Security Operations (SecOps) refers to a joint effort between operations and IT security teams to maintain a company’s safety and minimize potential threats. An increasing gap typically opens between information security and IT operations teams as the former grows in significance within organizations.

What You Need to Know About SecOps and More

When IT operations and security teams collaborate under a SecOps approach, they take on joint responsibility for the myriad tasks that keep an organization’s infrastructure secure and operational. This collaborative initiative has increased awareness of security flaws across the enterprise. It has enabled the rapid resolution of security concerns while maintaining IT services’ efficiency and responsiveness.

Due to their divergent goals, organizations may find themselves less effective and secure and more vulnerable than usual. For example, in response to a malicious cyber assault, a company’s top-tier security systems may shut down mission-critical programs performing time-sensitive tasks. In such cases, a residential proxy selection can also come in handy.

When You Add Security to Operations, What Do You Get?

Before cyber attacks were such a common topic of conversation, the boundaries of networks were simple to define and protect. However, today’s perimeter extends beyond a firewall, and you may find it in endpoints that are active everywhere in the world. These include cafes, branch offices, and even your home. IT and security teams should converge and develop a holistic security posture that does not disrupt regular business operations.

IT and Security Team Convergence

What does convergence look like? It may include:

• Designing new IT systems and applications from the ground up and strengthening security
• Combining communication channels and data to increase awareness of and insight into systemic weaknesses, allowing for more informed decision-making
• An integrated set of tools and technologies for superior endpoint security and data hygiene
• Standard security across organizations for quicker and more precise problem-solving
• More simplified IT processes, leading to fewer compliance failures, reduced downtime, and more effective patch deployment

Data Center Transformation

To better understand their consumers and engage them, progressive companies learn how to leverage the Internet of Things. The data center must do some heavy lifting to collect and analyze the data and to give an optimal user experience. As a result of virtualization, HCI, and the cloud, data centers can better adapt to real-time changes in workload while also handling more data. The ongoing and upfront costs associated with a software-defined data center might become significantly lower than those of a traditional data center.

Businesses may save money on costs associated with physical equipment, space, and electricity by switching to a virtual data center and using it in conjunction with a private or public cloud. Cloud-based infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) systems, such as those used in virtualized data centers, can function on various equipment. Besides, public cloud services have become more cost-effective with tiered storage options. Virtual data centers’ scalability and processing capability would become increasingly crucial as the Internet of Things grows and the amount of data created daily climbs dramatically.

Business SecOps: What Are Companies Doing Now?

As businesses increase their security measures, the methods involved get more complicated. Most companies (72%) assessed security operations as more challenging in July 2017 compared to July 2015. This is according to data compiled by Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG). Firms must contend with a more complex threat landscape, a surge of security warnings, and persistent holes in their monitoring practices.

The convergence of security and IT operations can alleviate most of these problems. For instance, tech industry analyst firm Voke polled businesses worldwide about secure automated processes: 81% of organizations who failed a security audit said they would have avoided failure if they had changed a setting or installed an update. Similarly, 79% of affected businesses reported that a simple software update or configuration adjustment would have prevented the security compromise.

Of course, SecOps is still developing. According to a survey conducted by Dark Reading, 28% of companies reported that security personnel are rarely involved in IT initiatives. Only 15% feel their input is routinely sought out and respected on all new projects. Some security teams would collaborate on some but not all projects for the remaining 54%.

Many businesses are mainstream on the horizon. Nearly half of the companies analyzed by Forbes Insights aimed to form teams consisting of security and operations professionals to strengthen mission-critical apps. Successful businesses are now said to reap huge rewards.

There’s a better return on investment (ROI) on current security infrastructure and enhanced operational efficiency across safety and the rest of IT. These are the two most notable benefits for 59% of polled businesses; 72% said security operations are more challenging now than two years ago.

With SecOps, companies gain in terms of: 

•  Continuous protection
•  Efficient and prompt responses
•  Cost savings in breach responses and normal operations
•  Danger prevention
•  Professionalism in the field of safety
•  Compliance
•  Mutual understanding and cooperation
•  Enhanced credibility

Noticeable Functions Within a SecOps Group

The ability of a business to thwart cyber threats depends on the quality of its SecOps staff. Filling positions in isolation and not as part of a larger plan will result in a fragmented reaction. A unified SecOps team with defined tasks for dealing with various forms of cyberattacks is what chief information security officers (CISOs) need.

Every SecOps team requires these five essential roles: 

•  Security investigator
•  Security operations center (SOC) manager
•  Incident responder
•  Advanced security analyst
•  Security engineer/architect

Some emerging cybersecurity positions that might aid in SecOps include a third-party risk specialist, cloud security specialist, and digital ethics professional. The responsibilities cover the cloud’s influence, supply chain weaknesses, and partner/privacy issues.

The Future of SecOps

Machine learning and AI will play a vital role in SecOps in the future. Automated, individualized, intelligent, proactive, and dynamic SOCs are on the horizon. Success indicators for SOCs will develop with greater emphasis on performance evaluation and enhanced reaction times.

Johna Till Johnson, head of Nemertes Research, claims that SecOps teams will need a larger focus on threat hunting. That way, they will remain ahead of attackers. In the future, SecOps teams will likely need to devote more effort to monitoring and analyzing external environment risks through evaluating threat intelligence services. Since cyber assaults have become a danger to business operations, companies should immediately start or increase their SecOps activities.