24/7 SOC monitoring

What managed security services and a SOC actually do

A Security Operations Centre (SOC) is a team of security analysts whose full-time job is to watch for threats across your IT environment, investigate suspicious activity, and take action to contain and eradicate threats before they cause significant damage. A managed SOC delivers this function as a service — your business gains access to a team of trained analysts, purpose-built tooling (SIEM, EDR consoles, threat intelligence feeds), and established playbooks, without recruiting, training, or retaining the staff yourself.

In practice, a managed SOC performs several functions simultaneously, around the clock. Analysts ingest and correlate logs and telemetry from your endpoints, firewalls, email platform, Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace tenant, cloud workloads, and identity provider. They compare that telemetry against threat intelligence — known malware signatures, attacker infrastructure, indicators of compromise (IOCs) from active campaigns targeting Canadian businesses — and apply behavioural analytics to identify activity that deviates from your normal baseline even when no specific signature matches.

When an alert fires, an analyst investigates it manually. This is the critical differentiator between a managed SOC and a simple monitoring tool: a tool can generate 300 alerts a day; an analyst determines which three of those 300 are real threats that require action, what the attacker has accessed so far, how far they have spread, and what the appropriate containment step is — isolating an endpoint, disabling a compromised account, blocking a malicious IP at the firewall, or escalating to your internal IT contact with specific step-by-step remediation instructions.

The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS), operating under the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) at cyber.gc.ca, consistently identifies the same threat actors targeting Canadian organizations: state-sponsored groups (primarily PRC, Russia, Iran, and DPRK-affiliated actors) targeting critical infrastructure and supply chains, and financially motivated criminal groups running ransomware-as-a-service operations against mid-market businesses. Both threat categories operate continuously — not just during Canadian business hours — which is precisely why 24/7 monitoring matters even for a 20-person professional services firm in Calgary or a 45-person manufacturer in Hamilton.

Why Canadian SMBs cannot self-fund a 24/7 in-house SOC

The economics of building an in-house security operations function are prohibitive for any organization under roughly 500 employees. Understanding the true cost of an in-house SOC makes the managed alternative straightforward to evaluate.

To provide genuine 24/7 coverage with proper shift coverage, incident response capability, and analyst wellness (avoiding burnout on high-intensity alert queues), a minimal in-house SOC requires at minimum three to four full-time security analysts on rotating shifts, plus a senior SOC manager or CISO overseeing the function. In the Canadian market (2026), a junior security analyst commands CA$70,000–$95,000/year in base salary; a senior analyst CA$95,000–$130,000; a SOC manager or CISO CA$140,000–$220,000. Total personnel cost for a functional in-house SOC: CA$400,000–$700,000 per year.

That figure excludes tooling. A properly deployed SIEM platform — Microsoft Sentinel, Splunk, IBM QRadar, Elastic Security — costs CA$24,000–$120,000/year in licensing alone, depending on data ingestion volume. EDR platform licensing adds CA$10–$30 per endpoint per month. Threat intelligence subscriptions, SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) tooling, and threat hunting tools add further costs. Total annual technology stack for an in-house SOC: CA$60,000–$200,000 or more.

Factor in analyst burnout and attrition — the cybersecurity talent market in Canada remains extremely competitive; losing a trained analyst and recruiting a replacement typically costs 1.5–2× annual salary in recruiting, training, and productivity loss — and the fully loaded cost of maintaining genuine 24/7 in-house SOC capability for an SMB is CA$500,000–$900,000 annually. A managed SOC providing equivalent or superior coverage costs CA$10,000–$60,000 per year for most Canadian SMBs.

This is not a critique of in-house security teams, which add significant value in larger organizations. It is a recognition that continuous, expert-level threat monitoring is an industrial service — like HVAC maintenance or payroll processing — that a specialist firm can deliver more reliably and cost-effectively than a generalist SMB can staff internally.

SIEM, MDR, MSSP, and managed SOC: which service do you actually need?

The terminology in the managed security market is genuinely confusing, and vendors use the same acronyms to describe materially different service levels. Here is what each term means in practice for a Canadian SMB buyer.

SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) is a technology platform, not a service. It ingests logs from your environment — Windows event logs, firewall logs, Microsoft 365 audit logs, Azure AD sign-in logs, VPN logs — and applies correlation rules and behavioural analytics to surface suspicious patterns. A SIEM does not do anything on its own; it requires trained analysts to review its output. Running a SIEM without SOC coverage produces an alert queue that no one acts on — which is worse than useless, because it gives a false sense of security.

MSSP (Managed Security Service Provider) is the broad category. An MSSP manages security tools on your behalf and typically provides monitoring with alert notification. Traditional MSSPs forward alerts to your team for action. For organizations with internal security staff who can handle triage and response, an MSSP may be appropriate. For Canadian SMBs with no dedicated security team, alert forwarding is insufficient — someone needs to make the decision and take the action.

MDR (Managed Detection and Response) is the service tier most relevant to Canadian SMBs. MDR providers go beyond alert notification: they triage each alert, validate whether it is a real threat (eliminating the 95%+ false positive rate that overwhelms in-house teams), scope the incident to understand what was accessed and how far the attacker has moved, and either take direct containment actions (endpoint isolation, account lockout in Active Directory or Azure AD) or provide specific, validated step-by-step instructions to your IT contact. MDR is the tier where the monitoring actually translates to stopped breaches, not just notification.

Managed SOC typically refers to the full stack: SIEM + MDR + threat intelligence + compliance reporting + optional threat hunting — delivered as a fully outsourced function. Some providers use "managed SOC" and "MDR" interchangeably; the distinction in practice is whether the provider operates the SIEM on your behalf and provides compliance reporting alongside incident response.

For most Canadian SMBs, the right starting point is MDR with EDR coverage across all endpoints and Microsoft 365 monitoring. This covers the two most common initial access paths in the Canadian threat landscape: compromised endpoints (ransomware, infostealer malware) and compromised Microsoft 365 accounts (business email compromise, credential stuffing). Full SIEM adds value when you have compliance reporting requirements — SOC 2 Type II evidence, cyber insurance renewal documentation, OSFI B-13 records for financial institutions.

Key components of a managed security service

A well-structured managed security service for a Canadian SMB combines several components that together provide the coverage needed to detect, investigate, and respond to modern threats. Understanding each component helps you evaluate proposals and identify gaps in what vendors are quoting.

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR): The foundation layer. EDR software deployed on every endpoint (workstations, laptops, servers) captures detailed behavioural telemetry — process execution, network connections, file system changes, registry modifications — that traditional antivirus misses. Common platforms include Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne Singularity, and Sophos Intercept X. The SOC consumes this telemetry as its primary detection signal. Without EDR on all endpoints, a managed SOC is monitoring an incomplete picture.

SIEM and log aggregation: All log sources — EDR telemetry, firewall logs, Microsoft 365 audit logs, Azure AD and Entra ID sign-in logs, VPN gateway logs, DNS query logs, cloud storage access logs — are forwarded to a central SIEM platform for correlation. The SIEM applies detection rules (identifying known attacker techniques mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK framework) and anomaly detection (flagging when a user logs in from a country they have never accessed from, or when a service account executes a process it has never run before).

Threat intelligence: A managed SOC enriches alerts with real-time threat intelligence — feeds from sources like VirusTotal, abuse.ch, Recorded Future, Mandiant, and the Canadian CCCS — that identify known malicious IP addresses, domains, file hashes, and attacker infrastructure. This dramatically accelerates triage: an alert about a network connection to a known ransomware command-and-control server has a different priority than a connection to an unknown external address.

24/7 analyst coverage: Human analysts reviewing alerts, investigating suspicious patterns, and making containment decisions continuously. The analyst tier typically includes Tier 1 (initial alert review and triage), Tier 2 (deeper investigation, threat scoping, incident response coordination), and Tier 3 (senior analysts handling active incidents, threat hunting, and novel attack technique identification). The ratio of these tiers varies by provider and determines the quality of response for complex incidents.

Incident response and containment: The action layer. When analysts confirm a real threat, they take pre-authorized containment actions — isolating an infected endpoint from the network, disabling a compromised user account, blocking a malicious URL at the email gateway — and notify your designated contact with a full incident summary, evidence, and a validated remediation checklist. The pre-authorization scope (what the SOC is permitted to do without first calling you at 3 a.m.) is defined in the service agreement and is critical to set up correctly during onboarding.

