Managed Security Services

Going about outsourcing

Organisations that prefer to concentrate upon their core business are better off picking a Managed Security Services Provider, finds Dominic K.

Many companies lack the requisite infrastructure and resources to manage security. For them the ideal solution is often to outsource their IT needs.

As you decide on the various aspects of infrastructure and security to be outsourced, selecting the right Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) can be quite a tough task. This is because multiple factors need to be analysed since the outsourced company will be handling your company’s crown jewels—its confidential data and information.

Evaluating third-parties

Some of the common outsourced security services include management of a firewall and Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS). Other outsourced services include security risk profiling, log management, vulnerability threat assessment, phishing, and pharming response services.

It is essential to look for offered services that include complete monitoring and management of deployed products such as firewalls, VPNs, IDS/IPS and anti-virus. These include remote configuration, rule definition and modification, policy changes, VPN configuration, system/software support, and system upgrades.

Facilities management on the security front can be executed using onsite and or offsite services. The needs can be quite exhaustive and customised according to an individual enterprise’s needs. That is why a detailed evaluation of the proposed third-party’s capabilities along with feedback from its existing clients is a must.

Monitoring services

Log management is essential to track, pinpoint and resolve security incidents. These monitoring services involve the monitoring of various logs such as those of servers, routers, firewalls, IDS/IPS, and anti-virus.

It is essential to monitor the logs of IDS/IPS as well as those of firewalls to zero in on security incidents. OS logs also have to be constantly monitored. Monitoring requires these components to be decided according to the business criticality. However, it has to be noted that the Service Level Agreement (SLA) specifies how these aspects will be monitored.

Another important area

Threat management is yet another aspect of managed security which is rapidly gaining importance. This is an important part of any threat management process.

Risk assessment and mitigation of network resources is also crucial. These have to be conducted along with periodic analysis to have an effective threat management programme. That is why you must check if the outsourced MSSP can provide such services.

Support services: 24x7

Ideally, outsourced services should be available in real-time. This is because 24x7 analysis of network security incidents is required to detect or even prevent ever evolving security threats.

Support and expertise for an organisation’s security and firewall technologies are factors to look for when outsourcing security. In case the third-party lacks expertise with regard to a particular aspect of security management, it needs to have partnerships with other companies that can readily be called in during times of need. The service and help desks should be open 24x7 and should be able to respond swiftly.

Well-defined agreements

It is crucial to establish detailed and well-documented SLAs. This is essential to ensure that agreements are formulated such that the outsourcer can hold the third-party MSSP responsible to the conditions specified.

Penalty clauses should also be in place to avoid incidents of inadequate service levels or non-availability. The agreements need to ensure that the MSSP can scale its solutions and add or change its set-up dynamically to match the client’s needs.

The contract should also ensure that the MSSP or its employees should under no circumstance leak the client company’s information or in any way compromise details that may hamper its business.

	Product	Features	Price	Contact
	Netcore Solutions’ Emergic CleanMail	Emergic CleanMail provides triple-level virus scanning. It has multi-layered anti-spam capabilities. Some of its key points include a spam analysis engine with auto-updates and auto-learning, and personal whitelists and blacklists that allow/block e-mails from specific IDs/domains. It also reports e-mail trends, viruses detected, spam volumes, and policy violations. It is a Managed Security Service hosted by Netcore which does not require any client side installation and configuration.	Starts from Rs. 60 (per user/month for 1-25 users)	Person: Kalpit Jain Telephone: 22 56628000 E-mail: Kalpit@netcore.co.in Website: netcore.co.in
	Ramco Systems’ RADAR SIEM	The RADAR SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) managed service enables an organisation to integrate people, processes, technology, and systems and monitor the network, key systems and respond to security alerts in real-time. It tries to simplify the management problem by consolidating reams of system and network data churned out by products from leading vendors. It provides daily, weekly or monthly reports on various activities that include top attacks of the day, source and destination of attacks, viruses by protocol, file extensions blocked, and so on. It also supports post-incident and investigative analysis.	Starting from Rs. 7,000 (per month per device to be monitored)	Person: Ranga Balaji Telephone: 44 42273900 E-mail: rangabalaji@rsi.ramco.com Website: ramco.com/infosec
	SecureSynergy’s LogLogic	The LogLogic product family is directly targeted at meeting compliance and risk mitigation requirements of enterprises. With all log data available for queries and reports, users can pinpoint the locations of threats or other network problems and create graphical or text-based reports for management, audits, network planning, and policy validation. The services comply with COBIT 4.0 and ITIL to meet SOX and other regulations using customisable reports and alerts supporting integration and heterogeneous devices. LogLogic 3.0 is interoperable with network management through SNMP traps and integrates with other applications through SOAP and XML.	Starts from Rs. 50,000 onwards	Person: Anita Kukreja Telephone: 22 28251241 E-mail: info@securesynergy.com Website: securesynergy.com
	Sify’s Managed PKI Services	The Sify (SafeScrypt) Managed Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) services help establish and authenticate a user’s identity when conducting business across the Internet as well as protect the integrity and privacy of data and information transmitted. It is fully outsourced and integrates with popular desktop applications and systems.	Rs. 25,000 to Rs. 25,00,000	Person: S R Kannan Telephone: 44 22540770 / 98410 19182 E-mail: Kannan_sr@sifycorp.com Website: safescrypt.com