A Security Operations Centre (SOC) is a team of professionals working for a business or individual to detect cyber threats and mitigate risk to reduce the chance of an attack.
In recent years the need for a SOC has skyrocketed, particularly after the recent evolution in work habits and the increased threat appearing as a result of ongoing cyberwarfare.
Here are 5 reasons why your business needs a SOC:
Companies who hold substantial amounts of sensitive client data are prime targets for cyber criminals. It is often easier to think of a cyber criminal as if they were a business executive running a large corporation, every action they take is one that will get them further towards a high financial reward. So, when deciding what business to target and what data to steal, it makes the most sense to attack confidential data where criminals will see the highest return, especially if their cyber security posture is weak.
Without the correct policies and procedures in place in advance of an attack, personal company data can be accessed with ease. Through the commission of SOC services, a company’s security posture can be significantly and holistically improved which increases the amount of effort it would take for even an experienced hacker to gain entry. Moving back to the business point of view, it would not be logical or make financial sense for a hacker to persist and spend their time trying to gain entry into an organisation that is well defended and monitored when they can move on to less well protected businesses. The risk of a data breach is then dramatically reduced.
A loss of confidential information can be detrimental to a firm’s reputation as well as its valued clients. Clients will likely lose trust with an organisation after having their data touched, lost, or leaked. This lack of trust may cause customers to take their business elsewhere and as a result, leave a long-lasting impact on the firm’s reputation.
In contrast, if a firm can evidence that they have the relevant security measures in place to keep their clients’ data safe, a potential client will feel more inclined to trust the organisation at hand.
In addition to the value an organisation gains through their trusted reputation, a SOC also brings dramatic cost-savings through its methods of proactive protection. The average amount paid by a large organisation to recover from a security breach is said to be between £1.46 million and £3.15 million. Paying the cost to recover from an attack is a far more expensive option than paying for a SOC to prevent an incident from occurring in the first place.
Not only can a cyber attack cost a lot financially, but it can also take a considerable amount of time and put a high strain on resources. On average, it takes a company without a dedicated SOC 287 days to identify and contain a data breach in their systems. In this time, hackers are able to access large amounts of information and have an abundance of time to cause damage. During this, the company will likely be unable to operate at full capacity which could have further repercussions on the delivery of services to clients and in turn, negatively impact loyalty and retention.
Without the transparency delivered through SOC monitoring, the time to identify, contain, eradicate and recover is exponentially larger and so, therefore, is the likelihood of stolen data.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is responsible for dealing with breaches of an organisation’s information rights. If a company has had a data breach it could be liable to report it and in some cases, even a ‘potential’ data breach must be addressed with equal concern to avoid a penalty. Fines can range up to £17.5 million, or 4% of a company’s global turnover, so a SOC plays a critical role in the detection and reporting of a potential data breach to avoid such eye-watering costs.
To find out more about how a SOC could help your business, submit your details below to chat to a member of our team.
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Jamie Mills is the Riela Cyber SOC analyst, working alongside Joseph and Saîd. Jamie’s role involves the monitoring of client’s network and endpoints for malicious activity, thus mitigating cyber threats. This is done through using our software stack of security products and conducting OSINT (open-source intelligence) investigations to solve security incidents.
Jamie studied at the University of Portsmouth completing an undergraduate degree in Computer Forensics & Cyber Security, and achieved a masters degree in Data Analytics.
With previous experience as a Junior SOC analyst, Jamie is a highly motivated cyber security professional with a strong interest in Malware Analysis and Binary Exploitation.
As a Marketing Executive, Alex is responsible for all marketing duties spanning the Riela Group.
Alex joined the Riela Group in August 2020, shortly after graduating with a Psychology degree from Nottingham Trent University.
With past work experience in content marketing, event management and web design, Alex is able to apply her creative and analytical skills into the Riela strategy.
Peter is an experienced technology consultant with a demonstrated history of working in the IT and cyber security industry. Skilled in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), IT Strategy, Start-ups, Regulations, and Online Gaming. Strong consulting professional with a DPhil focused in Natural Sciences from ChristChurch, Oxford.
