One usually comes across the two concepts when learning about the diverse universe of modern cybersecurity. They are Managed Security Operations Center (SOC) and Managed Security Information and Event Management (SIEM). Let us suppose a person is operating a business in the cyberspace domain. In that case, knowledge of these two concepts is essential, as both SOC and SIEM play an integral and vital role in strengthening one’s cyber defence. Both help an organization improve its ground during the adversities of cyberattacks and threats.
What is a Managed Security Operations Center (SOC)?
A Managed Security Operations Centre, or Managed SOC, does not only talk about security operations but also monitors threats and vulnerability management. A managed SOC team is one of the business units in an IT services company that includes a group of people, processes, and technologies. It depends on the business if it would like to create such a team in the office, purchase a tool for that, or outsource the whole project.
A SOC is integral to business as it ensures the network’s security. It helps monitor incoming and outgoing traffic, alerts, or visual information that can threaten the organization, resulting in data leaks.
Also Read: Why do Businesses Need a Managed SOC?
What is Managed Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)?
A Managed Security Information and Event Management, or Managed SIEM, includes various cybersecurity components that monitor network traffic and multiple resources. From a user’s perspective on a network, SIEM is a centralized dashboard of security information that is used to display suspicious activities happening over the network, security alerts, and help analyze the overall security of the network.
Security analysts use the SIEM platform during their regular day-to-day operations. Also, some SIEM platforms integrate artificial intelligence (AI) to detect intrusion automatically and prevent threats. Moreover, the SIEM helps the analysts analyze the network traffic, blocking potential access from unknown sources and sending alerts to the analysts for in-depth research into the matter.
Difference Between Managed SOC and SIEM
As various businesses come online, their threats also increase with time. Thus, such companies are now moving to protect their data with better means. It will protect their data and improve their brand reputation in network and data security. Thus, these organizations look for paid-up software such as managed SOC and SIEM. These two might sound the same, but they both have different functionality.
The foremost difference between the two, i.e., SIEM and managed SOC, is that SIEM compiles and correlates data gathered from various sources. In contrast, managed SOC collects data from multiple sources and transfers it to SIEM.
Another difference between SIEM and managed SOC is that SIEM can collect data from different network sensors, endpoint security tools, log management tools, etc. When talking about managed SOC, the software is a tool that aids SIEM in collecting data like security logs, vulnerability data, network flow data, etc.
Conclusion
Managed Security Information and Event Management and the Managed Security Operations Centre are both reliable tools to help keep the business safe from online threats. Though managed SOC is a tool that is integrated into SIEM, both aid in keeping businesses’ data safe and secure.