Cloud Security as a Service (SECaaS)

• Security as a Service (SECaaS) is one type of cloud business model that outsources cybersecurity facilities.
• SECaaS is inspired by the "software as a service (SaaS)" model to provide security-related services to consumers' information.
• SECaaS model provides security facilities on a subscription basis which makes it cost-effective.
• SECaaS do not require on-premises hardware, easily scales security facilities if the business grows in the future, reduces maintenance burden, and eases down the workload on the in-house security team of the business hence, day-by-day gain popularity among the corporate field.

Facilities provided by Security as a Service (SECaaS)

SECaaS provide large numbers of security facilities to ensure information protection. Some of the major security facilities provided by SECaaS are as follows:

• Antivirus Management
• Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery as a Service (BC/DR or BCDR)
• Continuous Monitoring
• Data Loss Prevention(DLP)
• Email Security
• Encryption
• Identity and Access Management (IAM)
• Identify Security Risks Patterns
• Intrusion Management Network
• Security Patch Updates
• Security Assessment
• Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
• Spam Filtering
• Standard Compliance Management
• Virus Control Vulnerability Management
• Web Security

Advantages associated with Security as a Service (SECaaS)

• Faster Provisioning - Consumers get access to security services on an immediate basis.

• Good Agility - SECaaS can be scaled up or down as per the requirement and available on-demand at any place and any time. There is no chance for uncertainty in the case of deployment and updates. All things are managed by the SECaaS provider.

• Cost-effective - SECaaS reduces financial burdens for businesses, which acts as a major advantage of SECaaS. It integrates security facilities that do not require any on-premises hardware or a big budget. It eliminates the need for costly security experts and analysts. Businesses only need to pay for what they required.

• Latest Security Tools and Updates - Provides latest, up-to-date anti-virus and other security tools with the latest patches and virus definitions.

Challenges for Security as a Service (SECaaS)

With so many advantages SECaaS also has a few disadvantages too which create challenges for SECaaS such as:

• High vulnerability against large-scale attacks - SECaaS handles security uniformly in a similar manner hence, if there is a security breach that happens only for one request, security is broken down for all requests. Businesses cannot afford to keep their data loose and vulnerable to hacker attacks.
• Data Storage locations – SECaaS stored backed up data offsite at different places of the world. Hence, the employer can never be sure about the physical reliability of the data in that server. Nothing can be done to prevent a physical stealing attempt and relying on authorities.

The major challenge for the SECaaS is to maintain a reputation of reliability and superiority to standard non-cloud services.

Major Security as a Service (SECaaS) Providers

CloudPassage, McAfee, Lacework, FireEye, Qualys, Palo Alto Networks, Tenable, Trend Micro, VMWare, Symantec, etc.