Entire world is interconnected with technologies that keep on changing. The rising use of modern technologies has increased cyber-attacks drastically worldwide. Hence, it becomes very important for businesses to have a strong data security in place to safeguard against cyberattacks and data breaches.
What is IT Security?
It is a set of cybersecurity strategies, methods, solutions and tools that is used to protect an organisational asset such as computers, data and networks. It aims to ensure data confidentiality, integrity, and availability (aka CIA triad).
IT Security is also popularly known as Information Security or InfoSec.
Information Security is more important than ever for the growth of any modern business. Organisations with strong infosec face less operational disruptions, gain higher trust and confidence of clients, enhance productivity with increased peace of mind.
Types of IT Security
- Application Security
It refers to taking security measures into consideration at the application level at the time of coding to protect application code and data against cyber threats. Some of the most common application security vulnerabilities are broken authentication, cross-site scripting (XSS), cross-site request forgery (CSRF), injection flaws, sensitive data exposure, security misconfiguration, insecure direct object references etc. - Network Security
It refers to taking security measures to protect your network and data from breaches, intrusions and other threats. This type of security is useful to prevent hackers from unauthorised access, modification, and exploitation of the network. - Endpoint Security
It refers to taking security measures for providing protection at the device level such as desktop computers, laptops, tablets, mobiles and even IOT devices. This includes preventing your devices from accessing malicious networks and protecting them from being infected with malware. - Internet Security
It refers to taking security measures for protecting activities and transactions made over the internet. It includes preventing cyber threats and risks associated with the internet, web browsers, web apps, websites and networks. - Cloud Security
It refers to taking security measures in protecting infrastructure, applications and data in the cloud from cyber attacks.
What is Security as a Service (SECaaS) in Cloud Computing?
It’s a cloud-based service wherein a third party service provider (such as MSP or MSSP) handles and manages your cybersecurity. It’s becoming very popular among businesses as it’s easy to scale, reduces load on in-house security teams, lowers cost and offers better reliability. Security as a Service providers functions similar to SaaS providers that offer a flexible and affordable subscription-based security service.
3 Key Challenges of Security as a Service
- Many hacker groups may even target Security as a Service Providers on whose services you heavily rely on can make your organisation vulnerable and be a part of large-scale attacks
- Vendor lock-in is another situation which can make it hard for an organisation to switch to another provider and be forced to continue the service regardless of quality.
- Lack of domain expertise, complying to industry regulations / compliances, software and data incompatibility issues etc are other possible factors that might make it difficult to adopt SECaaS.
5 Key Benefits of Security as a Service
- Cost Savings
One of the biggest benefits of the SECaaS model is that it helps to save money (as you only pay for subscription services, so no upfront or maintenance costs). - Maximum Security
With SECaaS, you get access to top IT security experts along with the latest and most advanced security tools and resources to take care of your IT infrastructure and data ensuring maximum security and peace of mind. - Faster Threat Response
Since SECaaS providers offer 24 x 7 x 365 continuous monitoring and threat detection that timely identify and fix cyber threats quickly and efficiently. - Scalability
Depending upon your business needs, you can easily ramp up or down services on-demand giving you full control over scalability as possible. - Simplified Management
SECaaS providers will provide access to a portal through which they manage everything via a centralised dashboard. This allows you to keep track of resource usage, security checks being performed in real time, corrective actions taken etc.
What all is included in Security as a Service?
Some examples of SECaaS services include:
- Identity and Access Management (IAM)
- Intrusion Detection and Prevention
- Vulnerability Scanning
- Penetration Testing
- Web / Email / Network Security
- Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
- Continuous Monitoring
- Data Encryption
- Anti-virus / Anti-malware / Spyware Scanning
- Spam Filtering
- Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
- Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
How to choose the right SECaaS Provider?
Outsourcing your security operations to a third party service provider is a big decision. Hence, it’s very important to consider the following factors before choosing a SECaaS provider for your business.
- Ensure that the SECaaS provider guarantees for maximum availability at the times to address your queries or concerns. Check their SLA to make sure that they offer guaranteed uptime and learn how they handle outages if it occurs.
- Learn if the SECaaS provider has required skills, certifications and vendor reputation along with vast experience of handling business and industry-specific compliance requirements.
- Know about the total cost of operation. See if it is affordable and offering the best value as per your business needs.
- Ask if an SECaaS provider offers real-time reports and security insights to ensure that resources are running properly and to make informed decisions.
- Check if the SECaaS provider provides disaster recovery options in the event of an interruption that can be bespoke to your organisation’s needs.
- Learn how an SECaaS provider helps in protecting your company’s data. Know about their data protection policies and how they prevent hackers gaining access to your business data.