You may have heard it in passing or in the news, but the fact is that cyber attacks are growing. It’s not a matter of if you get compromised, but when. A data breach can cause anything from minor system updates because of a minor hack, to lengthy downtimes from massive data theft attacks. Whether you’ve been affected by a cyberattack or not, it’s easy to worry if you have the staff and tools on hand to protect against or respond to attacks.
Also known as a Managed Security Service Provider, an MSSP is an entity that provides professional security monitoring and management with the goal of protecting your organization from cyber attacks. These third-party businesses have the expertise necessary to implement and maintain certain protocols and systems that an internal team may not be able to. This can include everything from managing firewalls and detecting penetration attempts to setting up virtual private networks (VPNs) and implementing system upgrades or changes when necessary.
Additionally, MSSPs offer a variety of services outside of their security monitoring, including:
While other tech-based services require the installation of new devices, Managed Security Service Providers operate on the SaaS (software-as-a-service) model, so there’s no need for costly hardware or extra staff. The benefits of this set-up depend upon your organization’s specific needs, so we’ve put together a general list to detail what you could expect here.
When you ask the average organization why they haven’t hired an MSSP yet, the response you’ll often get is cost, as with most other third-party service providers. However, hiring someone can bring your costs down across the board in other areas, saving you more than what you would have spent without. This includes:
With your security monitoring now in the hands of an MSSP, you’re saving on internal labor and you’re giving time back to yourself and your in-house IT team. With this shift in focus, you can get back to other efforts that fell by the wayside. Whether this means developing that new service you’ve been planning or optimizing what you currently have, your team now has the time to do so.
A Managed Security Service Provider is accessible to organizations of any size or industry, which is a lot more than can be said of internal cyber security staff that can be difficult to find, let alone hire. With an MSSP, you can trust that you have dedicated experts who specialize in security, working to monitor and develop your security protocols and protect your data.
While your internal team may have the ability to run vulnerability scans, it’s often a manual process that takes time out of their day. Since your team has other things on their plate, it’s possible for something to be missed and a breach to go undetected. However, MSSPs take this off your plate and implement their own automatic risk assessments so they can predict threats and proactively patch vulnerabilities before anything happens.
In-house IT teams and specialists are inundated with security alerts every single day. However, most are false positives or the result of a known integration issue and not a real threat, so they go ignored. Once a real threat does come up, there’s a higher chance that it too is ignored. An MSSPs takes this out of the equation by only sending alerts when it’s truly important, so your team will take the alert more seriously.
A big benefit that attracts many organizations to hiring a Managed Security Service Provider is the easy scalability they provide. Not only can your agreement and services with them expand as you grow, but you can also increase your security needs depending upon seasonal changes, industry demands, or any other factor. Most MSSPs are flexible and happy to increase and decrease their services to you whenever you need it.
MSSPs create Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that detail what to expect and guarantees and response times in the event of a breach or other security incident. Rather than relying on your internal team who can’t be expected to be available around the clock, you can lean on your MSSP catching the incident, fixing the issue, and containing the damage quickly and efficiently.
Cyber security is continuously evolving to keep up with new technology, but so are the threats. With an MSSP at your disposal, you can trust that your system is properly protected by cutting into your internal team’s limited time. Contact our team today to learn more about the MSSP services we offer and the security expertise we can bring to your operation.
