How to build a Security Operations Center (on a budget)

Whether you’re protecting a bank or the local grocery store, certain common sense security rules apply.

At the very least, you need locks on entrances and exits, cash registers, and vaults as well as cameras pointed at these places and others throughout the facility. The same goes for your cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments. Controlling access with tools like passwords, ACLs, firewall rules and others aren’t quite good enough.

You must be able to constantly monitor your critical infrastructure so that you can spot anomalous activity that may indicate a possible exposure.

The tools you use to do security monitoring and analysis may be a bit more varied than just a CCTV monitor, but the concept is the same. Unfortunately, unlike with CCTV cameras, you can’t just look at a monitor and immediately see an active threat unfold, or use a video recording to prosecute a criminal after catching them in the act on tape.

The “bread crumbs” of cybersecurity incidents and exposures are far more varied, distributed, and hidden than what can be captured in a single camera feed, and that’s why it takes more than just a single tool to effectively monitor your environment.