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SOC vs MDR
When an organization wants to outsource its cybersecurity management, it usually has a choice between SOC and MDR.
What is the SOC?
The SOC (Cyber Security Operations Center) is an operational team responsible for monitoring the security of a computer network. When an attack is detected by the SOC analysts, they take the necessary measures to thwart it (e.g. blocking a malicious IP address in the firewall, etc.).
The SOC corresponds to the first generation of cybersecurity supervision services. Its particularity is that it relies on log management tools (SIEM) for network security supervision. However, as we know, SIEMs are rather basic intrusion detection tools. They only focus on detecting certain known attack scenarios. SIEM does not detect unknown (zero-day) cyber threats.
What is an MDR?
Managed Detection and Response (MDR) is a natural evolution of the SOC to address new generations of cyber attacks. It is a fairly new service that can be considered as advanced SOC. MDR aims to detect and respond to cyber threats (known and unknown) as quickly as possible. MDR is a service that combines human expertise with technology to monitor, detect and respond to potential threats.
The MDR service focuses on proactive cybersecurity management. It first focuses on detection by identifying elements that could put the organization at risk from a hacker. Then, the "response" aspect refers to the resulting recommendations that will be issued to the company. With the MDR, a new profile of cybersecurity experts has appeared: threat hunters. These are seasoned analysts who take charge of all suspicious movements in the network, analyzing them in depth to ensure that they do not turn into a problem.
The MDR service significantly reduces the time to detect threats, up to 99% with StreamScan.
MDR vs SOC
The main differences between SOC and MDR are listed in the table below.
SOC
MDR
24/7 network monitoring
YES
YES
Proactive detection of cyber threats
NO
YES
Advanced intrusion detection capabilities
Basic (SIEM)
YES (IDS/IPS)
Detection of known attacks
YES (basic attacks only)
YES
Detection of unknown attacks (zero-day)
NO
YES
Threat hunting
NON
OUI
Blocage automatique des cybermenaces
NON
OUI
Incident response expertise
LOW-MEDIUM
HIGH
Expertise in advanced cyber threat triage and analysis
MEDIUM
HIGH
Expertise in reverse engineering of malicious code (ransomware, etc.)
NO
YES
Level of cybersecurity expertise required
LOW-MEDIUM
HIGH
Effectiveness in dealing with today's cyber attacks
LOW-MEDIUM
HIGH
As we can see, the SOC does not require a lot of cybersecurity expertise. It also relies on SIEMs, which provides minimal intrusion detection capability. Therefore, the SOC service will be recommended for organizations that are new to cybersecurity. It is always better to have basic monitoring, rather than none at all.
MDR, on the other hand, goes deeper, relying on technology and the advanced human expertise needed to detect and analyze threats and respond to attacks. Security management is done proactively and the goal is to detect problems before they occur. To do this, MDR relies on threat hunters who scan for any suspicious movement in your network, address it and make recommendations to mitigate it as quickly as possible.
Because it requires greater expertise in operational cybersecurity, there are very few MDR service providers on the market. StreamScan is one of the first to offer this service in Quebec.
Protect yourself with StreamScan MDR
Talk to one of our experts or call us at +1 877 208-9040.