Robert Tobin is the Managing Director of the Riela Group of Companies and is responsible in overseeing our business operations, our people and driving excellence in all we do.
Rob brings over 25 years’ of successful leadership and entrepreneurial experience across a range of industries including Family Office, corporate services, construction engineering, Superyachts, cyber security and information technology development to our Group, and to our customers.
In the past 15 years Rob has gained a prominent reputation within the Superyacht industry for his passion, integrity, innovation and achievements to date.
“Being part of an awesome, capable and forward thinking team that have a shared passion for Superyachts, people and the environment is the highlight of my career and puts a smile on my face and a spring in my step everyday”.
Christian is involved across the Riela family of companies with particular attention to the technology businesses, Cyber and Tech.
Christian gained a postgraduate Master in Finance degree at the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland and completed his MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Before joining us, Christian worked for six years at Argosy Capital, an Isle of Man-based private equity and venture capital business focusing on early-stage growth businesses. At Argosy, he focused on managing investment companies, research and financial analysis and served as a director on several boards.
Joseph is a Cyber Security Engineer and Risk lead in the security operations centre team. Joseph is responsible for internal audit and cyber risk management, vulnerability assessment, threat hunting and penetration testing to provide effective oversight of internal and client risk postures.
Joseph brings 8 years’ experience in risk & cybersecurity research, focusing on web-based technologies, security awareness innovation, malware threats, reverse engineering and systems audit.
With a PhD in Computer Science and a penchant for security innovation, Joseph specialises in threat detection using an avalanche of industry tools, techniques and methodologies to efficiently mitigate known and emerging threats facing our high valued clients.
Saîd is a Cyber Engineer & Incident Response Lead in the Security Operations Centre team. Saîd brings his vast wealth of technical knowledge of security technologies to analyse and respond to security threats. After 13 years experience in Cybersecurity, focusing on Identity & Access Management, PKI, Incident Response and SIEM, Saîd is instrumental in helping formulate our strategic approach.
Saîd has a Master’s degree in Computer Engineering and specializes in Information Security with certifications in CEH, CCSK, and Splunk.
Carey is the Cyber Security Operations team lead at the Riela Group of Companies.
He has a wealth of infrastructure and cyber security experience across the medical, financial, retail, and telecom sectors. In addition he has a strong entrepreneurial spirit which is an asset in bridging the divide between technical and business.
Carey also holds numerous certifications in Microsoft, Cisco, Linux and the Cyber Security Disciplines. He has a passion for anything related to technology.
Email: carey@riela-cyber.com
As the Head of Group Sales at the Riela family of companies, Matthew leads the company’s sales strategy, execution, and growth.
Matthew has a successful record building trusted client relationship and delivering upon set expectations. An accomplished sales leader, he delivers a sales process that provides clients with the information and support they need to make the right decisions for their organisations and their constituents.
Matthew has significant experience within the maritime industry having previously worked across various sectors including insurance, security, satellite communications and managed IT. Matthew’s most recent experience encompasses almost 5 years spent with the leading satellite communications and managed IT provider in the maritime industry, focusing on their superyacht clientele.
Marc is our Group’s Infrastructure and Managed Services lead with over 18 years’ experience in delivering infrastructure projects across multiple industry verticals and international jurisdictions. From projects in Aerospace and Engineering through to Banking and Insurance, from Europe, China, Africa and Australia.
This experience is matched with a varied list of certifications from leading industry vendors such as Hp, Cisco, Microsoft, Ruckus, CompTIA and more. As a qualified technical trainer Marc is comfortably able to take complicated technical concepts and deliver them in simplistic terms to key decision makers and end users alike.
Most of Marc’s experience has been gained working for managed service providers, both large and niche and as such is able to take real world experience and blend it with industry standards to help align our service delivery with our clients values and processes.
Kurt Schrauwen is a Director of the Riela Group of companies which includes Riela Yachts, Riela Cyber and Riela Tech.
