Managed Security Services Benefits: Why you should outsource
It’s never been more important to safeguard your organisation’s website, applications, and data from cyber-attackers. Cybercrime isn’t going away. Almost every day, fresh news breaks, warning of a major new cyber threat.
Cyber-criminals are as dangerous as ever – dedicated to the cause of disruption, corruption and greed. As in any field, some attackers are more skilled than others. The more sophisticated criminals are increasingly creative – forever innovating with new ways to make lives more difficult for companies and individuals across the globe.
Of course, this applies to all of us. To keep up, our organisations must be ever-more alert to the threats and dangers posed by cyber-criminals. We all must be meticulous in keeping ourselves safe from attack.
The big questions we face, however, are:
Can you ‘make do’ and adequately protect ourselves in-house from security threats? Or Should you outsource to a Managed Security Service Provider?
What are Managed Security Services?
Managed Security Services are a third-party professional monitoring and management service aimed at protecting hardware and data from potential cyberattacks. These services are remote and usually offered 24/7. They use the appropriate security tools to:
- Block viruses and spam
- Manage Firewalls
- Detect intrusion attempts
- Set up and secure a virtual private network (VPN)
- Implement system changes or upgrades
Managed Security Service providers (MSSP) continuously monitor an organisation’s security devices and systems. They offer a wide range of services, including:
- Device management
- Log monitoring and management
- Vulnerability management
- Consultancy services
Managed Security Service Providers usually offer their services in a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. This means that your organisation doesn’t have to invest in any new hardware or staff.
Why do you need Managed Security Services?
There are eight principal benefits to taking on a Managed Security Service provider:
- Lower costs in many areas
- More time to focus on your business
- Access to unique expertise and tools
- Direct cyber security
- Automatic detection and fixing of vulnerabilities
- Increased action-oriented insight and reduce alert fatigue
- Scalability
- Good guarantees and fast response times
Let’s look at these in more detail.
Reduced costs
These might include:
Reduced training costs – Your Managed Service provider teams will constantly be up-to-date with the latest IT security developments, meaning you won’t have to invest in training your own people.
Lower staffing costs – You won’t be investing in staff to manage your IT security or monitor your systems 24/7.
Reduced investment costs – Your Managed Security Services Provider will spread the cost of their technology investments across their entire customer base. You won’t need to make any such investment.
More time to focus on your business
Your MSSP frees up time. Your people will be able to focus on their core business activities so as to move the business forward. Your IT teams will be able to concentrate on developing new services and processes.
Access to unique expertise and tools
You’ll have relatively low-cost access to the latest cybersecurity solutions and technologies. Also, your Managed Security Service provider will be able to give you independent, objective cyber-security advice, unlike suppliers of hardware and tools.
Automatic detection and fixing of vulnerabilities
All the detecting and fixing of cyber vulnerabilities will be carried out by your Managed Security Service provider. They will:
- detect and reduce vulnerabilities in critical systems
- predict threats, especially and specifically for targeted cyberattacks
- automatically detect important offensive tactics and methods in critical systems
- respond effectively and quickly
- cut down the chances of attacks succeeding and becoming damaging and expensive ‘events’
Increase action-oriented insight and reduce alert fatigue
In-house IT professionals deal with numerous security alerts from various security tools used within the company. Many of these alerts are classed as false positives, wasting your staff’s time. With a Managed Security Service provider, this doesn’t happen.
Scalability
Another benefit with Managed Security Service providers is that their services can be scaled perfectly to your needs, and the required security IT infrastructure can be easily adapted. If you temporarily need extra capacity, you simply scale up. Resources automatically grow with your capacity needs and if you need to scale back at a later time, you can.
Effective guarantees and fast response times
As a Managed IT Service Provider, we offer Service Level Agreements (SLAs) alongside our 24/7 IT support. An SLA provides guidelines for customers on incident response times, as well as guarantees in the event of security incidents.
Cybercrime is evolving at an incredible pace, with even the largest international companies discovering vulnerable points in their security systems. Without proper protection, tracking these threats would take enormous time and energy, as well as manpower and salaries for qualified in-house IT specialists.
Today’s threat landscape poses a real risk to your sensitive data, profitability, and reputation. IT security is an ongoing activity that requires premium quality threat intelligence and a clear understanding of how users, customers, and applications access data.
