Cybersecurity monitoring has been part of securing corporate IT environments for some time now. In recent years, however, monitoring has become even more widespread, as requirements for monitoring are now found in legislation, such as the NIS2 and DORA frameworks. Now in 2025, it’s an even better time to consider cybersecurity monitoring capabilities and whether organizations are getting the most out of them.
The Classic SOC – An Outdated Solution?
Traditionally, cybersecurity monitoring has been built around a SOC (Security Operations Center), which uses a SIEM (Security Incident and Event Management) system to process system logs. In practice, SOCs are 24/7 services where employees (SOC analysts) monitor the environment’s security around the clock and respond if something triggers an alert in the system. These solutions have been in use in Finland for a long time, especially among large companies.
However, the classic SOC has always had its weaknesses. The most common is the cost structure, which stems from the 24/7 manual monitoring required by the SOC, driving up costs. For this reason, traditional SOC services have often been just a dream for smaller companies. Another weakness is operational transparency, as the analytics are performed in the provider’s own system. In this case, the customer often doesn’t see what’s happening in the environment beyond the service provider’s reports.
The classic SOC has slowly begun to modernize and leverage new tools such as automation and artificial intelligence in its work. However, because the foundation of the SOC business model is 24/7 human-operated monitoring, the development and modernization of the service has progressed slowly.
What Does Modern Cybersecurity Monitoring Include?
The rapid development of cybersecurity tools in recent years, together with the evolution of intelligent automation and artificial intelligence, have enabled new approaches to cybersecurity monitoring. Platform developers, such as Microsoft, have also made cybersecurity solutions more widely available to small and medium-sized businesses at cost-effective prices.
In modern monitoring services, the biggest expense—24/7 staff—is largely replaced by intelligent automation, which minimizes cybersecurity risks by providing a first response to anomalies at machine speed. Additionally, transparency for the customer is often enhanced by building the monitoring system, or SIEM system, in the customer’s own environment instead of the service provider’s environment. This way, the built SIEM remains with the customer even if the provider changes in the future.
Intelligent automation supports people by handling simple tasks quickly, before a human even has time to react to the incident. It can, among other things, minimize the risk of a potential attack by, for example, logging a user out of all devices or locking a user’s workstation when a potential malware threat appears. On the other hand, automation can also be used to speed up and facilitate human analysis. For example, AI can create a summary of similar previous cases or enrich case information, giving humans more context for decision-making.
What Technology Is Modern Cybersecurity Monitoring Based On?
Modern cybersecurity monitoring is increasingly built on cloud-based tools provided by major platform vendors such as Microsoft. Microsoft Sentinel serves as the backbone of monitoring, offering an advanced SIEM solution on top of which automations and AI-assisted functions can be built. Sentinel is complemented by the Defender XDR product family solutions, which extend from endpoint protection to phishing prevention and cloud application management. Through these, organizations gain comprehensive visibility and controls across all aspects of modern digital work. Additionally, the solutions bring features for modern challenges, such as identifying and blocking third-party AI solutions.
Microsoft has recently brought many features familiar from its most expensive E5 license tier to lower-tier licenses, as well as to Business-tier licenses intended for companies with fewer than 300 employees. This means that smaller companies can leverage world-class cybersecurity tools more affordably than ever, enabling modern and reliable security for everyone.
Modern Cybersecurity Monitoring as Part of 2NS AllSecure Service
2NS has served as a trusted cybersecurity partner for Finnish organizations for over 15 years. Our newly launched AllSecure service brings a comprehensive cybersecurity solution to companies of all sizes at a competitive price. The service has been designed from the ground up to be modular, supporting each organization’s unique starting point. As one of AllSecure’s three modules, we offer an intelligent cybersecurity monitoring system built to maximize the benefits of useful automation and other modern tools.
The AllSecure solution supports and protects organizations at all stages of a cyberattack. It maps the organization’s attack surface and helps understand where an attacker could strike. It also monitors and protects the company’s IT systems and supports the organization in coordination should a significant incident occur.
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