There is still a divide between the Security Operations Center (SOC) and the Network Operating Center (NOC). Security Operations is more strategic following security best practices to improve corporate security posture (based on business risk) and to ensure implementation of security policies and compliance. While IT is focused on network management, infrastructure availability and SLAs security often gets in the way of productivity. Security products such as IDS/IPS, SIEMs and GRC (see Security Intelligence: Finding Out What Part Actually Makes You Smart) go beyond the scope of IT and the skill sets for each [NOC/SOC] are different.
Today the lines are a bit more blurred in some organizations. Sure IT operations still keeps the network up and the CISO office continues to review security strategies to protect assets but most IT professionals are regularly required to hold some type of security certification and are actively involved in security related remediation such as applying critical patches to compromised systems. Working together the NOC and SOC can identify, assess and remediate quickly while maintaining security integrity and IT SLAs.
I was at a trade show recently, covering the BeyondTrust product portfolio and speaking to an IT professional about how our products deliver Context-Aware Security Intelligence.
We hit a lot of great points during the conversation:
- Deploying Group Policies to allow users access to applications with specific privileges
- Creating rules blocking / blacklisting unapproved applications that traditional whitelist / blacklist vendors would not address
- Auditing Active Directory changes and the ability to understand Who, What, and When AD changes were made.
He was impressed with what BeyondTrust has done to bring security into the hands of IT. He currently is an Active Directory Administrator, and most of what he sees at trade shows are products that fit the security space like SIEM, Log Management, and GRC products. Nothing he could really use in day to day IT administration – until he saw BeyondTrust.
I continued to show him how we provide Context-Aware Security Intelligence and tie vulnerability data to privilege identity and application elevation. He was impressed with our ability to deliver products that touch both IT and Security within a single platform, and how we provide ‘security tools for IT’; allowing IT to include security into their daily activity for users and assets.
This is why BeyondTrust is different. Our tools are best of breed, they target different personas within a business, and all link together under one platform to help everyone understand security and risk. My contact from the show saw this first hand, and understands why we are not a commodity vendor.
See our product portfolio at BeyondTrust.com to learn more about our PowerBroker products and Context-Aware Security Intelligence. In my next blog, I will begin to discuss how these tools can be used first hand to make a difference.
