Trying to convince SecOps teams they need more data is like trying to convince a drowning person they need more water. SecOps teams are so overwhelmed they can’t even respond to 67% of the alerts they receive. On average, SecOps teams receive 4,484 alerts per day and spend over three hours per day manually triaging the alerts, costing $3.3 billion annually in the US alone.

Today’s cybersecurity landscape can be challenging. Cyber attacks are rising every year (50% of organizations suffered a breach in 2022), the skills gap continues to widen, and hackers are taking advantage of new techniques and new criminal networks like ransomware-as-a-service to launch sophisticated attacks. For organizations, it’s become harder to stay secure. The internal security operations center (SOC) isn’t feasible for many.

A typical security operations centre (SOC) has three core costs: People, data and tools. The total cost of these will vary dramatically based on factors like how many endpoints and users are in your environment and the number of SOC team members you need. Various SOC cost calculators available online put the cost of building a SOC for a 1000-user environment at upwards of £2 million per annum.

As organizations continue to digitize and passwords proliferate across systems, applications, and even assets, identity and access management (IAM) has become a pillar of cybersecurity. One component of IAM has, in particular, become ubiquitous with access security: multi-factor authentication (MFA). MFA is an access control technique that adds a layer of security to user logins and access by making the user verify their identity.

Today, cybersecurity companies are in a never-ending race against cyber criminals, each seeking innovative new tactics to outpace the other. The newfound accessibility of generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) has revolutionized how people work, but it's also made threat actors more efficient. Attackers can now quickly create phishing messages or automate vulnerability discoveries.

As organizations across the globe grapple with the growing issue of cyber attacks — 2023 cybercrime costs are expected to hit $8 trillion — organizations are realizing that more than technical tools are needed to stay ahead of mounting threats. Even one mistake by an untrained employee can have serious consequences and result in a data breach.

It’s no surprise that cyber attacks are on the rise. The sheer volume of attacks — along with the increase in ransomware, business email compromise, and other kinds of attacks — has steadily ticked up year after year. Cybercrime is now the number one global business risk, rakes in trillions for cybercriminals, and has advanced far beyond simple “scam emails” and brute-force attacks.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has generated significant hype in recent years, and separating the promise from reality can be challenging. However, at Torq, AI is not just a concept. It is a reality that is revolutionizing the SOC field, specifically in the area of Tier-1 security analysis, especially as cybercriminals become more sophisticated in their tactics and techniques. Traditional security tools continue to fall short in detecting and mitigating these attacks effectively, particularly at scale.