In 2022, the number of cyber-attacks around the globe increased by 38 percent. Businesses of every size, and across every industry are at risk of an attack every day.
Cyber attacks vary in size and severity. Attacks can be small breaches that put a single account at risk. Quick action can reverse the damage before it can have a direct impact on the business.
But even a small attack can quickly become a major problem. Small businesses in particular are at risk of succumbing to damaging cyber attacks. In 2022 alone, more than 40 percent of all small businesses were victims of a cyber-attack.
Small businesses often lack the resources to protect themselves properly from an attack. If they have an in-house IT team, it may already be stretched thin. Or worse, many small businesses think that they are too small to be a target.
Unfortunately, this makes them a popular target among cybercriminals.
No matter your business’ size, it’s important to invest time and money in improving your cybersecurity. Keep reading as we explore why it’s so important to invest in cybersecurity, and how managed cybersecurity services can help.
Why is Cybersecurity So Important?
If your business has been putting off improving your cybersecurity, the time to take action was yesterday. Cyber attacks around the globe are on the rise. And the cost to repair the damage is rising, too.
The average small business pays out upwards of $18,000 following a single cyber-attack. These costs go towards patching the breach and securing their data. It doesn’t account for the potential loss of business. Or for the impact that a breach can have on their brand reputation.
Customers who know that a business has suffered a cyber attack may be wary to work with that business. This can cause you to lose current customers. It can also make it tough to attract future ones. It can also make it difficult to regain the trust of contractors.
Larger corporations face similar damages, though often on a much larger scale. While they may have greater security in place, they also tend to have more data and information at risk in an attack.
The best way to avoid the fallout of a cyber attack is to protect your business before an attack occurs.
What are Managed Cybersecurity Services?
Businesses have a few options for investing in cybersecurity.
One is to rely on their existing IT team. However, this can put a strain on a team that already has a host of other responsibilities. In addition, not all IT professionals are also cybersecurity experts. As a result, your corporation might be putting your security at risk.
Another option is to invest in in-house professional IT services with cybersecurity experience. However, this can be a costly option. In addition to paying the salaries of these employees, you’ll also have to create a space in your office for them, provide supplies and equipment, and provide benefits.
Managed security services are the future of cybersecurity. They allow corporations of all sizes to supplement their security, improve cybersecurity measures, and more. Instead of hiring an in-house team for your cybersecurity needs, you’re outsourcing to a team with more experience and resources than you could get on your own.
The result is better protection for your business, as well as big potential cost savings. Your business gets advanced security tools and around-the-clock protection from attacks in one simple, outsourced package.
What Do You Get With Managed Cybersecurity Services?
When you choose to outsource your cybersecurity with IT-managed services, you do so through a security service provider. This provider is better known as a managed security service provider or MSSP.
An MSSP provides a variety of outsourced monitoring and management services. In some cases, businesses can choose the services that they outsource and invest in. However, comprehensive managed cybersecurity services provide greater overall protection for your business, assets, and employees.
This means that your business doesn’t have to worry about preventing attacks, or even monitoring for them. Instead, managed cybersecurity services do the work for you.
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest services that an MSSP can provide for your business.
Vulnerability Scanning
One of the services that a managed cybersecurity provider can offer is vulnerability scanning. Using advanced cybersecurity tools, your provider will scan any critical assets that your business has, and look for any weak points or vulnerabilities that hackers could exploit.
This might include any sensitive data that your business has, as well as client and employee data that you have collected.
When you first start working with a managed cybersecurity provider, they will likely begin with an overall scan and analysis of your current cybersecurity measures. They will find any potential vulnerabilities and help you to address them.
Then, they will continue to complete routine scanning and reporting to let you know if vulnerabilities have been repaired, or if new ones appear.
Managed Multi-Factor Authentification
Another feature that you’ll get with managed cybersecurity services is Managed Multi-Factor Authentication or MFA. Sometimes referred to as 2FA, this tool adds an additional layer of protection to every login process.
When your employees log into your company’s dashboard, their email account, apps that they use for work, or even your building’s WiFi, they’ll enter their username and password as usual. Then, they’ll perform an additional step. Sometimes this step requires them to enter a code sent to their email or phone number. Other times it requires additional authentification.
This two-step process is a simple, yet efficient way to stop hackers in their tracks. Even if they gain access to some of your user’s passwords, they won’t be able to get in. Additionally, you’ll know when someone tries to get in but fails the 2FA process, letting you know that you’ve had a breach or passwords have been compromised.