Compliance and audit reporting: Monthly and quarterly reports documenting monitoring coverage, alert volumes by severity, incidents detected and closed, mean time to detect and respond metrics, and log source health — the evidence package required for SOC 2 Type II audits, cyber insurance renewals, PIPEDA/Law 25 compliance reviews, and OSFI technology risk reporting.

How managed SOC threat detection to response works: step by step

1. Telemetry ingestion: EDR agents, firewall log forwarders, and Microsoft 365 connectors continuously stream events to the SOC's SIEM platform. For a 50-user SMB, this generates 500,000–2,000,000 log events per day. The SIEM processes all of them automatically.
2. Automated detection: Correlation rules and ML-based anomaly detection compare the incoming event stream against known attack patterns (MITRE ATT&CK techniques) and your organization's behavioural baseline. Matching events generate alerts in the SOC queue, ranked by severity and confidence score.
3. Tier 1 triage (target: under 15 minutes for high-severity alerts): A Tier 1 analyst reviews the alert, applies the provider's triage playbook, looks up the relevant IOCs in threat intelligence platforms, reviews correlated events in the surrounding time window, and makes one of three decisions: close as false positive with documentation, escalate to Tier 2 for deeper investigation, or immediately escalate to Tier 2 for active-incident response.
4. Tier 2 investigation: A Tier 2 analyst reconstructs the attack chain — what was the initial access vector, how far has the threat spread laterally, what data has potentially been accessed, is the attacker still active. They query the SIEM for related events across the preceding hours or days, examine EDR forensic telemetry for the affected endpoint(s), and form a complete picture of the incident's scope before taking any action.
5. Containment actions: With scope confirmed, the analyst executes pre-authorized containment: endpoint isolation (removing the device from the network while preserving forensic evidence), account credential reset or lockout in Active Directory or Azure AD, malicious IP or domain block pushed to the email gateway and firewall, and session termination in Microsoft 365 if a compromised account is actively being used.
6. Notification and hand-off: Your designated IT contact or MSP receives a structured incident notification — within your contractual SLA window — containing a plain-English summary of what happened, the technical evidence, what containment was taken, and a prioritized list of validated remediation steps (patching a specific vulnerability, enforcing MFA on the compromised account class, revoking a specific OAuth token).
7. Post-incident review: For significant incidents, the SOC provides a formal incident report within 48–72 hours documenting the full timeline, attacker techniques (MITRE ATT&CK mapping), containment and remediation actions, and recommendations to reduce recurrence. This report forms part of your compliance documentation under PIPEDA and Law 25 breach notification obligations.

Managed security pricing in Canada (2026, CA$)

Managed security pricing in Canada varies by user count, monitoring scope, response capability, and whether SIEM is included or licensed separately. The table below reflects market pricing for professional MDR/managed SOC services serving Canadian SMBs. All figures are in Canadian dollars, before HST/GST, and represent contracted recurring monthly fees — excluding one-time onboarding, professional services, or supplementary incident response retainers.

Price drivers to understand when comparing quotes: Does the monthly fee include EDR licensing, or is that billed separately by the endpoint security vendor? Is SIEM infrastructure included or quoted as a pass-through cost? What is the contractual definition of "response" — notification only, or active containment actions? How many hours of incident response are included per month before additional professional services rates apply? Are compliance reports (SOC 2 evidence, PIPEDA breach documentation) included or a separate deliverable? These variables can move your effective monthly cost by 30–60% from the headline number in a proposal.

Managed SOC vs in-house SOC: full comparison

Canadian compliance drivers: PIPEDA, Law 25, OSFI, and cyber insurance

Managed security is not just a technology decision for Canadian businesses — it is increasingly a compliance requirement driven by four overlapping regulatory and commercial frameworks.

PIPEDA — Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act: Canada's federal private-sector privacy law requires organizations to implement safeguards "appropriate to the sensitivity" of personal information they hold. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) at priv.gc.ca has made clear through breach investigation reports that active monitoring — not just perimeter controls — is expected for organizations handling financial data, health records, social insurance numbers, or employee personal information. A managed SOC is direct evidence of active monitoring. Organizations without continuous monitoring have faced harder regulatory scrutiny following reported breaches.

