Enterprises today are tasked with developing, implementing, managing and updating their security systems in an increasingly volatile environment. As a result, they are constantly devoting scarce resources to an ever-expanding array of threats. Security-as-a-service (SECaaS) can deliver extended protection to enterprise environments and bring together large sets of resources, including technology, research and staff, to defend multiple customers at a lower, shared cost.

Organizations need to expand their cybersecurity protections to cope with the threats that constantly beat against existing defenses. SECaaS can add extra layers of protection to these deployed and managed security systems quickly without the need to add internal personnel.

False Positives, Alert Fatigue and the Skills Shortage

For many organizations, cyberattack attempts trigger more than 10,000 alerts each month, according to one report. While the systems in place as part of corporate IT infrastructure are efficient at detecting and reporting intrusion attempts, 52 percent turn out to be false positives and 64 percent are redundant. That volume can be overwhelming to security professionals, who typically manually review about 40 percent of the these alerts. At some point, this constant review and evaluation leads to alert fatigue, making it likely that one or more serious intrusions will be missed.

This hazard is only exacerbated by the shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals, whose time and efforts are diminished by having to deal with the minutiae, serious as it may be, of thousands of alerts. SECaaS can serve as an additional intervention in the alert chain and apply evaluation criteria to the stream of alerts, escalating only those that rise to a defined level. The insertion of SECaaS and the assistance of AI relieves security teams of the tedious and detailed task of reviewing irrelevant data, allowing analysts to concentrate on threats that are most likely to require intervention.

Sharing the Cost of Bolstered Security

Security teams need to keep up with the increasing complexity of cyberthreats. That means investing in system updates and continuously educating staff members about emerging cybercrime trends. It’s unreasonable to think those expenditures will stop, but enterprises can augment their capabilities by adding SECaaS to their existing internal capabilities.

Companies can leverage the significant ongoing investments in SECaaS systems, including extensive computing platforms, detection and interception software, and full-time research. Those costs are shared by hundreds or thousands of customers, reducing the price each company needs to pay while delivering top-tier protection.

Staying One Step Ahead With Security-as-a-Service

The growth of mobile devices increases the number and variety of endpoints vulnerable to intrusion because users often install apps of their own choosing with little concern for security. Each of those network endpoints is a potential entry point for malware that can gain access to critical enterprise resources.

The good news is that security professionals have myriad tools at their disposal to counter these threats. But as the population of devices grows, the complexity of protecting them against intrusion increases. One option to reduce the risk of a breach is to deploy SECaaS to bolster protection.

But the increasing number of user-operated endpoints pales in comparison to the number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and the volume of data they produce. Compounding the problem, IoT devices lack standardized security protocols and oversight, meaning that intrusion detection must be handled by network resources rather than within each device.

Internal security teams are faced with new and different threats arriving from exponentially higher numbers of devices and will find it difficult to keep up with the changes. SECaaS enables security professionals to immediately increase network defense capabilities at a favorable cost. In fact, it may represent the only viable option to stay ahead of the next big cyberattack.

Read the complete IBM report: Addressing the Skills Gap with a New Collar Approach