Solutions for cyber security come in many makes and models but all of them have traditionally had a hefty price tag in either costs or time consumed. Hence, it is mainly the larger organizations that have so far been able to utilize professional security operations center (SOC) services. AI-assisted Pedab SOC coupled with Experis consulting services are now dramatically changing the SOC business by removing a zero from the price tag and thus making it affordable for small & medium sized enterprises as well.

Recent cyber security scandals in Finland and Sweden made many people and organizations aware of the “cyber neglect” consequences. First, tens of thousands of top secret documents containing blueprints of bank vaults, security doors, alarm equipment and security functions for ATMs were stolen from the Swedish security company Gunnebo. Shortly after, thousands of psychotherapy patients of the Finnish Vastaamo clinic were being blackmailed against their patient records – including high profile politicians and other known people with some 25000 charges against the company filed so far. Read more on these attacks here. 

Consequences have been dramatic for both companies. Gunnebo is being taken over and Vastaamo’s funds as well as its owner’s personal funds have been frozen by the government. Both companies' management team members are likely to face personal charges as well. Customer damage in both cases will be in stellar figures and shall affect the business insurances of other companies in respective lines of business. New legislation is being prepared to prevent such scandals in the future. Personally, I find it difficult to imagine more dramatic effects of a cyber security breach. 

The most important lesson to be learned from both of these attacks is that very basic cyber security matters the most. Both of the aforementioned cases involved nothing but very basic hacking techniques and were more or less inevitable results of potentially criminal “cyber neglect” of not paying sufficient attention to cyber security issues. I have faith in our competition to claim that being a customer to any SOC service would have prevented both scandals from happening, as they do for 99,99% of other attacks as well. Did we ever read in the papers that a professional SOC service had failed to provide adequate cyber security for its customer?

Therefore, having professional SOC service to secure your operations is most important! The differentiating factors between the providers are far less significant. You can, however, save in the costs which can vary significantly. Until the emergence of AI-assisted surveillance, SOCs relied on 24/7 manned facilities which translate into at least seven persons to cover just one role. Therefore the monthly cost of such services has typically been tens of thousands of euros. Our AI-assisted SOC service drops the last zero from the cost by bringing down the monthly price to a couple of thousands of euros.

Learn more on this topic by viewing a recording of our recent webinar here. 

Text author: Markku Luoto, Markku works as a Business Unit Manager at Pedab Finland