The Benefits of a Microsoft Sentinel Managed Service
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As cyber threats continue to evolve and become more sophisticated, it’s important for organisations to be mindful and remain proactive about their cyber security measures.
To help address this challenge, Microsoft has created a powerful portfolio of security tools; these include Microsoft Sentinel (previously Azure Sentinel), 365 Defender, and Microsoft Defender.
Microsoft Sentinel is a cloud-native security information and event management (SIEM) solution, which provides extended detection and response (XDR) capabilities, making it an ideal tool for cloud-scale security protection. When used as part of a managed XDR service, Microsoft Sentinel can ensure that active threats or suspicious behaviour are identified rapidly and can be contained.
A closer look at Microsoft Sentinel
As above, Microsoft Sentinel is a security information and event management (SIEM) platform. SIEM platforms are based in the cloud and delivered as a service (often as a managed service). They’re designed to provide a unified and extensive view of IT infrastructure security, providing information from across all network applications and from multiple vendors of hardware and software used across your organisation.
We can think of SIEM as a method of identifying, monitoring, recording, and analysing cyber security – all of which occurs in real-time. This is possible because SIEM technology can sort through huge data sets within seconds to detect abnormalities or malicious behaviour.
SIEMs primarily rely upon logging mechanisms from places including endpoints, custom applications, cloud services, and various other data sources. These logs are collected in a variety of different formats, and parsed to ensure that they can be correlated and analysed more efficiently. This means improved and earlier detection capabilities leading to a SIEM’s ultimate objective: to reduce ’dwell time’ (the time an attack occurs to when it is detected).
Microsoft Sentinel is not only a very powerful SIEM for organisations to employ, but also an extremely sensible one too (particularly alongside a managed service provider that can provide guidance to help tailor how the tool is utilised). Sentinel is capable of pulling security analytics from across your entire organisation (including from external tools and technologies; think users’ devices and apps, company servers, cloud environments, and other IT infrastructure). More than this, the data stored within Sentinel – even when provided as a managed service – is positioned within your environment. This ensures that your organisation maintains total ownership of all sensitive data used within the service.
What are the benefits of Microsoft Sentinel managed service?
Used as part of a managed XDR service, Sentinel can provide a single, integrated view of an organisation’s security posture, enabling organisations to detect, prevent, and respond to security incidents more quickly and effectively than ever before.
Remember, Sentinel’s security intelligence is informed by over 6.5 trillion signals daily, all gathered from global Microsoft platforms, clients, and services.
A managed Sentinel service also offers: Scalability Compliance Expertise and Support
Microsoft Sentinel is a cloud-based solution, which provides organisations the ability to scale their security infrastructure as their needs change (e.g., bespoke rulesets can be altered). This helps organisations to meet their evolving security needs, without incurring significant capital expenditures.
Microsoft Sentinel helps organisations meet a range of compliance and regulatory requirements, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). By providing continuous monitoring and reporting on security controls, organisations can demonstrate their compliance with these requirements.
A managed Microsoft Sentinel service provides organisations with access to experienced security personnel who have the expertise to tailor the tool to your specific risk profile and organisational needs. This helps organisations to mitigate the risk of damage to their systems and data and to maintain a high level of security, even under evolving circumstances.
Utilising Microsoft Sentinel as part of your managed XDR service provides organisations with a comprehensive and effective solution to the growing threat of cyber-attacks. If you would like to discuss Littlefish’s Managed Sentinel service further or wish to explore any of our people-centric, innovative cyber security services, please get in touch using the green button on this page.
