Security breaches have drained billions, if not trillions, from enterprises. Often, we hear news of a large corporation losing essential customer data. Enterprises are trying different things to eliminate cybersecurity risks. Among all the solutions, SecOps (Security Operations) processes have boosted security and business reliability. It is time that IT security and operations are merged for better results. You might be living under a rock if you don’t know about SecOps. Some enterprises have implemented SecOps in recent times but failed. It was because they failed to form the right SecOps strategy. Read on to understand the best practices for implementing SecOps processes.

Understanding the concept of SecOps

When security and operations teams collaborate to improve information security, it is known as SecOps. Since cyberattacks have become more complicated, enterprises create a synergy between security and operations teams. Before SecOps, each team has its resources, tools, and responsibilities. It led to inefficiencies in the overall security of the IT infrastructure. With SecOps, both teams can share resources, tools, and responsibilities. Different security tools and processes are integrated with the help of SecOps.

Many enterprises have used SecOps to drive automation across both teams. With SecOps, organizations have increased visibility into the network’s security. Often, enterprises experience downtime due to a lack of communication between IT operations and security teams. Ensuring high service availability is the responsibility of both security and operations teams. Here are some benefits of SecOps for enterprises in 2023:

• SecOps will bring more hands on the deck for growing cybersecurity concerns. Cybersecurity responsibilities can be shared equally across both teams. With SecOps, more experts can address evolving security threats.
• Enterprises focus on improving the speed of the entire IT infrastructure. In doing so, they often neglect the security aspect. With SecOps, security can be prioritized across different IT processes.
• When IT operations and security teams come together, they will address common issues that lead to security failure. Applications and software systems will be developed in a way that common security threats are eliminated.
• Enterprises must innovate to maintain their competitiveness. However, innovation must never come at the cost of security. With SecOps processes, organizations can ensure that innovation does not overshadow security.
• Cyber attackers find vulnerabilities in the network and exploit them to the fullest. When security and operations teams join hands, vulnerabilities within the IT network can be addressed quickly. Fewer or no loopholes will be available for hackers to exploit.

What are the best practices for implementing SecOps processes?

SecOps can work like magic for your organization, only if it is implemented the right way. Everything will not happen automatically after merging IT operations and security teams. The management has to set the base for the exchange of information and tools. When done the right way, SecOps processes improve service availability significantly. Here are the best practices to implement SecOps processes:

1. Determine the scope of SecOps – It is essential to analyze the enterprise requirements before drafting a SecOps strategy. Use cases of SecOps might differ from one company to another. There is no standard SecOps strategy that works for every organization. For the same rationale, it is important to determine what the enterprises want to improve with SecOps processes.

While forming a SecOps strategy, an enterprise can choose to outsource some redundant tasks. Internal security and operations teams might be freed only for crucial tasks. It depends on the security teams and their competencies. If the security teams are confident in handling a task, it should be assigned to them. Tasks that require some other skills can be outsourced by the enterprise.

There must be a clear procedure for communication between security and IT operations teams. Whenever a security breach happens, SecOps teams must not be in a state of panic. There must be SOPs to follow for the SecOps teams. By doing so, cybersecurity threats can be eliminated quickly without hampering service reliability.

2. Build dependable workflows – Different challenges will be faced by the SecOps teams with time. However, there must a dependable workflow to follow during an incident. SecOps teams must use a process—driven approach to tackle a cybersecurity threat. It includes defining security processes throughout the life cycle of an incident. Automated pipelines can be used to build repeatable workflows for cybersecurity threats. The tools used for different incidents can change, but the entire SecOps process must be unified.

3. Conduct training for SecOps teams – Forming a SecOps team will not immediately boost service reliability. An enterprise must train the SecOps teams for upcoming challenges. The most basic and effective exercise for SecOps teams is the red-blue exercise. Create two teams consisting of your internal employees. The red team will try to hack the system, while the blue team tries to mitigate the risks. It will help security and operations teams to practice working together. Also, common shortcomings within the system can be discovered internally.

4. Automate SecOps processes – Automation is the key to implementing SecOps processes effectively. Across large and distributed IT environments, you cannot expect internal employees to handle every security task. Some security tasks might be redundant and utilize most of the working hours. It is time organizations looked towards AIOps based analytics platforms for SecOps processes. An AIOps based analytics platform can automate different security tasks like event correlation, data cleaning, pattern discovery, root cause analysis, and synthetic monitoring. Some SecOps processes might require a human touch. You can preserve your internal employees for crucial security tasks that require a human touch. AIOps will help you implement SecOps processes effectively even with a limited SecOps team.

5. Define the SecOps roles – Every SecOps team must be well-versed in its role. Communication, event prioritization, incident investigation, and incident response are a few responsibilities of SecOps. There might be many other responsibilities for a SecOps team. You must have dedicated experts for each SecOps process to ensure business reliability. When everyone knows their role in advance, there is no confusion during an emergency. All these must be done right after merging the security and operations teams. Implement SecOps processes for improved cybersecurity in 2023!