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Managed security key to bolstering technology


Johannesburg, 06 Dec 2021
Securicom’s Managing Director Richard Broeke.
Securicom’s Managing Director Richard Broeke.

After big budgets were allocated to cyber security at the start of the national lockdown that forced many businesses to adopt remote work, the last thing that businesses want is to spend more money on technology. Unfortunately, the cyber landscape is continuously shifting.

“Cyber threats change hourly,” explains Richard Broeke, Managing Director at Securicom. “Technology is only as good as the ‘hands that have configured it’. Typically, just after a new technology has been deployed, the protection levels are really good. There is very little for the human hands to do.

“The problem is and always has been that your environment and the threat actors are constantly changing. Now, how do you know what adjustments need to be made and when they need to be made in order to ensure that your protection remains as effective as possible?”

Fortunately, there is a simple answer: Managed detection and response (MDR) or managed security. Simply put, managed security gives businesses the best possible oversight into existing security technologies to identify and respond to threats.

Broeke details: “Managed security is really a monitoring and response conversation. We don’t care what technology or security controls you have in place. The focus is on gathering information from these technologies to create a picture of your protection levels and assist with responding appropriately to attacks and potential attacks.”

This allows Securicom to provide clients with intelligence on which they can take action, for example, adjusting controls to provide better protection.

By comparison, managed services refer to technology that is configured, managed and monitored by a service provider, like Securicom, to ensure the technology is working at its best. The service provider only focuses on a single area within the cyber security of the business. If companies only rely on managed services, they are leaving gaps within their cyber security.

“Without managed security in place,” explains Broeke, “the only data that you have on which to make these decisions is what the technology itself is telling you. This is one of the blind spots of any managed service.” In other words, businesses are left with only part of the picture.

Managed security, on the other hand, collects data from all the cyber security technologies within the business and interrogates these using threat intelligence that Securicom gathers from other sources. These include international vendors and intelligence from Securicom’s 800 unique end customer across multiple verticals and geographies. This provides a more comprehensive oversight of the cyber security within your business.

“With managed security in place, we are collecting information in near real-time from a number of different technologies in your estate that are performing a number of differing functions. This information is processed and correlated by applying external intelligence so that we are more likely to spot the ‘mistake’,” Broeke says. This is all done through technology intelligent technology.

But, while technology is smart, the Securicom team is smarter. With more than 20 years of experience, the analysis of the threat is left to the team of professionals who will provide the client with their suggested actions to take. This will be communicated according to the predefined customer-specific playbook. It could even include logging a call on the client’s behalf with third-party service providers, thus holding everybody within the ecosystem accountable.

Since the managed security relies on existing technology, business can commence uninterrupted. All that is required is the implementation of software (or a collector) that can communicate between the business’s cyber security system and Securicom.

“Even the traffic between the customer and our software is optimised to ensure little to no increase in bandwidth utilisation,” Broeke notes.

For those businesses that require the utmost efficiency, Securicom can provide or replace existing cyber security with its own managed service. Thus, when it detects a threat through its managed security, the Securicom team can take immediate action to remediate the situation. Thus, clients can know that threats will be address without delay.

With round-the-clock monitoring and detection with a dedicated and skilled team, the Securicom managed security offering truly provides businesses with comprehensive security without breaking the bank. In fact, it can even save you time and money by detecting those threats that would’ve gone unnoticed while business continues uninterrupted. 

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Securicom

With more than 20 years experience in the Cyber Security industry Securicom provides industry leading Managed Security to more than 800 customers across the globe. Through our close partnerships with best of breed technology vendors we are able meet and exceed the needs of any business, of any size, in any geography or vertical, while ensuring local relevance to the services provided. At Securicom we pride ourselves on being 100% customer focused and live by our ethos: Business must be fair, Business with integrity, Honesty and Excellence through Service.