The demand for managed security services has been growing by leaps and bounds over the past years. The reason for this trend is that organizations of all sizes need to monitor their IT systems around the clock and manage incidents and breaches in real time. Yet, they may not have the means necessary to do that on their own as it requires significant investment in infrastructure and human resources.

Adding to that, traditional security measures have a hard time catching up with today’s more advanced threats. The fast-paced and increasingly connected environments require next-generation technologies and techniques, which enable MSSPs to protect their clients’ complex environments.

In this post, we’ll discuss what these next-generation capabilities are, why they are essential, and how web page categorization can improve them.

Next-Generation Technologies Needed by MSSPs

There are at least three primary technologies that MSSPs require to stay on top of the game — big data analytics, automation, and artificial intelligence (AI).

Big Data Analytics

Big data analytics refers to the ability of an organization to analyze vast amounts of information. The process allows data scientists and other users to make sense of potential threat indicators in a way that standard business systems are incapable of.

Time is of the essence in the world of cybersecurity, but legacy systems are not sufficient when it comes to tackling large-scale data sets. Traditional databases are meant to take on predictable information concerning scale and volume — something that today’s data sources do not adhere to.

That is why it is recommended to use systems that are big-data-friendly. However, the ability of a platform to process large amounts of information depends mostly on its built-in big data architecture and what’s fed into it.

Therefore, MSSPs can remain effective by using systems that can handle big data. Also, each tool should be able to adapt to the continuous growth of the databases attached to it.

Automation

This process refers to the development and application of technologies that automatically control and keep track of various processes. Automation takes over and performs recurrent tasks previously done by system operators.

Built on these principles, MSSPs can implement automation techniques to work in a more scalable manner. Automation has, in fact, become a standard feature of many of their offerings. It alleviates many of the burdens of data analysts. Bottom line: the more automated MSSP processes become, the better specialists can focus on essential tasks that add more value to their clients.

AI and Machine Learning (ML)

AI is the broader concept of using machines to perform tasks in a so-called “smart” manner. ML, on the other hand, is a byproduct of AI. It refers to entrusting machines to perform data analytics based on predefined steps.

Many cybersecurity professionals are now using AI and ML to automate the performance of repetitive tasks. These allow automation and eliminate a lot of the noise that comes with processing big data.

WhoisXML API Uses Next-Generation Technologies

WhoisXML API is a known provider of updated and well-structured databases that contain information on billions of domains. All of the domains in our website contacts database are classified into 25 different categories. These categories are regularly updated, and users can always request to add more.

Each domain record comes with the contact information of its owner. The database also reveals the registration and expiration dates of domains. Domain records can be particularly helpful in supplementing evidence gathered during investigations.

Our products can be configured to match users' preferred data set format. It’s possible to acquire the outputs as database dumps or as comma-separated value (.csv) files. Users can also download customized databases that contain only the information they require. 

What's more, our products come with a built-in ML engine. As such, they crawl website content and meta tags to extract text and categorize a page by using natural language processing. Content analysis is thus easier and performed automatically. Additionally, this means saving time to perform manual queries later on.

MSSPs can use our database to enrich available information that may be related to a wide range of threats. These include incidents of phishing, fraud, and more. Integrating our database into systems can provide users with more detailed information on websites. This data can help analysts determine whether or not sites are safe to access in less time.

Those who are not averse to using third-party APIs, on the other hand, can integrate our web page categorization API into already existing systems. This eases the addition of sources of information to enhance threat correlation.

To stay competitive, MSSPs must keep using next-generation technologies. To support this process, WhoisXML API offers web page categorization products that can enhance MSSPs’ capabilities. Our solutions are particularly useful in detecting and resolving cybersecurity threats. Want to know more? Contact us.