Continuous monitoring of security threats and compliance violations is an essential building block for an organisation's overall cyber resilience journey. Whether implemented by an in-house DevOps or SecOps team, or by a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) through a 24x7x365 Security Operations Centre (SOC), there are many ways to approach continuous monitoring.  

The benefit of a great continuous security monitoring apparatus is in detecting emerging security threats as early as possible in the lifecycle of a data breach or cyber attack. Such a proactive strategy can minimize the risk of data loss and financial damage. Furthermore, a clear understanding of existing threats, combined with a valuable threat intelligence platform, can deliver continuous monitoring that caters for immediate and future risks.  

Understanding what to monitor in an organisation depends on knowing the concentration of cyber risk. Organisations may wish to focus on application, network, infrastructure, user access data, or any combination of these. Anomaly detection and continuously improved rulesets can improve the value monitoring systems deliver. However, for any continuous monitoring system to be effective, an organisation must have resilience built into its staff and policies and procedures.  

A high level of security awareness in employees and other proactive measures (such as purple teaming, vulnerability detection and patching, threat modelling, threat intelligence or malware detection) all help to minimise the attack surface of an organisation, freeing up continuous monitoring systems from low-hanging fruit such as preventable threats.  

Outsourcing continuous monitoring can save on the cost of hiring, training, and retaining staff, spinning up the necessary infrastructure, and ensuring round-the-clock protection. With the increasing capabilities that MSSPs offer, check out Armis and Claroty for your organisation’s continuous monitoring needs.