Every server, firewall, laptop and login on your network keeps a record of what happens on it. Those records, called logs, are often the first place an attack shows up. A password tried a hundred times overnight. An admin account created at 3 a.m. A firewall rule changed with no explanation.
The problem is that almost nobody is reading them. Most small and mid-sized businesses collect logs because they're supposed to, then let them sit until something goes wrong. By that point, the attacker has usually been inside for weeks.
That's why PowerTech Group of Chicago has partnered with Huntress to offer 24/7 managed log monitoring to our clients.
Huntress is a cybersecurity company built for businesses that don't have a full security team in-house. Its Managed SIEM collects security logs from across your environment and has them watched around the clock by its 24/7 security operations center (SOC), where analysts investigate suspicious activity, rather than an alert that lands in an inbox nobody checks.
With PowerTech managing the setup and Huntress providing round-the-clock monitoring, you get:
If your business accepts credit or debit cards, you're required to follow the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Requirement 10 of the standard is dedicated entirely to logging and monitoring, and it's one of the areas where businesses most often fall short.
Under PCI DSS v4.0.1, businesses are expected to:
Daily log review is nearly impossible to do by hand. Most businesses simply don't have someone who can sit down every morning and sort through thousands of entries from every system on the network. Automated, continuously monitored logging is the practical way to meet these requirements, and it's exactly what this service provides.
A note on compliance: PCI DSS compliance covers your whole environment and is a shared responsibility. Managed log monitoring addresses a key part of it, Requirement 10, and PowerTech can help you assess the rest.
This service is a strong fit for any Chicago-area business that:
Attackers don't keep business hours. Ransomware groups routinely strike on Friday nights and holiday weekends, when they know fewer people are watching. When an incident starts, the difference between catching it in minutes and catching it on Monday morning can mean the difference between a quick fix and a business-wide shutdown.
With 24/7 monitoring in place, suspicious activity gets investigated when it happens, not when someone finally gets around to checking.
PowerTech Group of Chicago has been delivering IT, cybersecurity and physical security solutions to commercial clients across the Chicago metro area for decades. We already help businesses with managed IT, cybersecurity and PCI compliance. Adding Huntress gives our clients a level of round-the-clock monitoring that used to be out of reach for small and mid-sized businesses.
We handle the deployment, connect your systems, tune the monitoring to your environment, and stay your local point of contact from day one.
Not sure whether your business is meeting PCI DSS logging requirements, or whether anyone is actually watching your logs? Contact PowerTech for a free security and compliance assessment. We'll review your current setup and show you exactly where the gaps are.
Schedule a Free Assessment