Is It Time for Sec-Ops?
February 23, 2012

Aruna Ravichandran
CA Technologies

If an attacker were bogging down your apps, how would you know? You wouldn't, unless you bridge the gap between ops and security.

Inspired by the teamwork that began with the Agile movement, IT organizations are tearing down walls in the service delivery process. DevOps is shortening release cycles by uniting development and delivery. But another wall stands in the way of an agile enterprise: the one between operations and security.

Most ops teams have no way of knowing when they’re dealing with an attack or a slow server. With the security and ops teams working separately, issues can take longer to identify, and longer to fix, compromising both operational performance and the security of the enterprise.

It’s time to demolish the divide between the Network Operations Center (NOC) and the Security Operations Center (SOC).

Here’s how to get started.

Step 1: Prioritize

Start with what matters most:

- Which apps or services are the most critical to your organization?

- Which ones can’t afford to have a security problem remain undiagnosed for even a few minutes?

Step 2: Collaborate with the security team

Because you’ll be shifting some responsibility from one team to another, it’s important to ensure that everyone understands why.

- Facilitate communication between the NOC and SOC teams about what they will gain by bringing security events into the NOC.

- Ensure the NOC team understands the importance of giving the SOC team visibility into certain aspects of NOC monitoring tools.

- Discuss the various tools you’ll need to accomplish this coordination and the processes you will need to create or modify.

Step 3: Identify the right monitoring tools

It’s important to look for a tool that won’t add new complexity to the NOC or its processes. The ideal tool would consolidate and correlate all events—security and operational—under a single pane of glass.

It also should:

- Provide real-time monitoring information.

- Allow for customization, so that both the SOC and NOC teams can see the information they need to see.

- Integrate security system events with the NOC's overall event management system.

- Connect security-related events with the business services they affect so you can prioritize problems when they arise.

- Identify a problem’s cause with little or no manual work.

This article is adapted from a longer article that appeared in the Discover Performance newsletter.

Aruna Ravichandran is VP, Product & Solutions Marketing, DevOps, CA Technologies
Share this

Industry News

March 27, 2024

WaveMaker has updated its platform in response to customer demand for more sophisticated API and code management tools.

March 27, 2024

Vercara announced the launch of UltraAPI™, a product suite that protects APIs and web applications from malicious bots and fraudulent activity while ensuring regulatory compliance.

March 27, 2024

Legit Security announced the launch of its standalone enterprise secrets scanning product, which can detect, remediate, and prevent secrets exposure across the software development pipeline.

March 26, 2024

Progress announced a strategic partnership with Veeam® Software, the #1 leader by market share in Data Protection and Ransomware Recovery, to provide customers with an enterprise-ready cyber defense solution that strengthens the security of their business-critical data.

March 26, 2024

GitGuardian released its Software Composition Analysis (SCA) module.

March 26, 2024

DataStax announced a milestone in its journey to simplify enterprise retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) for developers by integrating with Microsoft Semantic Kernel.

March 25, 2024

Check Point® Software Technologies Ltd. is collaborating with NVIDIA to enhance the security of AI cloud infrastructure. Integrating NVIDIA BlueField DPUs, which feature a broad range of purpose-built, innovative security capabilities, the new Check Point AI Cloud Protect solution will help prevent threats at both the network and host levels.

March 25, 2024

Sentry announced the release of Autofix, an AI-powered feature to debug and fix code in minutes, saving important time and resources.

March 25, 2024

Apiiro announced a product integration and partnership with Secure Code Warrior, the agile developer security training platform, to extend its ASPM technology and processes to the people layer.

March 21, 2024

Progress announced that Progress® Semaphore™, its metadata management and semantic AI platform, was named a Champion in SoftwareReviews’ 2024 Metadata Management Emotional Footprint Awards.

March 21, 2024

The Cloud Native Computing Foundation® (CNCF®) has partnered with Udemy, an online skills marketplace and learning platform.

March 21, 2024

GitLab has acquired Oxeye, the provider of a cloud-native application security and risk management solution.

March 21, 2024

GitHub announced that code scanning autofix, powered by GitHub Copilot and CodeQL, is available in public beta for all GitHub Advanced Security (GHAS) customers.

March 21, 2024

NetApp is collaborating with NVIDIA to advance retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) for generative AI applications.

March 21, 2024

CalypsoAI launched the CalypsoAI Platform, an advanced SaaS-based security and enablement solution for generative AI applications within the enterprise.