What is a cybersecurity operations center and how does it work?

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A Cybersecurity Operations Center (SOC) is a centralized headquarters that interacts with every facet of your business’s security. A Cybersecurity Operations Center integrates three main functions:

  1. Monitoring
  2. Detecting
  3. Reporting

The various tools that are in use protecting your business, employees, and customers are monitored in one product’s central location. During the monitoring of your assets, threats are detected. This may be a computer virus, traffic leaving your network going to a known bad destination such as an enemy foreign government, or a power failure. The SOC detects these threats or risks, and then facilitates reporting. Reporting can mean anything from alerting you to a breakdown in security procedures, or any other kind of event that represents a business disruption.

A Security Operations Center enhances the cybersecurity management of your organization. SOCs are manned by a team of intelligence analysts. This analyst utilizes data collected by the SOC and integrates it with current trends in cybercrime and security to keep your business ready for any threat.

The Security Operations Center combines the technologies used in cybersecurity combining human ability with technology can eliminate false positives, which can be expensive and uncomfortable for your business.

Why is a cybersecurity operations center needed?

Every business in every industry can benefit from a Cybersecurity Operations Center if it has a physical location(s), employees, customers, or a computer network connected to the internet. The SOC satisfies the need for real-time data, rather than just receiving a report at the end of the day, week, or month.

Many businesses have cybersecurity-based products, i.e., anti-virus software, but the software and logs are only reviewed only after an incident has occurred. With an SOC, these products are always monitored, which allows you to have a true view of your security posture off your business.

Every business needs a Cybersecurity Operations Center, but the specific needs are unique for each enterprise.

24/7/365 Threat Detection and Response

Cyberattacks do not only occur during an organization’s core business hours. This is true for several different reasons. A cybercrime group may operate from a different time zone where business hours do not overlap. Cybercriminals perform attacks during evenings and weekends mainly because that want to give their exploits time to penetrate the victim’s infrastructure. Cybercriminals take advantage of times where an organization’s cybersecurity posture is weakened.

Having a 24/7/365 SOC diminishes this attack vector.

It is paramount to have an Anti-Virus (AV) product, and a Security Information and Event Monitoring (SIEM) product that is being monitored in real time to effectively protect the security perimeter of your organization.

Why Choose Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) for Desktop as a Service (DaaS)?

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As a DaaS offering, Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) is very cost-effective when compared to scaling up a traditional virtual desktop environment (VDI) in your own data center. With the onslaught of the pandemic, companies were trying to find ways to extend their remote work infrastructure while keeping their operating expenses low.

One of the most compelling arguments for deploying AVD during this time is that it lets organizations control apps and data while allowing their employees to access those resources from their own devices. is something that a traditional VDI/RDS environment can also provide. However, the cost advantage of AVD, when combined with security and control, creates a winning combination.

This changes the financial approach from a traditional CAPEX expense, to an operational one.

If IT decision-makers consider the end-user benefit, another reason to choose AVD is the superior experience of Windows 10 and Office 365 that it can provide. The greater the end user experience is, this leads to increased productivity. There is nothing worse then trying to provide a productive work environment that is riddled with poor performance due to antiquation.

What Is the Azure Advantage?

With AVD, the infrastructure and management components of a traditional on-premises virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) disappear into the Microsoft cloud. Features such as brokering, load-balancing, compute, storage, and diagnostics are no longer your responsibility, which will let your IT resources focus on other areas of your business.

Windows 10 Multisession

Unlike the other traditional Remote Desktop Infrastructure’s (RDI), Azure Virtual Desktop allows multiple sessions on a Windows 10 Virtual Machine (VM). This means that an organization can have multiple users access the same virtual machine while reducing the cost of maintaining multiple VM licenses. These sessions are also isolated from each other, which gives higher security and privacy.

Access AVD from Any Operating System

Another reason why AVD is a win for any organization is through the flexibility that Microsoft offers for AVD across diverse operating systems. A user can access AVD in Windows, macOS, iOS, or Android. The client OS flexibility of this sort goes a long way to BYOD scenarios that companies may want to use while they extend their remote work footprint.

Profile Management

Microsoft acquired a company called FSLogix to capture its profile container technology. The company has integrated this into its Azure and Microsoft 365 ecosystems. An AVD user profile will follow a user even if they do not use the same virtual machine session every time they access AVD virtual machines.

The benefits of a virtual CISO

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Ever wonder what the benefits of a virtual CISO are?

As you may know, a “Chief Information Security Officer” is charged with leadership and strategy for cybersecurity in an organization. Every organization that has employee information and any kind of sensitive data should have a robust cybersecurity program.

A Virtual Chief Information Security Officer is where the organization contracts with an outside party, rather than hiring an individual to fill this role. It can also be referred to as an Outsourced CISO, Fractional CISO, Virtual ISO (Virtual Information Security Officer), among other terms.

So why do some organizations choose the virtual route?

There are many benefits to a Virtual CISO, and we have compiled a list of the most compelling reasons.

  1. Independent – Independence for the CISO position from IT Operations is essential to any organization with limited staff, this can be a challenge. A Virtual CISO can be a great way to solve this. Not only is the vCISO independent from IT, but office politics as well.
  2. Expertise – Hiring and keeping experienced CISOs is tough, so a Virtual Chief Information Security Officer can be a way to improve the organizations cybersecurity posture without adding another FTE. More importantly, if you go with a company that has several vCISO clients, the group knowledge of their client base can be invaluable. vCISO’s and vCIO’s with big 4 consulting experience tend to have the breadth and depth of experience that can be extremity beneficial.
  3. Continuity – Having an in-house CISO can be great, until someone else hires them. A Virtual CISO can offer any organization continuity in this role. Even if people move, there’s the benefit of having the continued relationship with the company and the rest of the team, along with the continued processes and approach.
  4. Specialization – If you work with a firm that specializes in Virtual CISO services, this is a huge benefit. Having a vCISO that is focused on doing a few things really well that are aligned with the organizations business vertical can have a positive impact on overall strategy and effectiveness of the role in your organization.
  5. Cost effective – Although many organizations just can’t justify the $175K+ salary of an experienced full-time Chief Information Security Officer, they are finding that a Virtual CISO can have many of the benefits of an FTE at a lower cost. This is often since most smaller organizations don’t need 2000 hours per year for the position. Another factor is that larger organizations are utilizing vCISO services to selectively fill only the highly specialized portion of the role, also saving money.

The Benefits of Consistent Reporting for the vCISO

The independent vCISO team will be working closely with all involved parties in establishing an effective and ongoing cyber and information security program. This will require monthly meetings to review, plan and execute cyber-related activities as well as quarterly or semi-annual executive meetings to update the executive team regarding the latest development in the field and what steps could be taken to address such concerns. This approach will lead to the implementation of the core components of an effective cyber and information security enterprise risk management program as practiced by larger firms, but one that has been adjusted to fit the needs of a middle-market organization.