According to Cybersecurity Ventures, there are 158,727 security breaches per hour (if you don’t want to do the math, that’s 44 breaches per second!) In the effort to mitigate increasingly sophisticated threat actors, many companies are choosing to layer new tactical security solutions in their infrastructure, adding to complexity, overhead, and indirectly increasing the potential for security gaps that can result in pathways for threat actors to exploit.
Employing a defense-in-depth approach with appropriate visibility and instrumentation (that allows the user to take action) has proven repeatedly to decrease the time to detect and effort to respond to cybersecurity threats. However, the instrumentation needs to be supported with people and processes. Technology alone will not solve the problem. Currently there are more than 300,000 available cybersecurity positions in the U.S. alone. The global talent shortage for skilled IT security resources is affecting nearly every organization and is contributing to existing IT teams being overworked and overwhelmed.
Luckily, there is a solution in the form of a Managed Detection and Response (MDR) provider. MDR providers deliver around-the-clock monitoring, sophisticated threat detection, meaningful escalations, and remediation capabilities. MDR providers have the potential to play a vital role in supporting an organization’s ability to mitigate cyberthreats.
More than a security detection solution or “alert reflector,” MDR providers can help solve several security operations challenges. Here are seven to consider:
1. Talent Shortage.
Staffing is a critical challenge across every IT department, with security resources being among the hardest to attract and retain. MDR providers help to bridge the talent gap and provide consistency to your security program.
2. Visibility Across Disparate Environments and Technologies.
MDR providers can centralize visibility across a distributed environment and SaaS applications into a single pane of glass, thereby decreasing the time to detect and effort to respond to cyberthreats.
3. Solve for Tool Sprawl.
Enterprises continue to invest in security solutions. Over time, tools can become neglected and alerts can be ignored. A MDR provider helps to solve for tool sprawl by providing security teams a single platform to monitor, detect, and respond to alerts from disparate technologies in concert.
4. 24x7x365 Monitoring.
Gartner recommends a team of at least eight dedicated resources to staff a SOC 24×7. With the talent shortage, finding just one qualified person is difficult (and likely expensive). In addition to “Always-On” detection and response, MDR providers offer a consistent and cost-effective alternative to building an in-house team. MDR providers deliver turn-key SOC capabilities that monitor and respond to cyber threats across the enterprise.
5. Reduce False Positives.
MDR providers reduce the number of escalations that require attention from in-house IT teams. This leaves more time in the day to focus on initiatives that enable the business.
6. Extract ROI from Existing Investments.
It is very common for organizations to make investments in strategic technologies, only to have assets be partially implemented, improperly tuned, and under-utilized. A MDR provider can ensure tools are configured appropriately and are delivering their full capability, maximizing the value.
7. Security Program Measurement.
MDR can help you understand what good looks like. MDR providers assist in developing metrics relevant to your business model and offer a variety of reports that measure maturity, document progress over time, and facilitate compliance.
Forrester says, “finding potential intrusions quickly and coupling those findings with customized, prescriptive, action-oriented alerts is what makes buyers love their MDR service.” The right MDR can help protect your organization in real-time while helping you remove your security team from the threat-hunting treadmill. By adding this to your security strategy you will not only reach your operational goals but surpass them, keeping you safer from cyberattacks.
Joseph Campbell is Senior Manager, Cyber Security Strategy at Veristor. A cyber security expert, Campbell guides organizations to align their security processes with the optimal solutions to improve their security posture.
The opinions expressed in this post belong to the individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Information Security Buzz.