The cybersecurity landscape is continuously evolving, and organizations are in a constant battle to secure their data against breaches. They face the dual challenge of not only preventing unauthorized access and rapidly detecting and addressing breaches in real-time. Amidst these challenges, a collaborative relationship between the network operations (NetOps) team and the security operations (SecOps) team offers an opportunity for enhancing organizational resilience against cyber threats.
Traditionally, NetOps and SecOps teams have worked in isolation largely due to their different deliverables and objectives. Whilst NetOps teams ensure smooth and efficient access to information and devices, the SecOps teams focus on restricting access to protect information and devices. This divergence often leads to the usage of different tools, creating blind spots within the enterprise environment that threat actors can exploit. Additionally, when threats are identified, the investigation and remediation can be delayed due to poor communication and collaboration between these two teams.
With digital transformation picking up pace and cyber threats becoming more complex, the need for seamless collaboration between NetOps and SecOps has become more vital than ever before. The traditional model of operating in silos is proving to be unsustainable in today’s dynamic and challenging threat landscape. Organizations must now leverage the combined expertise of both teams to rapidly and effectively detect and respond to security incidents. This integrated approach is necessary for maintaining robust cybersecurity in the face of increasingly sophisticated threats.
Here are a few real-world use cases of how the collaboration between NetOps and SecOps can enhance the organisations’ defence mechanisms, safeguard their digital assets, and stay a step ahead.
- Anomalous Traffic Patterns – NetOps provides detailed contextual information on network infrastructure and its performance, while SecOps leverages its knowledge of threat intelligence and security measures. By sharing insights and pooling their knowledge and resources, they can together implement several defences such as updating firewall rules, enhancing intrusion detection capabilities, and tightening user access controls to stop threats and secure the network.
- Suspicious application behaviour – NetOps offers knowledge on application dependencies and network traffic patterns, which then helps SecOps to isolate the compromised systems and implement intrusion prevention solutions. By collaborating, they reduce the disruption to business continuity and prevent extensive data loss.
- Insider threat detection – NetOps monitors network traffic patterns, while SecOps examines server access logs and enforces stringent authentication protocols, data loss prevention strategies, and employee monitoring protocols. Jointly, both teams conduct a thorough investigation, determine underlying causes, and take corrective measures to enhance the organization’s security framework and safeguard against future insider threats.
