figures.)

If by chance, you have the budget and manage to recruit someone to do this job, you run the chance of them quickly burning out because of the 24/7 nature, high stakes, and overall demands of the job.

Choosing a managed SOC is a more budget-friendly option. Plus, they have previous experience with compliance mappings and other industry-specific regulations.

Compliant and protected with a managed SOC

Regardless of what industry you’re in, you’ll be better protected with a managed SOC. By taking your existing security information to the next level, the data is more meaningful. This is most obvious when it comes to identifying and locating suspected threats.

As a business seeking compliance with HIPAA, NIST SP 800-171, GLBA, or PCI-DSS, a managed SOC goes from a helpful resource to something that can empower your business.

You can reduce the number of audit logs, which allows information to be found quicker, and you’ll have a plan for threat response.

Plus, a managed SOC is an external resource, which means you don’t have to worry about recruiting and maintaining an in-house security expert to support your compliance accreditation.

If you’re still wondering if managed SOC services are right for you, take our free quiz.

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