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Develop a Security Operations Strategy
Transition from a security operations center to a threat collaboration environment.
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Your Challenge
- There is an onslaught of security data – generating information in different formats, storing it in different places, and forwarding it to different locations.
- The organization lacks a dedicated enterprise security team. There is limited resourcing available to begin or mature a security operations center.
- Many organizations are developing ad hoc security capabilities that result in operational inefficiencies, the misalignment of resources, and the misuse of security technology investments.
- It is difficult to communicate the value of a security operations program when trying to secure organizational buy-in to gain the appropriate resourcing.
- There is limited communication between security functions due to a centralized security operations organizational structure.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Security operations is no longer a center, but a process. The need for a physical security hub has evolved into the virtual fusion of prevention, detection, analysis, and response efforts. When all four functions operate as a unified process, your organization will be able to proactively combat changes in the threat landscape.
- Functional threat intelligence is a prerequisite for effective security operations – without it, security operations will be inefficient and redundant. Eliminate false positives by contextualizing threat data, aligning intelligence with business objectives, and building processes to satisfy those objectives.
- If you are not communicating, you are not secure. Collaboration eliminates siloed decisions by connecting people, processes, and technologies. You leave less room for error, consume fewer resources, and improve operational efficiency with a transparent security operations process.
Impact and Result
- A unified security operations process actively transforms security events and threat information into actionable intelligence, driving security prevention, detection, analysis, and response processes, addressing the increasing sophistication of cyberthreats, and guiding continuous improvement.
- This blueprint will walk through the steps of developing a flexible and systematic security operations program relevant to your organization.
Start here – read the Executive Brief
Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should enhance your security operations program, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.
1. Assess your current state
Assess current prevention, detection, analysis, and response capabilities.
2. Develop maturity initiatives
Design your optimized state of operations.
3. Define operational interdependencies
Identify opportunities for collaboration within your security program.
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Each call will focus on explaining the material and helping you to plan your project, interpret and analyze the results of each project step, and setting the direction for your next project step.
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Onsite workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Assess Operational Requirements
The Purpose
- Determine current prevention, detection, analysis, and response capabilities, operational inefficiencies, and opportunities for improvement.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Determine why you need a sound security operations program.
- Understand Info-Tech’s threat collaboration environment.
- Evaluate your current security operation’s functions and capabilities.
Activities
Outputs
Understand the benefits of refining your security operations program.
Gauge your current prevention, detection, analysis, and response capabilities.
- Security Operations Preliminary Maturity Assessment Tool
Module 2: Develop Maturity Initiatives
The Purpose
- Begin developing and prioritizing gap initiatives in order to achieve the optimal state of operations.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Establish your goals, obligations, scope, and boundaries.
- Assess your current state and define a target state.
- Develop and prioritize gap initiatives.
- Define the cost, effort, alignment, and security benefits of each initiative.
- Develop a security strategy operational roadmap.
Activities
Outputs
Assess your current security goals, obligations, and scope.
- Information Security Strategy Requirements Gathering Tool
Design your ideal target state.
Prioritize gap initiatives.
- Security Operations Maturity Assessment Tool
Module 3: Define Operational Interdependencies
The Purpose
- Identify opportunities for collaboration.
- Formalize your operational process flows.
- Develop a comprehensive and actionable measurement program.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Understand the current security operations process flow.
- Define the security operations stakeholders and their respective deliverables.
- Formalize an internal information-sharing and collaboration plan.
Activities
Outputs
Identify opportunities for collaboration.
- Security Operations RACI & Program Plan Tool
Formalize a security operations collaboration plan.
- Security Operations Collaboration Plan
Define operational roles and responsibilities.
- Security Operations Cadence Schedule Template
Develop a comprehensive measurement program.
- Security Operations Metrics Summary
