7 Enterprise Problems Managed Cybersecurity Services Fix

Businesses today face a complex threat landscape that requires a continuous investment of manpower and financial resources. To proactively protect themselves, organizations must perform continuous monitoring and proactively hunt for threats to empower themselves to detect any potential or obvious problems.

Many businesses, even large ones, don’t have the time or the resources they need to adequately protect themselves when it comes to cybersecurity. An increasingly popular cost-effective solution is to partner with an experienced managed cybersecurity services company.

Today’s post will provide you with an overview of what a cybersecurity managed services provider is, the different cyber threats organizations face and the advantages you can enjoy when working with a cybersecurity managed services partner to mitigate the threats to your enterprise.

What Are Cybersecurity Managed Services?

Managed cybersecurity services are expert companies staffed with highly knowledgeable individuals who have access to the latest cutting-edge technological tools to fight back against cybercrime. Cybersecurity managed services you can enjoy include, but are not limited to, 24/7 monitoring services, rapid response in the event of an incident and oversight to ensure you meet any compliance and regulatory requirements.

One of the best advantages of working with a managed cybersecurity services provider is that, aside from gaining robust cybersecurity access and expertise, you can obtain a tailored security strategy that makes the best sense for your organization. Most companies can also provide you with what you need within any budgetary constraints you may face.

At the bottom line, when you work with a managed cybersecurity services provider, you have an array of preventative, proactive and reactive options to help shield you from cyber threat risks and minimize damages and losses. Let’s take a look at seven common enterprise problems cybersecurity managed services fix.

1. Mitigate Large and Small Threats

Businesses have faced cybersecurity threats for the last two decades – if not since the advent of the World-Wide Web – and each year seems to get tougher. As threat actors diligently work to exploit companies for profit, those who don’t work to improve their security posture will find themselves struggling and possibly failing. If a data breach or other cybersecurity incident occurs, they’ll face financial difficulties, damage to their brand reputation and regulatory penalties. Some, unfortunately, do not recover from a serious security incident.

Cybercriminals aren’t going to ease up their illicit activities. If anything, they’re going to work harder to stay ahead of the curve to chase illicit profit. Working with a cybersecurity managed services provider is a great line of defense. The following are common threats enterprises consistently face now and in the immediate future.

Ransomware

Ransomware is technically classified as malware, but it’s a very specific type that threat actors use to exploit money from companies by breaching systems and threatening to publish sensitive data or lock users from accessing the data. The threat actor says they’ll unlock hijacked files for money.

Over the past three years ransomware has become a persistent thorn for organizations. As one of the most prominent types of cyberattacks, 2020 saw a massive 148% spike in ransomware incidents and today remains a problematic issue. Common ransomware attack vectors include:

• Malware
• Web pages
• Email attachments
• Software vulnerabilities
• Instant messages

These are just a few entry points to this type of potentially devastating attack. With that being said, the most common and dangerous ransomware vector is phishing in its various incarnations.

Many companies will pay the ransom, but doing so comes at high risk. Exploiters may not release the files back to you or may break their word and publish sensitive data anyway. The FBI strongly encourages organizations not to give in to ransom because paying is never a guarantee and encourages threat actors to keep locking data. Why would they stop if it’s profitable?

If your organization works closely with a cybersecurity managed services provider, you will enjoy proactive measures to block these exploiters from holding your digital assets hostage.

Phishing

Phishing is another significant challenge today’s organizations face, and no company is immune to an attack. Phishing attacks are designed to target individuals or organizations by impersonating known trusted parties. Next, threat actors trick employees into disclosing their credentials or passwords, credit card numbers and other sensitive data.

Cybercriminals can deliver their malicious attacks in a variety of ways. Email phishing is the most common vector to deliver ransomware. However, with expertise, knowledge and training, you can substantially reduce your risks. A managed cybersecurity services partner can play a pivotal role in helping you achieve this goal.

IoT Security

The IoT has crept into our personal and professional lives and many people already don’t know how they had ever lived without this useful technology. The ease and convenience IoT offers businesses can’t be beat, but with every advantage comes a disadvantage.

For big businesses, IoT brings significant vulnerabilities. Since IoT often don’t come with any meaningful type of security, the emphasis is typically on convenience. Your business may have installed smart lighting to save money, but in the process you’d inadvertently given attackers a potentially unguarded entry point to your network. This allows attackers to obtain unauthorized access to systems and snatch sensitive data. IoT is a technology where security must be constantly kept in check and a managed cybersecurity services expert can help.

Social Engineering

Cybercriminals often employ social engineering to manipulate their victims to gain their trust. They may do this through in-person techniques, online or even phone calls. Their goal is to use people to gain unauthorized access to credentials and sensitive data through a variety of ploys. They may use fear, urgency and other feelings to get people to take action before they can think about what they’re doing.

This type of threat actor is savvy and will exploit human behavior because their manipulations are built around how people tend to think or act. According to Verizon’s annual Data Breaches Investigations Report, in 2023, 74% of breaches involved human elements which “includes social engineering attacks, errors or misuse.” Furthermore, the report found 50% of “all social engineering attacks are pretexting incidents.” This doubled from 2022 statistics.

