How to Keep Tabs on Your Network Security
Reading Time: 3 minutes
Today, with cyber attacks occurring every 39 seconds, network security is more important than ever. Have you ever wondered about the best way to keep tabs on your own network security? Or if you should hire a dedicated network security engineer?That’s what we’d like to help you determine.
SIEM Tools... Are They Worth It?
There are many great SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) tools available today. A good place to research the best is the latest Gartner report. We’ve reviewed each of the top tools in depth, and while they’re all great products, they are expensive.
These tools easily cost at least $2-3k per month, and that’s just to own the tool. It makes sense that they would be pricey, given that these tools are only good if constantly kept up to date. This requires a vendor with a heavy investment in security R&D.
Another cost factor is the computing and storage resources required to send heavy amounts of data to the cloud for analysis every single day.
As we reviewed all of this, we wondered how many of our clients are willing to make these investments?
We all know how impactful security breaches are to our businesses, but are we really willing to put our money where our mouth is, so to speak?
The issue with a SIEM tool is that once you make the initial investment, you need a person to be using the tool on a daily basis.
It can be difficult to get existing personnel to spend time on a tool like this while expecting them to be proficient and undistracted by other urgent matters. But to really get the ROI for a SIEM tool, you need a dedicated network security engineer—someone whose only job is to protect your business from security threats.
How to Choose the Best Option for You
Unless your business has at least 500 employees, you are not likely going to be willing to add these kinds of costs to your budget. But you still need to protect yourself. What are your options?
If your company is small (fewer than 500 employees), your best option is to outsource your security analyst job to a company that can manage it for you. This allows you to essentially share the cost of the tools and labor with several other companies in a similar position.
If your company is large and you don’t yet have these tools or people, you need to make a case to management on how much it will cost your company if you are breached. If your business goes idle for a day, what’s that worth?
We promise the cost of not doing something is far greater by a factor of 10 when you add up downtime, loss of productivity and revenue, etc.
No matter which path you choose, you must do something. You can’t ignore security and just hope you won’t get breached.
Hope is not a strategy.
If you’d like to look into managed security services, we can help.
Join Our Upcoming WebinarJoin us for a security webinar on Thursday, February 25th! We will be talking about how to secure your vulnerable environment. Register here.
Additional Reading