A Guide to Understanding the Difference Between SIEM and SOC Solution

 Do you feel overwhelmed with all the security acronyms floating around? SIEM and SOC are two of the most popular acronyms in the security world. But what do they mean and what is the difference between them? A SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) solution is a platform that collects, analyzes, and correlates security data from different sources. It helps organizations detect and respond to threats in a timely manner. On the other hand, a SOC (Security Operations Center) is a team of security professionals responsible for monitoring, analyzing, and responding to security incidents. In this guide, we’ll explain the main differences between a SIEM and SOC solution, so you can identify which one is the best fit for your organization.

What is a SIEM Solution?

A SIEM solution collects, analyzes, and correlates different security data from different sources. It can collect data from network sensors, log management tools, endpoint security tools, etc. Once the data is collected, it’s sent to the central SIEM server where it’s stored and made available for analysis.

The SIEM solution provides a centralized view of all security events happening in your organization, regardless of the source of the data. The data collected by the SIEM includes security events like log data, network flow data, threat intelligence data, vulnerability data, etc. At the core of a SIEM solution is a security analytics engine. It’s responsible for normalizing and correlating the data collected from different sources. It’s an ideal solution for organizations with distributed IT environments. The SIEM solution allows security teams to centralize security data from different locations in the organization and correlate it with other data to identify threats.

SIEMs include the following critical information:

• Multi-source log aggregation
• Threat intelligence
• Organizing and correlating events to make analysis easier
• Advanced analytics visualization
• Customized dashboards for analytics
• A threat-hunting tool to identify currently compromised resources
• Investigation tools for cyber-incidents

What is a SOC Solution?

The term SOC refers to a Security Operations Center — an organization that manages security incidents. A SOC solution is an on-premises solution that is designed to detect and respond to security incidents. The SOC solution collects security logs, network flow data, vulnerability data, threat intelligence data, etc. It sends this data to different sources like SIEM, ticketing, or collaboration tools, and other systems.

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Why managing your network infrastructure is pivotal for your business?

The core of your business is your network infrastructure. But for it to work well, it needs the appropriate assistance, which comes in the shape of a robust network infrastructure. So what precisely is network infrastructure? How can you make sure you’re utilizing it to its fullest potential?

An organization’s agility and productivity in the digital age depend on more than just dedicated staff and top-notch resources. A strong, pristine, secure network infrastructure is also necessary for seamless functioning. You risk having security problems and a poor user experience without the proper network infrastructure in place, which can reduce staff productivity, cost you money, and hurt your brand.

What does Network Infrastructure mean?

All of a network’s resources that enable connecting to a network or the internet, network management, business operations, and communication are collectively referred to as network infrastructure. The hardware, software, systems, and devices that make up network infrastructure allow for computation and communication between users, services, applications, and processes. The network infrastructure of a system is made up of everything connected to it, from wireless routers to servers. Effective communication and service between users, applications, services, devices, and other entities are made possible by network infrastructure.

Why managing Network Infrastructure is ultra-critical 

Both a dependable IT system and qualified personnel are essential, but neither is sufficient without a robust network backbone. A network infrastructure makes it possible to connect and communicate, both of which are essential for a business to succeed. Simply, hardware and software used in IT systems aren’t very useful without a reliable network infrastructure. Organizational excellence depends on having a strong, secure, and clean network infrastructure.

Regardless of your network’s purpose or use, it must act as a platform for all of your organization’s applications and functions. This entails creating an infrastructure that may offer a granular charge on a smaller scale while also serving as a single item of assistance for the IT administrators in your company.

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Best Security Operations Center (SOC) Practices for your organization

Security ratings are increasingly important in security operations centers (SOC). To effectively contribute to the development of organizational-wide security culture, security analysts must learn to read, analyze, and report security ratings. Here, we go over how analysts may create a security operations center that effectively uses ratings to assess and reduce cyber threats.

Security Operations Center and its working – 

A security operations center serves as the focal point for an organization’s monitoring, detection, response, and analysis of cyber threats. The SOC constantly keeps an eye on everything, including internal network traffic, desktop PCs, servers, endpoint devices, the Internet of Things (IoT), databases, and other things.

SOC team members often aren’t focused on creating the security strategy itself; instead, they’re there to put that strategy into action, which includes putting defensive measures in place as needed and assessing the fallout after an incident. Teams employ technology to collect data, check endpoints for vulnerabilities, and verify regulatory compliance while protecting sensitive data.

A clearly defined security strategy that is in line with corporate objectives forms the basis of the SOC’s activity. From then, a variety of tools, features, and functions must be used to build and maintain your infrastructure to deploy and support the plan.

