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Protecting digital assets from cyberattacks is among the most significant challenges for organisations, especially for SMBs. Smaller organisations lack the resources to invest in the necessary tools to put in place a security strategy.Â
For that reason, SMBs make great targets. In its Small Business Cyber Security Survey, the Australian Cyber Security Centre foundOpens a new window that as many as 62% of SMBs experienced a cyber attack. The reasons for this were clear. Almost half of the SMBs surveyed spent less than $500 on cyber security per year, and one in five SMBs did not know the term “phishingâ€.
The Disconnect Between Perception and Reality for SMBs
In a new reportOpens a new window , Cisco said 56% of SMBs in APAC suffered a cyber incident in the last 12 months and about 51% of these attacks cost $500,000 or more to remediate. Despite the current threat scenario, a May 2022 surveyOpens a new window by CNBC showed that just 5% of small business owners considered cybersecurity to be the biggest risk to their business.Â
The harsh truth is that cyberattacks impact more and more MSPs, and they are under increasing pressure to secure their infrastructure and their customers’ businesses safely. A recent studyOpens a new window from Coleman Parkes, State of the Market: The New Threat Landscape, commissioned by N-able, shows that almost all MSPs have suffered a successful cyberattack in the past 18 months, and 90% have seen an increase in attacks since the pandemic started. In addition, 82% of MSPs’ customers have seen an increase in attempted cyberattacks.
SMBs Turn to Managed Services
That’s where MSPs come into play. Turning to a managed services provider gives SMBs access to end-to-end security solutions. Since managed services are growing increasingly competitive, having the correct security solutions in place can serve as a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
ResearchAndMarkets projectsOpens a new window the Asia-Pacific managed security service (MSS) market to reach $5.8 billion by 2025. This growth will be driven by factors such as “the evolving threat landscape, increasing complexity of the business environment to address security across the information technology (IT), internet of things (IoT), operational technology (OT), and cloud infrastructure, along with the shortage of in-house security professionals and limited security tools.â€
Building a Future-Proof Managed Security Practice
At one point, the standard three-legged stool of cybersecurity consisted of endpoint security, perimeter firewall protection, and patch management, but these are no longer sufficient. MSPs need additional services to protect their customers against the increasing frequency of complex attacks and grow their business. Â
MSPs face the same challenges as SMBs: competing for qualified IT professionals in a talent-starved market. According to a recent survey from CompTIAOpens a new window , more than one-quarter of MSPs highlighted the advancing skills gap as one of the biggest concerns. So how is an MSP supposed to spread its limited talent amongst multiple clients requiring attention? How can they obtain the visibility needed to secure everyone?
MSPs don’t need to run out and purchase the latest best-of-breed cybersecurity tool designed to protect against the latest threat. They need a security partner that offers leading-edge solutions and high-quality tech support to assist in monitoring, managing, and securing their customers’ environments to drive customer satisfaction and stronger returns on investment.Â
Here, we list five ways MSPs can optimise and monetise their cybersecurity services with the right technology partner.
1. Automate monitoring and management
Companies today are working towards automating their business processes to free up employees for higher-value work. Even hackers are leveraging the power of automation, so shouldn’t those assigned to protect against them also utilise automation? MSP personnel can’t be everywhere at once and don’t have the time to manually monitor or intervene all day. By integrating an automated solution such as Automation Manager from N-ableOpens a new window , MSPs can automate tasks using a simple drag-and-drop editor. You can automate the onboarding process for new or existing clients or create automatic remediation steps that can be triggered by alerts. In fact, there are over 100 automated tasks included right out of the box that MSPs can use to create highly complex automated tasks without having to learn complicated script languages or proprietary code through the drag-and-drop script builder tool. Automation Manager from N-able can significantly augment your ability to monitor, manage, and secure your entire customer base.