Quebec Law 25 (Act 25 — Act to Modernize Provisions Respecting the Protection of Personal Information): Quebec's privacy law, administered by the Commission d'accès à l'information (CAI), requires mandatory breach notification and documentation of privacy incidents. A managed SOC generates the detection timestamp, incident scope documentation, and evidence trail required for Law 25 breach notification under s.3.5 of the Act. Organizations operating in Quebec without active monitoring risk being unable to accurately determine the scope and timeline of a breach — a separate violation of the Act's documentation requirements. See our full Quebec Law 25 compliance guide for the complete obligation set.

OSFI Guideline B-13 (Technology and Cyber Risk Management): Applicable to federally regulated financial institutions, credit unions, and insurance companies. OSFI B-13, effective January 2024, requires sound technology and cyber risk management practices including continuous monitoring of the threat environment, incident detection, and documented response procedures. Financial institutions under OSFI supervision without managed monitoring capability face examination findings and potential remedial action plans. Many OSFI-regulated entities are using managed SOC providers to meet B-13 monitoring obligations cost-effectively.

Cyber insurance: The Canadian cyber insurance market — Intact, Aviva, Northbridge, Zurich, Chubb — has fundamentally changed underwriting criteria since 2021. Most underwriters now require evidence of active endpoint detection and response (EDR), 24/7 monitoring capability, and tested incident response procedures as conditions for coverage at standard rates. Organizations without managed monitoring typically face coverage exclusions for specific attack vectors (ransomware, business email compromise), higher self-insured retentions, or premium increases of 20–50% versus equivalently sized organizations with documented monitoring. Managed SOC onboarding typically includes a cyber insurance readiness report that supports your renewal application.

5 mistakes Canadian SMBs make when buying managed security

The managed security market is crowded with vendors that use the same terminology to describe materially different service levels. These are the five most common purchasing mistakes that Canadian businesses make — and what to check instead.

1. Confusing "monitoring" with response. Many low-cost managed security offerings deliver monitoring (alert generation and notification) without response (analyst triage, validation, containment). An alert queue forwarded to an understaffed internal team at 3 a.m. is not meaningful security coverage. Clarify in writing: what does the provider do when a high-severity alert fires at 2 a.m. on a Sunday? Who triages it? What actions can they take without waking you up?

2. Not verifying SLA metrics contractually. Every managed SOC quotes mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to respond (MTTR). Ask for these as contractually enforceable SLA terms with defined remedies (service credits, escalation rights) when missed — not marketing benchmarks in a product brochure. Also confirm what "respond" is defined as: initiating triage, taking containment action, or notifying your contact.

3. Leaving telemetry gaps. A SOC cannot monitor what it cannot see. Common gaps in Canadian SMB deployments include: personal devices used for work without EDR, Microsoft 365 accounts without log forwarding enabled, cloud workloads (Azure VMs, AWS EC2) outside the monitoring scope, and on-premises servers running applications not covered by the standard agent. During onboarding, require a complete telemetry coverage map and a plan for every gap identified.

4. Skipping the pre-authorization discussion. At 2 a.m., if analysts identify an endpoint actively exfiltrating data, do they isolate it immediately or call someone first? The answer depends on what pre-authorization your SOC service agreement grants them — and what your business can tolerate (isolating a server that runs a production application may cause business disruption; isolating a user workstation typically does not). Define these boundaries explicitly during contract negotiation, not during an active incident.

5. Evaluating price without evaluating coverage depth. A CA$500/month "managed security" proposal may cover endpoint monitoring with automated alerting and no analyst response. A CA$1,400/month MDR service may include 24/7 analyst coverage, active containment, and M365 monitoring. The cheaper quote is not a better deal — it is a different (often inadequate) product. Evaluate proposals against a standard coverage checklist, not price alone.

How to evaluate and choose a managed security provider in Canada

The following checklist covers the critical evaluation criteria for a Canadian SMB selecting a managed SOC or MDR provider. Work through every item before signing a contract — preferably with input from your IT provider or an independent security advisor.