Password Management
Requiring Multi-Factor Authentification isn’t the only way that a cybersecurity provider can help to make your logins safer. Another great tool that you’ll gain access to is a password manager.
The average person is expected to remember 100 passwords. With so many to remember, it’s easy to see why so many people make the mistake of using the same password over and over again. Unfortunately, this means that when a single password on one account is hacked, the hacker can access many other accounts.
Setting stronger, unique passwords is the best way for your employees to protect their accounts. And a Password Manager can help them to do so.
Password management will store your organization’s many unique passwords in one simple, centralized password management tool.
Not only is this a great way to keep your passwords safe and to use stronger passwords, but it also allows employees to access the accounts that they need fast. If you need to update the password to a shared account, you won’t have to worry about notifying everyone who needs to know. Instead, the password will be instantly updated when they log in using the password manager.
Dark Web Monitoring
The Dark Web is 500 times larger than the Surface Web. In 2022, it had more than 2 million daily visitors.
If sensitive information like passwords or data winds up on the Dark Web, it can spread quickly. If it falls into the wrong hands, it can quickly snowball into a major issue for your business.
Protecting your information from appearing on the Dark Web is the first line of defense. However, preventing any form of leak or attack is an impossible task, especially as cyber attacks continue to evolve.
For that reason, it’s just as important to have a second line of defense; Dark Web monitoring.
Dark Web monitoring can help you find out when your information appears on the Dark Web. From stolen credentials and passwords to data, finding out that it has appeared as quickly as possible will give you more time to react. You can then alert clients, change passwords, and take other measures to lessen the impact of the breach.
When you invest in managed cybersecurity services, you’ll get advanced Dark Web monitoring as well. They’ll constantly scan the Dark Web in search of any information connected to your business. You’ll receive extensive reporting on what information could be at risk so that you can act fast.
Patch Management
As technology becomes more advanced, the security that it offers becomes more advanced, too. Unfortunately, this is a catch-22; the more advanced the tech, the more vulnerabilities it has.
A patch management solution can help with this.
This cybersecurity service provides a net of protection over all of your business devices. It includes features like anti-virus, anti-spyware, operating system security, and more. This helps to keep you safe against a variety of types of attacks.
In addition to these protections, you’ll also get advanced reporting and instant alerts when a threat is spotted.
Compliance
Many industries require businesses to follow strict compliance guidelines. These guidelines extend to your IT as well.
For instance, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, also known as HIPAA, requires businesses in the healthcare industry to safeguard sensitive patient data to ensure privacy.
Working with a cybersecurity provider can be a great way to meet your industry’s compliance standards. Besides providing a high level of IT security, you can also receive compliance reports that help you to provide that you’re taking the necessary precautions.
Enterprise Security Awareness
Investing in managed cybersecurity services can help you protect your business at almost every outlet. You’ll be adding a line of defense within your devices, securing passwords, monitoring the Dark Web for breaches, and getting instant alerts if your business is the victim of an attempted attack.
But even with all of these measures, there’s one area that can be difficult to secure completely: your employees.
A single employee opening and reading a phishing email can derail your carefully crafted security measures. Every day, more than 15 billion phishing emails are sent. Almost a third of them are opened. Around 90 percent of all data breaches occur as a result of a phishing email.
But in addition to providing additional lines of defense to help lessen the fallout of a phishing attack, your managed cybersecurity provider can also help you put a stop to them in the first place.
Enterprise Security Awareness provides education to your employees about how to spot a phishing email. You can utilize customized tests based on your environment and provide reports about the risk of phishing attacks.
Investing in Managed Cybersecurity Services
Investing in managed cybersecurity services can help you avoid overloading your current in-house IT team. It also helps you to cut costs and gives you access to more advanced security tools and skills. You’ll get the benefits of a professional cybersecurity team and its resources, but without having to hire your own team to operate out of your office.
Cybersecurity is a growing threat to businesses across every industry. A single breach or attack can have devastating consequences. It can put your sensitive data, as well as client and employee information, at risk.
If you aren’t already outsourcing your cybersecurity needs, now is a great time to do so. EMPIST can help.
Our managed cybersecurity services provide a wide variety of security tools and services. From Dark Web monitoring to patch management, we take a multi-pronged approach to cybersecurity.
In addition to cybersecurity services, we also offer a range of other managed IT solutions. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your business grow and protect your assets.