2. Improve Efficiency from Anywhere
MSPs don’t have the time to manually monitor multiple clients and swivel between multiple admin consoles to service a disparate set of security tools. They need a single pane of glass solution that offers them complete visibility and management capabilities. One such solution is N-ableâ„¢ N-centralOpens a new window ®, a robust RMM solution that delivers comprehensive monitoring, integrated patch management, top-tier endpoint protection, and hybrid backup solutions to streamline and secure operations. The N-ableâ„¢ N-sight RMMOpens a new window solution lets you deploy features over time as you need them. Both premier tools empower IT personnel to seamlessly perform non-disruptive background maintenance and remote into devices with a single click and deliver layered security services. Integrated automation also greatly amplifies your workforce abilities nearly overnight.
3. Close the Backup and Disaster Recovery Gap
Protecting against ransomware is all about securing your data, and that includes ensuring a separate copy that can be quickly recovered because time is of essence. One of the leading Data Protection-as-a-Service solutions MSPs should consider is Cove Data Protectionâ„¢Opens a new window from N-able. This appliance-free solution backs up devices straight to the cloud, and unlike traditional image backup software with backups that are too large to go quickly to the cloud, Cove Data Protection’s uniquely efficient architecture lets you back up as often as every 15 minutes with minimal impact on network bandwidth. Cove Data Protection also allows you to back up physical servers, virtual servers, workstations, and Microsoft 365. And whether you need to restore your virtual environment from a ransomware attack or restore a lost or corrupted file, Cove Data Protection can help perform these tasks seamlessly.
4. Reliable Endpoint Protection
Endpoint protection is critical in a multi-layer security strategy as it is the last line of defence against an invasive attack. But endpoint protection solutions that rely on signature-based protection are of little use in the event of zero-day exploitations. MSSPs need a comprehensive Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solution that offers protection and remediation from the whole gamut of malicious code threats today. Both N-ableâ„¢ N-centralOpens a new window and N-ableâ„¢ N-sight RMMOpens a new window include next-generation EDR functionality powered by SentinelOne to monitor endpoint and network events. Security specialists can attain complete visibility into customer devices through a single interface and utilise automation to guard against suspicious traffic and code variants.
5. Secure Credentials and a Wide Array of Digital Assets
Relying on passwords to secure corporate accounts makes MSPs vulnerable to network infiltration and data theft. A reliable strategy to prevent hackers from breaching passwords is using robust credential protection platforms, such as N-able PassportalOpens a new window , to keep credentials secure from external threats.Â
N-able Passportal is a cloud-based automated credential protection platform that uses encryption to store, manage, and retrieve credentials promptly. Passportal can also be used to secure privileged knowledge items such as sensitive documents, SSL certificates, digital assets, or knowledge-base articles. You can even rebrand and resell Passportal as your password management solution to generate new revenue streams.
The Way Forward for MSPs
Instead of investing in “must-have†security tools to cater to new threats, MSPs need to invest in a comprehensive turnkey approach in which new capabilities can be added to an existing platform that can evolve in response to an ever-changing threat landscape. This saves them from complicating their security stack with an array of tools that don’t talk to each other.Â
N-able offers an all-in-one security portfolio for MSPs to help secure their and their customers’ digital assets and market themselves more effectively. MSPs can use N-able MarketBuilderOpens a new window to create and deploy marketing campaigns and manage their email database to help them achieve their business goals. The solution also helps them market their brand and build a next-generation managed security practice based on customers’ needs.
MSPs should also ensure they have access to the latest training solutions they need to continually evolve their solution on behalf of their customers, move up the value chain, and be aware of regulatory mandates around security. To meet this need, the N-able MSP Institute offers training solutions to help MSPs empower their team to be effective and efficient in all areas of their business.
N-able also has a team of over 24 experts in Sydney, including eight partner success managers, as part of its global MSP partner enablement program. These initiatives help build a community where people can learn from each other, share best practices, and benefit from expert insights into the industry. “When we look at the market, we see that people look to their peers first before they’re calling anybody else and that makes sense as they’re in the trenches together. We want to foster that engagement, whether they’re a customer of ours or not, and encourage the community to talk to one another,†said David Weeks, N-able’s senior director of partner experience.
Take a closer look at how N-ableOpens a new window helps managed security service providers optimise their offerings and stay ahead of the curve.