• Coverage scope: Confirm exactly which telemetry sources are monitored — endpoints (EDR), Microsoft 365/Google Workspace, Azure AD/Entra ID, firewalls, VPN, servers, cloud workloads (AWS/Azure/GCP). Get this in writing as an appendix to the service agreement.
• Response capability: Is response contractually defined as analyst triage + containment action, or notification only? Request a copy of a sample incident response playbook for ransomware and business email compromise.
• SLA metrics: What are the contractual MTTD and MTTR for high-severity alerts? What remedies (credits, escalation) apply when SLAs are missed?
• Analyst staffing model: Does the provider operate their own 24/7 SOC, or partner with a third-party SOC? If partnered, who do you have an agreement with when something goes wrong? What certifications do their analysts hold (GCIA, GCIH, GCFE, CISSP)?
• Canadian data residency: Where are your logs stored and processed? For organizations subject to PIPEDA or Law 25 with sensitive personal data, log storage in Canadian data centres or within the jurisdiction may be required. Confirm explicitly — many global MDR platforms default to US-based infrastructure.
• Threat intelligence sources: What threat intelligence feeds does the provider consume? Do they share intelligence from incidents at other client organizations (within the bounds of confidentiality) to improve detection speed across their platform?
• Compliance reporting: What reports are included — monthly security reports, quarterly business reviews, SOC 2 evidence packages, breach incident reports? Request a sample of each before signing.
• Onboarding and tuning: What is the onboarding timeline? Does the provider conduct an initial tuning period to reduce false positive rates before billing at full contract value? A realistic onboarding for a 50-user SMB is 4–8 weeks.
• Contract terms: What is the minimum term? Is there a tested exit clause (ability to terminate for cause if SLAs are consistently missed)? What happens to your data and log history when the contract ends?
• References: Request two to three Canadian SMB references in a similar size range or industry. Ask specifically about the provider's communication during an actual incident — not just routine operations.

Anonymized case study: a Quebec professional services firm

A professional services firm based in Montreal — 38 employees, approximately CA$12 million annual revenue, operating in financial advisory — engaged a managed SOC service in early 2025 following a cyber insurance renewal that required evidence of continuous monitoring. Their prior security posture: Microsoft Defender Antivirus (built-in, not EDR tier), no SIEM, no log forwarding, Office 365 E1 licensing without advanced audit logging enabled.

The managed SOC provider conducted a four-week onboarding that included deploying Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (upgraded to E5 licensing for the advanced EDR and M365 audit log capabilities), enabling Microsoft Sentinel as the SIEM with 30-day log retention, configuring detection rules against the MITRE ATT&CK framework, and establishing a pre-authorization profile (endpoint isolation authorized without prior approval; account lockout authorized for external accounts; server-level actions require 15-minute approval window with an emergency contact list).

In week seven of operations, the SOC detected a credential stuffing attack against the firm's Microsoft 365 tenant — 847 failed login attempts against 12 accounts over a 72-minute window, followed by a single successful authentication to one account from an IP address in Romania. The Tier 2 analyst confirmed the login was anomalous (the account holder was in their Montreal office on their corporate workstation at the time), immediately initiated a session revocation and password reset, reviewed the compromised account's M365 activity log for the preceding three hours (no data exfiltration was identified), and had a full incident notification in the firm's IT contact's inbox with supporting evidence within 22 minutes of initial detection. The managing partner was notified at 6:45 a.m. before the business day started.

Without managed monitoring, the same attack would have continued. The firm's prior setup had no mechanism to detect a single successful authentication from an anomalous location in real time. The credential stuffing attempt would likely not have been noticed until the compromised account was used for a more damaging action — forwarding rules set for business email compromise, data exfiltration, or lateral access to financial records — or until the firm's cyber insurer denied a claim for lack of monitoring evidence.

Total managed SOC cost for this firm: CA$1,650/month including M365 licensing uplift allocation. Total value of avoided incident: estimated CA$85,000–$220,000 in potential BEC fraud losses and breach notification costs, based on comparable Canadian incidents reported to the OPC in 2024–2025.

What your managed IT provider already handles — and what a managed SOC adds

Many Canadian SMBs already work with a managed IT services provider (MSP). Understanding what your MSP covers versus what a managed SOC adds is essential to avoid both gaps and redundancy.

A typical Canadian MSP handles: helpdesk support and troubleshooting, patch management (operating system and application patching), device management (MDM/RMM tooling), backup monitoring and restore testing, Microsoft 365 administration, and network maintenance. Some MSPs include basic endpoint protection (managed antivirus, sometimes EDR-lite) and email filtering in their agreements. These are genuinely valuable services — they reduce your attack surface and maintain the hygiene that makes a SOC's monitoring meaningful.

