A July 2020 report suggested that 70% of companies surveyed said that they were dealing with a shortage of cybersecurity skills, with a whopping 93% of firms reporting that the skills shortage is either staying the same or getting worse.
Advanced cybersecurity technology has helped many organizations protect themselves against the mounting threat of cyberattacks. Yet, despite the developments in modern technology, the need for human input remains critical. A collaborative approach to cybersecurity has emerged as the key to extensive and continuous protection against cybercriminals.
So how can organizations implement this collaborative approach to cybersecurity? And how do managed security solutions factor in? Let’s take a closer look.
The Need for a Digital Security Skill Set
In the age of digitization, businesses are working with an abundance of information to create better products, target new markets, enhance collaboration, and reach new heights of success. But without adequate measures to prevent these attacks, businesses are left vulnerable to cyber threats.
The fact is that cybercriminals are always looking for new opportunities that can be exploited in the digital space. This has never been more apparent than during the COVID-19 global health crisis, when cyberattacks surged by 400% since the start of the pandemic.
Making use of the widespread confusion and disruption, malicious actors around the world launched attacks against organizations in the public and private sectors. The healthcare sector was hit particularly hard: for 2020, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reported 533 breaches of unsecured protected health information affecting 500 or more individuals.
But cyberattacks and hacking attempts were already growing at an alarming rate before the COVID-19 crisis. The sheer volume of attacks coupled with the increasing stealth of increasingly sophisticated hackers meant that breaches could stay undetected for several months before discovery. The need for a robust IT infrastructure and cybersecurity incident management has never been more dire.
The Ever-Increasing Demand for Cybersecurity Skills
According to a 2019 Cybersecurity Workforce Study, the cybersecurity workforce gap stands at about 500,000 in the United States alone. This suggests that a 62% increase is required to meet the cyber workforce demand of U.S. businesses adequately.
Since then, the demand for cyber professionals has only increased. From small startups to multi-national corporations to large publicly-held enterprises, you’ll find countless job openings for cybersecurity specialists just about everywhere.
The Solution: Managed Cybersecurity Services
The managed cybersecurity services model offers a unique solution to meet the massive demand for cybersecurity professionals. A managed security service provider (MSSP) acts as a much-needed source of technical expertise that can help organizations minimize the risk of cyberattacks. Here are some benefits that come with managed IT security services:
- Enhanced Organizational Efficiency
When your in-house IT team no longer has to keep track of and manually address each alert or security threat, they have more time and energy on their hands to focus on other aspects of the job. They will be better equipped to onboard new employees, offers training sessions on cybersecurity awareness, and offer day-to-day support.
The managed security service provider will help organizations manage security risks that threaten business continuity. The cybersecurity experts will analyze the company, prioritize high-level threats, and then recommend the best possible course of action to thwart those risks.
- Reduced Costs
When choosing managed security services, you essentially lower the need for on-site experts. For instance, a thorough cybersecurity review of your organization’s needs might require a domain expert, an SIEM expert, and a firewall expert. By opting for managed services, you forego the need for these professionals because you have access to all these resources via the IT security consulting company.
Hiring, retaining, and managing your own in-house IT staff comes with high costs. It takes away from valuable company resources that could be put into core business operations. Managed solutions can give you a host of cybersecurity professionals at a fraction of the cost of recruiting and retaining costly expertise yourself.
- Robust Security
When the attackers are armed with the recent innovations in tech and automation, you should have the same level of expertise and tools to outpace them – and managed cybersecurity services give you just that. Once your processes are backed with strong, reliable, and versatile network security automation put in place by security experts, you will have fewer worries about cybercriminals threatening business continuity.
The Role of C-Suite Executives
Cyber risk management is an escalating management priority—but it requires initiative from the top. In the coming years, C-Suite executives will need to play a major role in the adoption of cybersecurity programs that will benefit the organization as a whole.
While cybersecurity might seem like an issue operating in silos, it affects each and every aspect of the business. For instance, CEOs and CFOs will be happy to find that cybersecurity proficiency is linked directly to reduced downtime due to technical failures and outages. Minimal downtime will lower the risk of lost revenue caused by breaches and help avoid the penalties that come with compliance violations.
From the chief marketing officer’s (CMO) perspective, having expert cybersecurity consultants on board can help the company enhance its reputation as a trusted partner and build stronger partnerships with clients and customers.
IBM/Ponemon reported in 2020 that the average cost of a data breach is $3.86 million (USD); the focus of cybersecurity incident management must first and foremost implement controls that prevent attacks instead of scrambling to find and fix breach incidents once they’ve occurred. While an in-house cybersecurity team is difficult to procure and expensive to retain, information security and cybersecurity goals are much easier to obtain with managed cybersecurity services.
ISA Cybersecurity: managed cybersecurity experts
ISA Cybersecurity has 30 years of experience delivering cybersecurity services and people you can trust. Our SOC 2 Type 2 certified Cybersecurity Intelligence and Operations Centre (CIOC) provides 24x7x365 defense for your sensitive customer data, and our team of experienced digital forensics and incident response specialists are available to assist in the event of a breach.
Contact us today to learn more about how we can help close the cybersecurity skills gap at your organization.