Your Best Practices for a Successful Security Operations Center

The security operations center’s position in an organization is crucial since the threat landscape is constantly changing and growing. In order for the security operations center to fulfill its role of safeguarding business assets against cyberattacks, it must be efficient and well-organized. Here, we list the top 7 ways to build up a successful security operations center.

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A Good Strategy – To Scale up your Business

 

Data has become an invaluable asset for businesses of any type and size or industry. To put this data to use and yield value for a business, requires developing a Data Strategy. Businesses across the globe invest heavily in gathering, analyzing, organizing data, and churning it for multiple uses, which can be quite challenging. Developing a Data Strategy assists organizations to utilize the data extensively without compromising on resources.

Organized data gives clarity to making important decisions and other strategic actions for the business. Since Data has become a precious resource, security becomes the highest priority. As more and more businesses are shifting towards digital transformation, staying on par with business trends is essential while also protecting the business data from hacking and cyber-attacks is equally crucial.

To Implement a Data Strategy

Importance of Data Strategy – Why your business needs a (modernized) data strategy?

• Un-organized and steady moving organizational processes
• Un-structured and duplicated data with quality issues
• Capability issue to analyze business workings to churn the data for the right use
• Unable to identify the business’s growing needs and market trends
• Lack of clarity in terms of segregating the data at hand
• Work repetition and errors waste resource time

Factors to Consider

To implement a data strategy, an organization needs to have concrete plans and financial investments in place to follow through. The IT team and management personnel must be at the forefront of running the entire activity along with support from the entire organization.

Before beginning with the data strategy implementation process, organizations should consider the following

• Consulting management and organization leaders
• Analyzing and evaluating how data is being used by various teams such as engineers, data analytics teams, business development/sales, etc.
• Organize data by the target market size and needs
• Administer the new analytics solution (Install, configure, and maintain)
• Monitoring all the other policies, guidelines and compliances are in order

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Why Hybrid Cloud for Disaster Recovery?

So you have an on-premises data backup, but is it sufficient for a business continuity plan?

Many businesses these days work on various cloud deployment models; some majorly used cloud deployment models are public cloud, private cloud, and the mix of public and private, which is the hybrid and multi-cloud model.

If your business needs a perfect deployment model, talk to our Solution Architect now.

Here is a gist of different cloud deployment models:

Public cloud 

The term “public cloud” refers to computing services made available to anybody who wishes to use or buy them via the public Internet by third-party providers. In addition, free or on-demand sales options are available, allowing users to pay only for the CPU cycles, storage, or bandwidth they use.

Private Cloud

Private cloud deployment is a cloud computing model that provides dedicated resources to a single client. The private cloud offers similar benefits to the public cloud, such as scalability and self-service, but via a proprietary architecture. In contrast to public clouds, which provide services to numerous businesses, private clouds, often referred to as internal or corporate clouds, are focused on the requirements and objectives of a single enterprise.

Hybrid Cloud

A hybrid cloud is one in which applications run in many environments simultaneously. Because nearly no one nowadays relies only on the public cloud, hybrid cloud computing options are becoming increasingly popular. Over the last few decades, many of you have invested millions of dollars and hours in on-premises infrastructure. Combining a public and private cloud environment, such as an on-premises data center, and a public cloud computing environment, such as ESDS Cloud, is the most typical hybrid cloud example.

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Getting Familiar with the Heterogeneous & Homogenous Cloud Platform-The Hybrid Cloud

Many organizations, from SMBs to banking sectors to government organizations, are shifting toward a cloud-first policy. In this case, choosing the cloud deployment model and solution starts with knowing the requirements of your organization. A lot of decision-making is included while learning the cloud strategy that would fit well with your organization’s essentials.

Most organizations opt for a combination of private and public cloud, a hybrid cloud structure.

Getting a hybrid cloud again involves selecting from the heterogeneous and homogenous structures.

Let us dive deep into the Hybrid Cloud deployment model.

The Hybrid Cloud

A hybrid cloud environment combines on-premises infrastructure, private cloud services, and a public cloud, with orchestration across the various platforms. You have a hybrid cloud infrastructure if you use a combination of public clouds, on-premises computing, and private clouds in your data center.

Simply put, a hybrid cloud is one in which applications run in multiple environments simultaneously. Because almost no one today relies solely on the public, private, or on-premise, hybrid cloud computing approaches are becoming increasingly popular.

Over the last few decades, many organizations have invested millions of dollars and hours in on-premises infrastructure. Combining a public and private cloud environment, such as an on-premises data center, and a public cloud-computing environment, such as ESDS Cloud, is the most common hybrid cloud example.

