Pictured: Ricky Magalhaes, Head of Cybersecurity at Logicalis

Ricky Magalhaes, Head of Cybersecurity at Logicalis, said: "Hackers don’t stop just because the working day has ended. Cyber attacks come from anywhere in the world, at all times of day. It’s impossible for one or two IT people in a company to keep on top of this all the time. With GDPR stipulating that companies report breaches in security affecting data within 72 hours, it becomes even more important to identify and rectify data breaches as quickly as possible.”

There are just 20 SOCs of the same scale in the UK. Logicalis is currently looking after security for more than 250 companies ranging from international banks and financial firms, to insurance and legal, health care providers and global hotel chains. The £500,000 centre will also be looking after security for the entire Logicalis Group, a £2 billion corporation which covers more than 6,500 corporate and government clients in Europe, Asia, and North and South America.

In less than a year, Logicalis has seen the number of incidents of suspected security breaches in the Channel Islands double. Failure to monitor systems effectively can lead to companies not knowing their security has been compromised. The estimated Breach Detection Gap – the time it takes for an organisation to realise its security has been breached – is an average of 146 days globally and 469 days for Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

Tom Bale, Business Development and Technical Director at Logicalis, said: "Most of our clients for this centre are based outside the Channel Islands but local companies are starting to take the issue of system security more seriously and realise how difficult it is to monitor security effectively in-house. Even if a company is prepared to put the resources into hiring enough staff to cover its security 24/7, there is still the issue of expertise for analysing, and interpreting the intelligence. 

The new SOC draws on Logicalis’s global network, accessing the most up to date global threat intelligence through its vendor and partner relationships. It will provide services such as ‘End Point Security’, security information and event management (SIEM) and ‘SIEM Response Services’, delivered by a team of cyber-security experts. The centre will also enhance Logicalis’ offerings in advanced security analytics services.

Ruediger Rath, Head of Logicalis Europe, said: “The Logicalis approach starts with advisory consultancy in both cyber and data-security, then covers the full range of cyber-security solutions and managed services. This investment in our Security Operations Centre Europe, coupled with investments in cyber-security professionals in all of our European businesses enables us to provide protection to a greater number of customers across Europe, and expand our services portfolio in 2017 as we continue to adapt to this changing cyber- security landscape.”

In addition to the launch of the expanded Security Operations Centre Europe, Logicalis has also expanded relationships with its core security vendors, Cisco, McAfee, and IBM, to extend the engagement across Europe.