Kurt brings more than 20 years of leadership experience having been an early part of the global success of Microgaming in becoming a market leader. Kurt was responsible for the commercial, contractual, and technical sales for Microgaming and with this experience will complement the company’s growth strategy.
Kurt is passionate about business optimisation and prides himself in having an intrapreneurial outlook to maximise staff potential, reduce inefficiencies as well as identifying and maturing revenue growth opportunities.
Josh is a Cyber Security Engineer specialising in Technical Sales and Support. Josh builds trust into each client relationship by working closely with business functions to deliver professionally tailored solutions for our clients from sales through to production and after care.
Having spent 4 years as an Officer Cadet in the British Army, Josh has had a great opportunity to develop his interpersonal and management skills to the highest standard possible. Josh is an avid public speaker and presents material regularly across different industries through seminars and online hosted events.
With an extensive competitive background in eSports and eGaming, both as a sponsored player and coach, Josh has been at the forefront of evolving technology, security and mitigation. It is this sort of experience that enables Josh to help facilitate the growth of Riela Cyber, alongside a highly qualified team of Cyber Security professionals.
Email: josh@riela-tech.com
Luke is an Infrastructure Engineer for the Riela Group with over 7 years of experience providing infrastructure support and solutions.
He currently holds his BSc in Computer Science, Microsoft Azure Administrator, Comptia A+, and Comptia N+ qualifications.
Most of his experience has been gained by working for Managed Service Providers that provide full IT support and solutions to companies ranging from small to large enterprises.
He is extremely passionate about technology and excellent customer service delivery, ensuring he is always kept up to date with the latest technologies and providing the best solutions to clients.
Email: luke@riela-tech.com
Andy is a qualified Network Engineer with in-depth knowledge of architecting, implementing and supporting networking solutions in the SMB, Enterprise and Service Provider environments.
He has over 20 years of experience working across multiple vendor operating systems, including Cisco, Juniper, Linux and Microsoft, and has also been responsible for implementing a variety of large scale network services deployments, taking projects from design to rollout and support.
Andy also has experience of deploying and migrating a range of virtualisation technologies including VMWare, Hyper-V and KVM based systems.
Email: andy@riela-cyber.com
Murat Guner joined the Riela Group in the Summer of 2021 as an Infrastructure Engineer.
Murat began his career in Turkey as a computer teacher for primary and secondary schools before migrating his skills into IT infrastructure. After honing his IT experiences throughout a colourful career path, Murat gained numerous qualifications which he is now excited to apply to the management of our Riela Tech infrastructure.
Paul Cocker joined the Riela Group in late 2021, after spending just under 20 years with his previous employer.
Paul is responsible for the Riela Tech service levels, working on both the dispatch function and SLA management. Paul carries out a variety of duties across the Network Operations Centre and works closely across the wider team to deliver professionally tailored solutions for our Riela Tech clients.
Linette Joseph is Riela Cyber’s cyber intern. Linette supports Riela Cyber’s Security Operations Team (SOC) part-time whilst completing her A-Level studies. Linette has a keen interest in Digital Forensics and aspires to become a Cyber Security Analyst.
Linette’s interest in cyber security developed in year 12 after learning in-depth about web programming and JavaScript. This further developed Linette’s interest in the subject and sparked her curiosity and she began coding.
Through her internship with Riela Cyber Linette hopes to apply and expand her knowledge the industry and encourage other young women into cyber careers in the future.
Email: linette.joseph@rielacsc.com
Tim Bliss, Managing Director of Riela Tech since the company foundation in 2015 and Director of Riela Cyber, brings over 20 years’ of successful leadership experience across a range of industries including finance and banking, software development, and manufacturing, as well as cyber security and information technology. Prior to forming the company he led the technology for Manx Financial Group PLC, where he was instrumental in business systems transformation.
“It is our hugely capable team of experts that drives our business – it is fantastic and rewarding to be able to use technology, intelligence, and great customer service to help make our clients’ business and staff progressively more efficient resilient and secure”