With more vaccines distributed every day and many businesses reopening, there’s hopefully plenty to look forward to as 2021 continues to unfold and it becomes safe to lift some of our pandemic-related restrictions. However, there’s one area in which companies can’t relax and let their guard down: cybersecurity.
The increase in remote work last year inspired an onslaught of cyberattacks as hackers sought to exploit new vulnerabilities presented by rapidly deployed work-from-home arrangements. This year, we’ll likely continue to see attempts to compromise remote work infrastructure, in addition to brute-force strategies, file-less malware, ransomware attacks and more, according to the IBM Security Intelligence article “.”
Subsequently, to minimize the chances of experiencing a damaging data breach, businesses must not only invest in next-gen IT security solutions but also need to employ high-level security experts to manage those solutions, interpret their output and efficiently respond to any incidents.
However, at the same time, many companies are still striving to rein in spending due to the economic effects of the pandemic. Implementing advanced tools and retaining top-level cybersecurity professionals can come with a hefty price tag, especially since those pros are currently in short supply. The world needs approximately 3.12 million more skilled cybersecurity professionals for organizations worldwide to adequately protect their vital assets, according to the 2020 (ISC)² Cybersecurity Workforce Study.
As a result, for budget-conscious businesses that want to achieve the best possible security posture and access high-level expertise without breaking the bank, outsourcing cybersecurity to a managed service provider makes a lot of sense. Here are just a few key ways that outsourcing cybersecurity can contain costs for your business.
1. Lower staffing costs.
If you maintain an in-house cybersecurity team, that means shouldering all the costs associated with the recruiting and hiring process, turnover, vacation and sick days, and all other personnel-related spending. Because of the aforementioned security professional shortage, it’s also difficult to find and retain top talent. By outsourcing cybersecurity, you’ll get on-demand access to a team of experts and even virtual CISO services for a fraction of the cost of internal staff.
2. Less breach-related financial fallout.
If cybercriminals get past your defenses, it’s vital to identify, contain and eliminate the threat ASAP to avoid significant damages. Working with a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) that offers incident response services can make a huge difference for your company: Containing a breach in under 200 days versus more than 200 saves the affected organization $1 million on average, according to the 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report from IBM Security.
3. Less downtime.
Outsourcing cybersecurity to a managed service provider that employs a comprehensive, multi-layered approach involving advanced tools (e.g., managed detection and response and secure access service edge) and incident response triage services will also minimize the amount of downtime your business experiences due to breaches – which means greater productivity and lower costs related to security issues.
For example, one client came to us in urgent need of assistance after ransomware infected their IT environment and encrypted their servers. Although the client wasn’t utilizing our managed cybersecurity services at the time, our incident response team was still able to get them back up and running in just two and a half days. You can read the story in detail here: Security Incident Response for HVAC/R Industry Warranty Solutions Provider
Ultimately, outsourcing cybersecurity can help you spend less while still maintaining the highest possible level of data and network protection. If you’d like to learn more about how managed cybersecurity solutions and services could potentially benefit your business, our team would be happy to answer any questions you might have. Just give us a call at 877-599-3999 or email sales@stratospherenetworks.com.
