In the complex landscape of cybersecurity, businesses are often under immense pressure to show they are doing something—anything—to protect their data. A common solution that organisations rush toward is the implementation of a Security Operations Centre (SOC) or a comprehensive log monitoring service.
On the surface, this seems like a responsible decision. It provides visibility, alerts, and a sense of constant vigilance. However, for many organisations, investing in a SOC before implementing fundamental security controls is a significant strategic error. It creates a situation where you are paying a premium to watch a security incident occur, rather than investing in the measures that would have prevented it in the first place.
The Analogy of the Camera and the Open Door
To understand why this approach is flawed, consider the security of a physical home.
Imagine you are concerned about burglary. You decide to spend your entire budget on a high-definition CCTV system that is monitored 24/7 by a security team. However, to afford this system, you decide not to install doors or locks on the house.
If a thief targets your home, the camera system will function perfectly. It will detect the intruder walking through the open entrance. It will record them taking your valuables. The monitoring team will call you to report that you are currently being robbed.
While the detection was successful, the outcome remains the same: you have been robbed.
This is exactly what happens when a business invests in a SOC without first hardening its environment. A SOC is designed to detect attacks, not necessarily to stop them instantly. If you have not put in the protections that prevent unauthorised access, you are simply paying to watch the attack happen.
The Cost of Watching vs. The Cost of Locking
There is often a misconception that preventative security controls are too expensive or difficult to implement, leading businesses to choose monitoring as a “catch-all” solution. In reality, the cost of subscribing to a quality SOC or log monitoring service is often comparable to, or even higher than, the cost of implementing the very controls that would render the monitoring less critical.
For example, implementing robust access controls, application whitelisting, and proper network segmentation are one-off or low-maintenance projects that provide genuine barriers to entry. In contrast, a SOC requires a recurring monthly subscription that drains the budget while leaving the actual entry points wide open.
This creates a dangerous illusion of security. You may feel safe because you have a team watching your network, but if your systems are vulnerable due to a lack of basic patching or weak authentication methods, that feeling of safety is unfounded. As with the “Cyber Lipstick” concept, it looks good on the surface but provides no real protection.
Prevention Must Precede Detection
The most effective cybersecurity strategy prioritises prevention. Detection is the second line of defence, useful only when a sophisticated threat actor manages to bypass your primary locks.
Before considering a SOC, an organisation should ensure that the digital equivalent of “doors and locks” are installed and functioning correctly. This includes:
- Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Ensuring that stolen passwords are not enough to grant access.
- Patch Management: Regularly updating software to close known vulnerabilities.
- Hardening Systems and Cloud: Ensure Systems, devices, servers, email and cloud are hardened
- Least Privilege Access: Ensuring users only have access to the data they strictly need.
If you prioritise these controls, you stop the vast majority of attacks before they even generate an alert. You move from a reactive posture—waiting for the police to arrive after the theft—to a proactive posture where the thief cannot get in at all.
When Does a SOC Make Sense?
This is not to say that log monitoring and SOCs are useless. On the contrary, they are a vital component of a mature cybersecurity strategy. However, they should be viewed as the “next step” rather than the “first step.”
Once you have implemented all practical preventative protections, a SOC becomes the logical investment to catch the edge cases—the highly sophisticated attackers who attempt to pick the locks you have installed. Until those protections are in place, however, a SOC is often an inefficient use of money.
Focus on Quality Implementation
At Vertex, we believe that the goal of cybersecurity should be to genuinely improve your organisation’s resilience, not just to tick a box. We focus on quality implementation, guiding our clients to ensure that security controls are effective, practical, and suited to their business.
Before you sign a contract for expensive monitoring, it is crucial to assess whether your environment is actually defensible.