Many organizations are bombarded by cyber threats every day, and so your team must be ever-vigilant. Your security team must protect your organization by building long-term cybersecurity operations that grow and change to meet evolving cyber-threats.
Long-Term Cybersecurity Operations: The Basics
What are long-term cybersecurity operations?
Long-term cybersecurity operations refer to sustained, strategic efforts to protect an organization’s digital assets, infrastructure, and data over an extended period—months, years, or even indefinitely. Unlike short-term incident response or one-off security assessments, long-term operations are continuous and adaptive, designed to defend against evolving threats, maintain resilience, and support organizational goals.
What are some examples of long-term cybersecurity operations?
A long-term cybersecurity operation is any part of your operation that’s ongoing, rather than a reaction to an incident or some other short-term project. For example:
- Continuous security monitoring and log analysis
- Patch management
- Regular red/blue team exercises and penetration testing
- Ongoing employee security training
- Deployment and upkeep of zero trust architectures
Any normal, sustained operations are part of a long-term cybersecurity program.
What challenges are associated with long-term cybersecurity?
- Burnout: Cybersecurity teams often work under constant pressure, especially in SOCs (Security Operations Centers). The repetitive nature of monitoring, responding to alerts, and handling incidents can lead to mental fatigue and high turnover.
- Constantly evolving threats: Attackers are always developing new tools, techniques, and procedures (TTPs).
- Technology overload: There are a lot of security tools out there, and that can cause your team to become overwhelmed by data or alerts.
- Compliance: Laws and industry regulations evolve, requiring regular audits and adjustments.
- Human error: Long-term operations rely on people, and people make mistakes.
- Challenges from leadership: Cybersecurity can be seen as a cost center by business leaders who are looking to trim their budgets. This can lead to a misunderstanding about whether proactive long-term cybersecurity initiatives are needed.
Why are long-term cybersecurity operations relevant now?
Cybersecurity isn’t a one-time project, nor is it a crockpot you can set and forget. Instead it’s a living discipline that changes and evolves over time. The cybersecurity best practices of 10 years ago, for example, are not the best practices of today. A long-term cybersecurity operation also has the advantage of being proactive — planning for future threats — rather than being reactive and simply responding to incidents as they happen.
What is the impact of long-term cybersecurity on cybercrime prevention?
Cybercrime prevention involves a combination of security tools, employee awareness, and regulatory frameworks. There are many ways to prevent cybercrime, but a sustained and consistent cyber defense must be an organization’s primary control. Continuous vigilance, learning and monitoring of threats is the best way to prevent and counteract cyber threats.
What is the role of cyber threat intelligence in long-term cybersecurity operations?
Cyber threat intelligence (CTI) enhances your team’s ability to detect threat actors’ methods and enables security teams to respond to threats quickly. Threat intelligence provides real-time, data-based insights that empower your team to be proactive in preparing for potential attacks.
Integrate the world’s easiest to use and most comprehensive cybercrime database into your security program in 30 minutes.
Some of the other benefits of CTI include:
- Insights into emerging threats
- Enhanced threat visibility
- Efficient resource utilization
- Reduced incident response times
- Make data-based decisions at all organizational levels
- Aids in regulatory compliance
How Flare Helps your Team Learn About Long-Term Cybersecurity Operations
Does Flare offer cybersecurity training?
Flare’s recently-launched online cybersecurity training series, Flare Academy, offers free cybersecurity webinars covering a variety of topics that are of interest to cybersecurity practitioners. Flare also provides a Discord community where security professionals can meet, share information and resources, and discuss security issues with the experts who have appeared in the webinars. Recently we covered the topic of cybercriminal persona theory, for example.
Can cybersecurity webinars help with training?
There is a skill shortage in the cybersecurity industry. While many businesses offer training within their organization, it’s important for security practitioners to seek out their own training so that they can build their skills independently. Webinars help bridge the skills gap by providing outside training for professionals who want to build their skills and their awareness of new threats. Some webinars even offer credit toward certifications for security professionals. For nontechnical learners, cybersecurity webinars offer supplemental knowledge that may help them better understand security and cyber threats. Many webinars are also free or low-cost, giving professionals a cost-effective way to obtain valuable training.
Who should attend Flare’s training sessions?
It depends on the webinar’s content. Some cybersecurity webinars are designed with security professionals in mind but this isn’t always the case. Because some topics are of greater interest to a wider audience, anyone is welcome to join those seminars. However, we are careful to label each webinar as beginner, intermediate, or advanced. This helps participants decide which sessions are a good fit for them and their security background.
What do you get with Flare’s free training?
- High-value training from cybersecurity experts
- Interactive learning with peers
- Actionable cybersecurity insights
- CPE credits toward security certifications
- A resource hub and learning community on Discord
What if I miss a webinar?
Flare Academy offers webinars live, but replays are available on our Discord community. The Discord is an invaluable resource for learners; not only are all our past webinars available there, but the Discord also provides additional learning material, access to the experts who spoke in each webinar, and discussion and networking opportunities with other participants. It’s a cybersecurity learning community.
Long Term Cybersecurity Operations and Training with Flare Academy
Flare Academy training provides security practitioners with highly relevant and highly engaging lessons on subjects like threat intelligence, operational security, investigation techniques, and more. Led by expert instructors, these free trainings combine on-demand video lessons with diverse learning tools. Students can also gain access to the Flare Academy Discord Community where they can ask questions, explore advanced topics, and continue their learning journey wherever it leads.
Find the right option at Flare Academy: sign up for the next training here.
