Last month, we explored the cascading impact of the Jaguar Land Rover breach on the wider business ecosystem. As JLR begins its recovery, bolstered by a £1.5 billion loan to stabilise its supply chain, the incident serves as a powerful lesson in proactive defence. This marks the first in our new series of articles focusing on the key cybersecurity areas where we are seeing a critical need for strategic review and we’re starting with the heart of your security posture: the Security Operations Centre (SOC).

At Darwin Technology Solutions, we are seeing a dramatic shift in the market. The conversations are no longer just about implementing a SOC for the first time; they are about reviewing, challenging, and often replacing existing SOC services. As renewals approach, leaders are asking the right question: “We invested in a SOC three years ago, but are we still truly protected?” They sense that what was cutting-edge then might be dangerously outdated today—and their intuition is correct. The security you have is often not the security you now need.

The Great Disconnect: Why Modern SOCs Develop Blind Spots

A SOC is not a product you buy; it’s a living, breathing capability that must evolve in lockstep with your business and the threat landscape. When it fails to do so, a dangerous “capability gap” emerges. This isn’t due to a single failure, but a gradual drift caused by several powerful factors.

1. Your Business Has Radically Changed

   Think back three years. Was your business the same? Unlikely. A SOC designed for your 2022 footprint is likely blind to major parts of your 2025 operations.

• The Cloud Revolution: You’ve aggressively adopted SaaS platforms like Salesforce or Microsoft 365, migrated servers to AWS or Azure, and your developers are spinning up containers daily. A legacy SOC, built to monitor on-premise servers and firewalls, may have zero visibility into this vast cloud estate, leaving a critical part of your attack surface unmonitored.
• The Way We Work: The pandemic accelerated the shift to hybrid work. Your team now connects from anywhere, on any device. The simple network perimeter your old SOC was built to defend has dissolved, yet it may still be operating as if it exists.
• Growth and Complexity: Perhaps you’ve acquired another company, expanded into new regions, or simply grown your headcount. Each change adds layers of technology and complexity that must be integrated into your monitoring strategy. Without a formal review, they often become shadow IT and security blind spots.

2. The Threat Landscape Has Evolved Mercilessly

   The threats your SOC was built to stop are not the same threats you face today. Threat actors have industrialised their methods with terrifying efficiency.

• From Annoyance to Enterprise Threat: Ransomware has evolved from a simple nuisance to a multi-faceted extortion scheme involving data theft, public shaming, and Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) platforms. A legacy SOC looking for old signatures will miss the subtle “living off the land” techniques modern attackers use to infiltrate a network long before deploying ransomware.
• The Supply Chain Battleground: Attacks like the SolarWinds and MOVEit incidents prove that your suppliers are now part of your attack surface. A modern SOC needs the threat intelligence and behavioural analysis capabilities to detect anomalous activity originating from a trusted third-party connection.
• AI-Powered Attacks: Threat actors are now using AI to craft flawless phishing emails, automate reconnaissance, and create polymorphic malware that evades signature-based detection. Your defence must be equally intelligent, focusing on behaviour and intent rather than just known threats.

3. The Security Market Has Matured

   The good news is that as threats have advanced, so has the technology and the service models designed to stop them. If your SOC hasn’t been reviewed, you are likely missing out on significant improvements in both capability and value.

• Beyond Basic Alerts: The market has moved from simple Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) to intelligent platforms incorporating Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), Network Detection and Response (NDR), and cloud security tools. These technologies, often unified under the banner of Extended Detection and Response (XDR), provide far richer context and enable genuine threat hunting, not just alert triage.
• The Rise of Managed Detection & Response (MDR): Building and staffing a 24/7 SOC is prohibitively expensive for most organisations. This reality has driven the explosion of MDR services. These providers offer access to elite security analysts and cutting-edge technology at a fraction of the cost of an in-house build, making world-class security accessible to the mid-market.

Find the Gaps with a No-Cost Darwin Review

Understanding this complex landscape is our expertise. We act as your independent, expert partner to navigate the market and validate your security posture. Our process is transparent and meticulously structured.

• Phase 1: Deep-Dive Discovery We don’t use a generic checklist. We invest our time to understand the specifics of your business: your current tooling and contracts, your cloud strategy, your compliance requirements (e.g., GDPR, Cyber Essentials), your key data assets, and your strategic goals.
• Phase 2: Independent Market Appraisal We translate this deep discovery into a formal requirements document and take it to the market. Using our proprietary 60-point process, we rigorously vet leading vendors ensuring that you are presented with solutions that meet each of your exacting needs. We analyse everything from their threat intelligence sources and SLA guarantees to their incident response playbooks and pricing transparency.
• Phase 3: Curated, Actionable Insights We don’t just hand you a list of vendors. We present you with clear, independent options in a readable business context. You’ll see how each solution maps to your requirements, enhances your coverage, future-proofs your security, and what the total cost of ownership looks like. Very often, we find clients can achieve a vastly superior security outcome while lowering their current operational spending.

The best part? This comprehensive discovery, analysis, and market appraisal is completely free of charge.

Don’t wait for a breach to reveal the holes in your defence. The threats have evolved, your business has changed, and the security market has advanced. It’s time to ask if your SOC has done the same.

If you’re interested in having a chat about what Darwin can do to assist, please get in contact at declanmckee@darwin-tech.com or give us a call at 020 8137 3637 | ext. 1001