As discussed, a hybrid cloud comes in a homogenous and heterogeneous structure, and another choice must be, selecting a heterogeneous or homogeneous structure.

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Cloud Computing and Solutions in the Age of 5G

Experts in telecommunications have finally gotten to the fifth generation of mobile connectivity, or 5G. The 4G network, which was devised in the 2000s, optimized the speeds at which our mobile devices operated on. With this technology on board, we could record and view high-definition videos, browse the internet at fast speeds, and even make high-definition video calls. But now that we have a 5G network, things will get more engaging, and cloud computing is particularly relevant.

In just a few years, it has transformed from a technology that was barely discussed to one that is poised to change the face of connectivity — and not just for smartphones. Cloud computing is fundamental for a healthy business infrastructure, and 5G is pivotal for empowering them to intake data in real-time. 5G will unleash tremendous computational power.

Consider operating a business virtually; in this case you need high-speed data storage and transfer. Low latency, greater capacity, and faster network speeds of 5G will be a catalyst for cloud computing. Next-generation networks will accelerate cloud adoption for businesses.

How Is Cloud Computing Influenced By 5G Technology?

5G and cloud computing are shaping the future of business. This technology will have a massive impact on your cloud computing operations. As desktop computers are being replaced by mobile devices, we will rely on the cloud for greater speeds & efficiency. To achieve this, 5G technology is essential for a higher level of data transmission.

Previously, cloud computing was hindered by limitations with augmented reality. It usually had to process information in a centralized location, which made it vulnerable to hacking. This will no longer be a problem because it can process information anywhere and still be able to interact with an augmented world.

For instance, the improved speed and service dependability of 5G will benefit unified communications services used by businesses. Everyday mobile apps are also cloud-dependent and will improve as 5G’s low latency capabilities become available. This entails faster, smoother transfers and improvements over current 4G connectivity.

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Your organization’s best practices for building Data backups

In the contemporary digital environment, security lapses and associated data loss are growing more frequent. In the event of a tragedy, the question is not “when,” but rather “how prepared are you?” Organizations should therefore develop solutions to guarantee that their information/data is secure and available at all times. Because of this, data backups and disaster recovery plans are crucial.

It’s interesting to note that over 96% of business workstations lack data backups and recovery systems, putting a lot of critical data at risk. However, organizations have gradually begun to see the value of data backups and disaster recovery solutions, particularly when employing cloud services.

Here are a few facts demonstrating the significance of backing up your data. Have you heard?

21% of SMBs have never created a backup.

Accidents account for 29% of data loss incidents.

Malware has already infected 30% of all machines.

Losing pictures, media, and business files can be devastating for the average person. However, deleting data or restricting access to your data can be disastrous for a business. Hard drives in data centers fail. That is merely a reality. You can use them for three to four years if you’re lucky. According to a report published by an online data backup provider, 90% of their hard drives lasted three years, and 80% lasted four years. However, 5% of them also failed during the first year.

However, this takes into account errors from routine use. Natural calamities, human mistakes, viruses, and ransomware are all part of our daily lives. Therefore, the best course of action is to assume that data loss will occur when it does rather than if. We take data seriously at ESDS. It is an organization’s trustworthy source of life. It fosters new revenue streams, enhances customer experiences, and speeds up innovation. It must be safeguarded.

To assist you in becoming comfortable with data backup terminologies and best practices, we’d like to share a brief primer with you today in honor of World Backup Day. So read on, share what you learn, and remember always to back up your data!

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Business Continuity Plan and Disaster Recovery: Why does your Business need both?

 In sum, hardware issues account for 45% of unplanned downtime. The loss of power (35%), software failure (34%), data corruption (24%), external security breaches (23%), and unintentional user error (20%) are all followed by this.

According to data from Seagate, human errors, such as accidental data loss, improper device management, and other incidents, account for 22% of downtime events. Only 5% of business downtime, according to Seagate, is due to natural disasters. We believe that many corporate leaders lack a solid understanding of business continuity plans and catastrophe recovery plans based on those figures and summaries.

Business continuity is the strength of an organization to continue key operations both during and after a crisis. With the intention of preventing interruptions to mission-critical services and resuming full organization function as quickly and easily as possible, a business continuity plan establishes risk assessment methodologies and procedures.

While we see the other end, a disaster recovery plan is a written declaration created by a corporation that provides detailed instructions on how to handle unforeseen circumstances like natural disasters, blackouts, cyber-attacks, and other disruptive occurrences.

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