Security Operation Network -Why it makes financial sense

SECURITY

For IT professionals, it's no longer a weekly topic—it's a daily, if not hourly, conversation. The "set it and forget it" era of antivirus is long gone.

Large enterprises have 24/7 security teams. But what about small and mid-market businesses (SMBs)?

After 17 years in IT, I've witnessed a shift in perspective. It's no longer if you'll be attacked, but when.

The "Hope" Strategy

I love working with SMB and mid-market customers. My nerdy/geeky side gets to help small IT teams find the right products at the right price.

But the response is almost always the same: "We get the logs, but our team is so small. We have to hope the products are working because we never have time to analyze them."

Logs become a historical record to determine what happened six months ago, not a tool to prevent an attack today.

The Two Options

This reality forces SMBs to make a choice:

Option 1 - Bite the bullet and hire a 24/7 internal staff.

Option 2 - Find the best Managed Security (MSSP/SOC) partner.

Let's do the math on option 1.

💰 The Real Cost of a 24/7 Internal SOC

To cover 168 hours a week, you need more than just one or two people.

Tier 1 (Eyes on Glass): 4.2 employees are needed for 24/7 coverage. Factoring in vacation, sick leave, and training, it's five (5) full-time employees.

Tier 2/3 (Incident Responders): You need at least two (2) experts to handle remediation.

Specialists: You still need a SIEM Engineer (1) and a Patch/Vulnerability Manager (1).

That's nine (9) new hires for a company that (usually) struggles to staff 2-5 IT people total.

Now, let's look at average US salaries:

Tier 1 Staff: ~$495,000

Incident Responders: ~$254,000

SIEM Engineer: ~$102,000

Patch/Vulnerability: ~$127,000

Total Employee Cost: ~$978,000 per year.

This is before you buy the software, hardware, and training they need. You're easily over $1 million, and you are still taking on 100% of the risk, hoping you've hired the right team.

🚨 The Breach & The Insurance "Trap"

This is critical. If you are breached, as an IT leader, you know it could be a career-killer. But do you know what happens next?

Your insurance company sends out their forensics team.

Question: Who are they working for? You or the insurance company?

Answer: They are looking for any reason (a misconfiguration, a missed patch) to prove you were at risk so they don't have to pay the claim.

Their priority is forensics, not your uptime.

My Understanding: When an insurance company's investigator is in charge, it takes 30+ days to get fully operational.

When you hire your own certified investigator (which your policy likely allows), they protect the forensics and prioritize getting you back up and running. This is often 3-7 days.

Worse, the insurance-appointed team often uses this crisis to sell you new hardware, software, and their own managed services at a premium, all while you're in a panic.

💡 The Smart Alternative

This is not the way to build your security posture.

Why not partner with a SOC that includes the software, SIEM, 24/7 "eyes on keyboard," and remediation for less than the cost of one of those 9 employees?

You transfer the risk. The blame for an attack is on your expert partner, not you.

I've spent 17 years vetting these partners. It's time for SMBs to get the same level of security as enterprises, at a price they can afford.

Let's talk about your options before you're forced to.

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