You’ve seen it over and over again in the headlines – small subcontractors are often soft-target gateways for hacking large clients. Middle-tier businesses are very attractive and vulnerable targets for ransomware attacks. And, as recently seen in the news, Managed Service Providers (MSPs) attacked through trusted supply-chain software vendors can put their own clients at risk. These unfortunate facts have created a demand for IT service providers, including MSPs, to expand their cybersecurity offerings or at least explain their own security preparedness to customers.

Offering Security Services as an MSP is Within Reach

The demand for advanced Managed Threat Protection services is enormous. Worldwide spending on information security and risk management technology and services is expected to grow more than 12 percent this year, reaching $150.4 billion according to Gartner.

The jump to offering Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) services, however, for an MSP can be daunting and costly. If you DIY, you must ante up for a team of very expensive cybersecurity professionals to staff a basic set up, let alone trying to staff a 24/7/365 Security Operations Center (SOC) to respond to cybersecurity alerts as they happen. And on top of that, a cybersecurity skills shortage is making it more difficult than ever to find and retain experienced staff.

Seventy-six percent of security professionals say it is difficult to recruit cybersecurity staff, and there are so many job openings that it can be hard to keep excellent employees from jumping ship when you find them. Along with the cost and skills shortage comes the even greater challenge of managing a SOC effectively. You could be faced with process latency issues, a lack of adequate monitoring and management tools, and knowledge imbalances among staff.

By partnering with a Master MSSP, Reliable IT expanded beyond their core success in IT administration, usability, and performance management.