More and more organizations are turning to managed security service providers (MSSPs) for a range of security services.

Corporates are realizing that security is not a one-time issue. An attack can happen any time of the day, any day of the week and there is an increasing need to protect networks 24x7. The benefits accrued through MSSPs are multifold:

24x7 Monitoring: It is estimated that almost 60 percent of the attacks happen during the graveyard shift—a period where availability of skilled resources is always in question. To proactively detect and respond to attacks, 24x7 monitoring becomes an imperative. 24x7 monitoring involves a three-shift operation. Even if just one security expert per shift is enough, (which is a difficult presumption considering high domain specialization required in data security) an organization will require at least three security experts for round-the-clock monitoring which would be a huge cash outflow.

Powerful Event Correlation: In a corporate environment, event handling tends to become people dependent. Given the inconsistency in event occurrence, it becomes difficult to co-relate similar incidents to detect an attack. Moreover, organizations do not work on of Standard Operating Procedures are required to effectively diffuse an attack. Even after having an in-house expert look at an event, one is not confident of the type of attack that has happened and the effective method to resolve the same. MSSPs provide automated event co-relation capabilities that list event with similar patterns and co-relate them to detect an attack.

Managing False Alerts: False positives constitute 99 percent of total security alerts, making it extremely difficult to segregate the 1 percent actual alerts. A typical Firewall generates thousands of alerts a day while an IDS can generate MBs of raw logs of data that becomes practically impossible to interpret. MSSPs have automated tools that segregate the 1 percent actual attacks from the false positives making security management a much easier task

Emergency Response: Emergency response becomes difficult if a corporate is managing its security in-house. The security team is either not available or doesn’t have adequate tools, processes, policies to respond to an attack. MSSPs operate on Standard Operating Procedures that ensure near real time response to all security incidents.

Reporting and Documenting Events: In-house reporting tools provide limited or no visibility into the security infrastructure.

Either the organization tends to completely ignore the reporting aspect or delegate it to lesser-qualified resources. Reporting becomes extremely crucial for forensics and also to analyze the type of event and method to counter it. MSSPs provide real time visibility into the security infrastructure letting a CIO know the status of his network at any point of time.

Upgrades and Patches: Security vendors come out with new patches on a regular basis. The high frequency of patch release and multiplicity of security products makes it difficult for the organization to upgrade these patches time to time.

Trained and Dedicated Professionals: Certified security professionals at an MSSP undergo extensive security training and rigorous background checks prior to managing or monitoring an organization’s equipment.

Guaranteed Responsiveness: An MSSP begins escalation the moment a problem is detected identifying its source. The aggressive Service Level Agreements (SLAs) ensure that an organization will be notified immediately.

Enhanced Internet Security: This is critical, if governments and businesses are to move high-value transactions and sensitive information online. For many organizations, a managed security service represents the most effective approach to deploying enhanced Internet security.