When your organization works with a cybersecurity managed services provider, you can rely on experts who are savvy themselves and know how to quickly recognize social engineering behaviors and have protective elements in place to prevent exploitation.

Other Cybersecurity Risks

Other persistent attacks enterprises face include attacks against cloud storage, supply chain attacks, software supply chain security, distributed denial of service (DDoS), exploitation using artificial intelligence and machine learning, blockchain attacks and exploiting third-party software (e.g., the attack on Target in 2013 and the massive SolarWinds hack in 2020).

2. Gain Access to the Latest Threat Mitigation Techniques

Managed cybersecurity services give your organization access to the latest threat mitigation techniques, empowering your organization to set up a great defensive position against cybercriminals. You don’t have to worry about continuously budgeting for the latest technology solutions because your provider will be up to date with the latest tools. So, not only do you have access to tools, but your plan comes with staffing who possess up-to-date knowledge of current and/or trending threats.

3. Help Resolve Skills Gap and Staffing Issues

One significant issue even the largest organizations face is a skills gap and difficulty maintaining the personnel to stay ahead of the threat actors. For the last several years there have been more security jobs than there are people to fill them. Skills gap aside, with the increasing demand for cybersecurity professionals, while many are entering the workforce, it’s still an “uphill battle” for today’s organizations to fill these much-needed roles.

A cybersecurity managed services partner is fully staffed, trained and knowledgeable. For an agreed-upon fee, you essentially gain a fully staffed tech department without having to pay salaries or benefits and juggle coverage when staff takes time off. You also don’t have to invest significant effort in recruiting, training and retaining top tech talent.

Your managed cybersecurity services partner has a steady pipeline of professionals ready to assist since supplementing organizational technology is their core competency – this leaves you the ability to put your own resources into expanding upon your own core competencies.

4. Alleviate Budget Struggles Since Your Partner Absorbs Tech Costs

Most of today’s organizations, even the largest ones, face budget struggles. When cuts need to be made, while cybersecurity is important, as you know, no department is immune to slashing to its budgets. Since security requires investments that do not deliver an ROI, it’s often hard for decision-makers to calculate the true and full value of cybersecurity.

Sure, decision-makers know cybersecurity is important, but it’s not going to generate sales like marketing does, so it’s sometimes easy for them to make security cuts when they’re focused on the bottom line. Data breaches might be considered on the surface as a non-issue – until one happens. Complacency about security is still a real problem in the 21^st century.

When you work with managed cybersecurity services, you can alleviate many of your tech-related budget struggles while preserving and improving your cybersecurity posture. You can rest assured your managed services provider will not be complacent when it comes to cybersecurity measures.

5. Gain the Ability to Utilize an Endpoint Detection and Management Solution (EDR)

IT experts often integrate endpoint detection and management solutions (EDR) into their cybersecurity strategies. EDR is a holistic approach to cybersecurity and many experts consider it to be an advanced threat protection strategy.

As a proactive approach, EDR goes beyond traditional antivirus protection by utilizing a set of integrated security tools designed to monitor behavior. This approach offers the ability to quickly pinpoint any suspicious events at user endpoints, including computers, mobile devices and servers. During this process, unusual events or patterns are detected and stopped immediately.

In the event anything suspicious is found, EDR protocol involves blocking the event while saving any forensic data. The EDR process of gathering data can then be used for analysis purposes to help organizations identify breaches quickly and put a stop to threats in real-time. EDR is a great preventative tool that empowers businesses to benefit from a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy, with additional layers of protection.

6. Strengthens the Weakest Link in Cybersecurity – Your Employees

Employees are the first line of defense when it comes to preventing cyber threats; however, many don’t have the instinctive ability to detect threats, putting organizations at risk. When you work with a cybersecurity managed services provider, you eliminate the weakest links by giving your employees the critical information and training they need to prevent cyberattacks. Your partner can help you bridge the knowledge gap and train your employees on best practices regarding password hygiene, social engineering, handling data and avoiding phishing scams.

7. Overall Bolster Your Cybersecurity Posture

In addition to the above problems a managed cybersecurity services provides, you can also gain the expertise and completion of both simple and complex processes organizations need to perform.

• Fix outdated software
• Deploy patching
• Evaluate access controls
• Improve authentication methods
• Establish backup and recovery plans
• Improve compliance

By bolstering your organization’s security posture, you can employ preventative processes, avoid regulatory penalties for non-compliance and have a plan in place to quickly rectify any breach situations.

Let a Cybersecurity Managed Services Provider Help Fix Your Enterprise Problems

As cyber criminals aggressively work to exploit enterprise-level companies, they continue to develop complex attacks. One of the largest problems is not knowing the risks. Utilizing a dedicated managed cybersecurity services team can quickly help identify and mitigate many enterprise-level cybersecurity problems.

At Red River, we’ll perform a comprehensive cybersecurity assessment and then develop a strategic plan to keep your organization safe. You’ll gain round-the-clock support, access to the latest tech, compliance and much more. You won’t need to worry about staffing and maintaining a robust in-house IT security department when you partner with a managed cybersecurity services expert.

Ready to begin your journey to improving your cybersecurity posture with a cost-effective solution? Contact Red River today to learn more about our services.