Cybersecurity as a Service (CSaaS)

Cybersecurity as a Service: The CSaaS Model to Rule the FutureWith the evolution and the industry acceptance of the Software Defined Network (SDN), the line between the physical and the virtual are becoming increasingly blurred. The need to own physical devices and maintain a private network is rapidly being replaced by the cloud and the concept of (X)aaS where X is reflected as anything delivered 'as a Service'.Today’s attack surface is growing at an unprecedented rate. Every morning there is another major attack announced. Whether it is financial or governmental or a commercial enterprise, everything is up for grabs. How much security is enough or better stated, not enough? Owning and maintaining a Red and Blue Team is a pretty costly and off the balance sheet for even the largest corporation. Buying firewalls and antivirus servers and locking off the corporate network is no longer enough. Cybersecurity has become a war-zone and what worked before is now legacy and inadequate.Cybersecurity as a Service (CSaaS) addresses these issues. By purchasing the service you have a Security Operations Center (SOC) 24/7. You may not be open 24 hours a day, but your data at rest (DAR) and sensitive information is. You are more like to be attacked in your off-hours than your business hours. If someone has run reconnaissance against you, they already know your hours of operation and your daily operations. With CSaaS, you have a team monitoring your network and protecting your assets.If you are attacked and this may be the biggest benefit; you have the response started and records/evidence is being properly collected and the forensics effort is in motion. You stand a better chance in court with a professional vendor providing the information and this may help with your insurance costs.You also have financial aspects that are a bonus. If you have a team of employees, they are considered assets and need benefits, time off and various perks to keep them employed. By using CSaaS, it becomes a cost of doing business and is an Operating Expense (Opex) rather than a Capital Expense (Capex). Discussing this here is out of the scope of the discussion, but it is something to think about.This is all something to look at when you are doing a risk evaluation and looking at the business impact of your information security. Some of the biggest corporate names have been tarnished by not having enough of a defense in depth plan set up. World War III is being fought in cyberspace and today’s networks need a battle plan, not just a business plan.