Managed SOC Services: Enhancing Cyber Security Without the Overhead

What is a SOC?

A Security Operations Centre (SOC) provides organisations with a centralised team who monitor, analyse, and respond to cyber security events.

SOC-as-a-Service (SOCaaS) is a model that provides you with a security service that includes 24/7 threat monitoring, detection, and response capabilities, delivered by a team of security experts.

SOC Core Functions

Our 24/7 SOC team will act as an extension of your security operations and will:

1. Continuously monitoring your entire IT systems: Utilising your existing cyber security tools, SOCaaS provides continuous monitoring by expert analysts in the Red Helix’s UK based, 24/7/365 SOC.
2. Detecting and investigating potential threats: Our experts sift through the data deluge, using their experience and AI-powered tools to identify real threats amidst false positives.
3. Response: The SOC communicates the alert and reports it to your designated internal security contact(s) through your pre-determined communication channel (email, ticketing system, etc.).

Why Outsource a SOC?

The cost of an in-house SOC

Maintaining an in-house SOC poses significant financial costs because of the need for skilled staff, training, licences, hardware and software. Using a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) brings down these costs by improving efficiency as a single MSSP will be working across multiple customers at the same time. You also benefit from reduced software licencing costs as you join part of a larger buying pool.

Resource Optimisations

Maintaining an in-house SOC requires a minimum of eight heads to sufficiently monitor the environment 24/7, and due to the shortage of skilled cyber professionals, these heads can be difficult to find and retain.

Training

Cyber analysts require constant training to keep up to date with the latest threats, technology updates and new features. Training analysts to recognise and prioritise critical alerts is essential, and ensures they have the skills and confidence to manage high-pressure situations effectively. However, this training can be costly and time consuming.

“We train our staff to a high standard, which is essential not just for protecting our customers but the individual growth plans of our analysts at Red Helix. Training for accreditations and certifications equips our employees to serve customers more effectively as their first line of defence against cyber threats.” Imran Iqbal, Operations Centre Manager at Red Helix. 

Workload and alert fatigue

With the sheer volume of alerts generated daily, many internal security teams struggle to manage and triage them effectively, leading to operational inefficiencies, stress, and an increased risk of missing genuine threats.

Alert fatigue can arise from technology that is not optimally configured which causes a combination of high alert volumes, repetitive notifications, and the prevalence of false positives. This can mean that internal security teams overlook potential threats by wasting time on low-priority alert; or even ignoring alerts completely, potentially leaving them exposed to attacks that could have been mitigated. It is estimated that as many as 67% of IT teams admit to ignoring lower priority alerts.

Expertise

Unlike internal IT teams our SOC monitors IT environments 24/7 and does nothing else. This means that they have vast experience in recognising alerts and threats as they are exposed to many different environments and organisations within their working week.

SOC as-a-Service (SOCaaS)

Monitoring technology effectively 24/7 can present a challenge. Security systems generate alerts when deployed, which are often monitored internally during standard business hours. However, if an alert is triggered outside of business hours, it may go unnoticed until Monday morning. This delay provides malicious actors with an extended window of opportunity to infiltrate the network, potentially compromising security before anyone has noticed the breach. Our incident response partner S-RM reports that 41% of ransomware victims in 2024 with EDR in place did not have a dedicated team in place reviewing alerts.

This is why we provide monitor 24/7 monitoring of your technology with our SOCaaS offering. This will provide you with access to security experts who are monitoring IT environments like yours 24/7, whilst saving you the overhead of employing 24/7 staff in-house.