What an MSP typically does not provide: 24/7 threat detection with human analyst triage, SIEM correlation across all log sources, active incident response and containment, threat intelligence-enriched alert analysis, compliance reporting for SOC 2 or PIPEDA breach documentation purposes, or dedicated security expertise at the level needed to investigate a sophisticated attack. MSPs are built to keep systems running — security operations, by contrast, is a specialist function focused on detecting and stopping adversaries who have already bypassed or circumvented your preventive controls.

The most common pattern for Canadian SMBs at 25–150 employees is a hybrid model: an MSP handles the foundational managed IT function (helpdesk, patching, M365 admin, backups per the 3-2-1 backup standard), while a managed SOC or MDR provider handles the continuous monitoring and response layer on top. The two services are designed to work in parallel — not compete. Many MSPs in Canada have formal referral or co-delivery relationships with specific MDR providers and can handle the commercial integration on your behalf. IT Cares, which provides managed cybersecurity and on-site IT support across Canada, is one example of a provider that bridges both functions for organizations that want a single point of accountability for both their IT operations and security monitoring.

Onboarding a managed SOC: what to expect in 30, 60, and 90 days

Managed SOC onboarding typically runs 4–8 weeks and follows a structured sequence. Understanding the timeline helps you set realistic expectations and hold your provider accountable to the agreed onboarding plan.

Days 1–14 — Discovery and deployment: The provider's onboarding team audits your environment — enumerating endpoints, servers, cloud assets, SaaS applications, identity providers, and network infrastructure — to build a complete telemetry coverage map. EDR agents are deployed to all in-scope endpoints, log forwarders are configured on network devices and servers, and Microsoft 365 audit logging is enabled and validated. You receive a signed telemetry coverage report showing what is monitored, what is out of scope, and any gaps requiring remediation before monitoring begins.

Days 15–30 — Tuning and baseline establishment: The SIEM ingests your environment's normal behaviour — login patterns, application usage, network traffic baselines, scheduled tasks — and detection rules are tuned to your environment to suppress false positives from known-good activity. This is the phase most providers underinvest in, and it directly determines the alert quality you experience during operations. A well-tuned deployment produces 5–20 high-confidence alerts per day for a 50-user SMB; a poorly tuned one produces hundreds of low-quality alerts that consume analyst time and desensitize your team to notifications.

Days 31–60 — Active monitoring with early reporting: Full monitoring coverage is live. You receive your first monthly security report covering alert volumes by severity, confirmed incidents (if any), false positive rate, and log source health. This is the right moment to review detection coverage, confirm that pre-authorization policies are correct, and adjust notification thresholds and escalation contacts based on your team's feedback from the first weeks of operation.

Days 61–90 — Optimization and compliance alignment: The provider conducts a formal 90-day review covering overall coverage quality, any detection gaps identified during the tuning period, SLA performance against contracted targets, and compliance reporting readiness. For organizations undergoing a SOC 2 Type II audit or cyber insurance renewal within 6–12 months, the 90-day review is the right time to confirm the evidence package the SOC will produce and align reporting formats with your audit requirements. See our Managed IT Services guide for the broader IT vendor management framework this fits into.

Managed security checklist for Canadian SMBs

• EDR deployed on 100% of endpoints (workstations, laptops, servers) — no gaps
• Microsoft 365 / Google Workspace audit logging enabled and forwarding to SIEM
• MFA enforced on all remote access (VPN, RDP, M365) — prerequisite for SOC effectiveness
• Firewall and network device logs forwarding to SIEM (syslog or API connector)
• Pre-authorization policy signed — defines what actions SOC may take without calling you first
• Emergency contact list provided and tested — who the SOC calls at 2 a.m., in what order
• Log retention confirmed — minimum 90 days hot (searchable), 12 months cold archive, per PIPEDA best practice
• Cloud workloads (AWS/Azure/GCP) added to monitoring scope if applicable
• Cyber insurance carrier notified of monitoring coverage — supports renewal at standard rates
• Quarterly business review scheduled — review MTTD/MTTR, false positive rates, and coverage changes
• Incident response tabletop exercise scheduled for first year — test your response to a SOC escalation
• Compliance reporting cadence confirmed — monthly reports, annual compliance package for PIPEDA/Law 25

FAQ: managed security services for Canadian businesses