With the arrival of the NIS2 Directive in October 2024, the European Union has raised the bar for cyber security, enforcement, and accountability. Designed to address shortcomings in the original NIS Directive, NIS2 imposes further-reaching obligations on a broader set of essential and important entities. These include sectors ranging from energy and transport to health and digital infrastructure.
While NIS2 is a legislative framework, its implications are deeply technical. Organisations are now expected to implement advanced cyber security measures, manage supply chain risks, report incidents rapidly, and maintain comprehensive governance structures. However, many organisations lack the in-house capability, expertise, or 24/7 coverage to meet these requirements.
This is where, for many, Managed Security Services (MSS), and in particular Security Operations Centres (SOCs) can play a pivotal role. Not only can they deliver the technical capacity required for NIS2 compliance, but they also provide the strategic alignment and assurance that regulators increasingly demand.
Understanding NIS2 Compliance
The NIS2 Directive demands updated minimum cyber security standards that apply across the EU, and to those trading and working with organisations under this umbrella. Key obligations include:
Risk Management Measures
To comply with the new directive, organisations must practise and evidence risk management, taking measures to minimise cyber risks wherever possible. Impacted entities must adopt appropriate technical and organisational measures, such as access control, encryption, incident response, and business continuity plans.
Incident Notification and Reporting
A central theme within NIS2 is the proactive reporting of breaches and cyber attacks for greater transparency. Impacted organisations must have appropriate and adhered-to processes in place for the prompt and systematic reporting of security incidents, with alerts to the relevant authorities made without delay.
Business Continuity
Business continuity plans, including Disaster Recovery and Incident Response, will help organisations to prepare for the eventuality of a major cyber security incident. Within these plans, businesses should address their strategy for emergency procedures, system recovery, and if appropriate, a crisis response team, along with business and industry specific considerations to maintain operations and security in the aftermath of an attack.
Governance and Accountability
Board-level responsibility for cyber security strategy and policy involvement is central to NIS2’s requirements. Cyber breaches, under the new directive, may result in penalties for members of management including legal liability. With significant penalties for non-compliance, and enhanced supervisory powers for regulators, organisations must not only achieve cyber resilience but also be able to demonstrate it.
The Role of Managed Security Services and NIS2 Alignment
Managed Security Services (MSS) offer a scalable and efficient solution to the compliance requirements set out by NIS2. By outsourcing critical cyber security functions to a trusted provider, organisations can gain access to 24/7 threat monitoring, incident response, vulnerability management, and compliance reporting. For those organisations with limited resources and expertise, where these capabilities aren’t feasible in-house, MSS are an ideal strategic solution, both for NIS2 compliance, and beyond.
How Can a SOC Help Organisations to Meet NIS2 Obligations?
A SOC serves as the command centre of cyber defence. It can allow organisations to proactively monitor their cyber estate, providing real-time visibility, threat detection, and incident response.
Proactive Detection and Response
A SOC enables organisations to move from reactive to proactive security by continuously analysing telemetry from across the cyber environment. By correlating data using SIEM tools and automating response actions via SOAR platforms, SOCs detect early indicators of compromise and neutralise threats before they disrupt operations or compromise sensitive systems, essential for meeting NIS2’s preventative framework.
Rapid Incident Notification
NIS2 mandates that major cyber incidents be reported within 24 hours. A SOC can facilitate this by maintaining real-time situational awareness, using predefined alerting thresholds and escalation paths. This ensures that incidents are triaged, prioritised, and communicated to the appropriate stakeholders promptly, supporting regulatory compliance and reducing the risk of delayed or incomplete disclosure.
Vulnerability Detection
Through the integration of automated scanning tools, a SOC provides continuous insight into an organisation’s attack surface. It identifies potentially exploitable weaknesses across infrastructure and applications, assigns severity scores, and tracks remediation progress. This enables organisations to fulfil NIS2’s expectation for timely vulnerability management to mitigate risks before they can be exploited by would-be threat actors.
Supply Chain Monitoring
Advanced SOCs go beyond internal systems, monitoring the digital supply chain for compromise indicators. By ingesting third-party threat feeds and performing behavioural baselining, these SOCs can detect irregularities in vendor communications or services, offering critical visibility necessary for meeting NIS2’s requirement for upstream cyber risk governance.
Governance and Reporting
SOCs generate structured, evidence-based reports that feed into governance dashboards and audits. These reports can track incident trends, control effectiveness, and compliance KPIs, and are useful for both executive stakeholders and technical teams alike. A mature SOC provides more than operational capability; it delivers confidence to stakeholders and regulators alive that cyber risks and being actively managed.
Building a NIS2-Ready Security Strategy with an MSSP
NIS2 is not just a regulatory obligation, it’s a strategic imperative. As threats grow in complexity and compliance timelines tighten, organisations must rethink how they manage cyber risk. Partnering with a MSSP that offers mature SOC capabilities is one of the most effective and resilient approaches available.
A well-aligned MSSP delivers real-time visibility, rapid incident handling, and continuous compliance, all underpinned by strategic guidance and technical excellence. For many, this will be the difference between meeting NIS2 obligations and falling behind in an increasingly regulated economy.
Threatscape’s range of Managed Security Services, powered by SecurityHQ, offer a scalable, compliant and cost-effective solution to the need for 24/7 cyber vigilance in a post NIS2-landscape. Browse our full MSS offering, to outsource the management of defence, security, and risk.
