The Rise of Managed Security Service Providers

Francis O’Haire

Group Technology Director

A proven thought leader with vast experience in both the technical and commercial aspects of this fast-changing industry. Francis is a true technologist with a unique understanding of the needs of the channel and their end users.

The Managed Service Provider (MSP) of today should be adept at providing remote IT services to those businesses that do not have the requisite in-house expertise to manage their systems, databases, applications etc. - or those businesses who struggle with the cost of hiring such talent.

As part of the evolution of MSPs, the concept of managed security services emerged with some MSPs expanding their portfolios to focus exclusively on system and data security. The industry now identifies true specialists as Managed Security Service Providers or MSSPs. This is quite different to those MSPs who may only cover security as a part of their overall offering and therefore not have the appropriate focus and investment in cybersecurity skills and tools

Most SMBs will consider that enterprise-level security tools and solutions fall outside of the scope of their IT budget. And that’s without factoring-in how they go about acquiring the skills to work with such tools or to run a Security Operations Centre (SOC). It’s no great surprise then to learn that many businesses choose an MSSP to mitigate the pressures that they face with respect to all aspects of information security - malware, data theft, skills shortages, limited resources and evolving cyber threats.

Organisations increasingly need highly-skilled and diversified people who are able to implement, integrate and manage all of the tools and solutions found within the cybersecurity landscape of today. However, skilled cyber-security staff are very hard to find these days and even more difficult to keep on the payroll. The results of a 2021 report published by non-profit cybersecurity network, (ISC)² clearly illustrates that we are in the midst of a severe global cybersecurity skills shortage. According to the report’s findings, the global cybersecurity workforce needs to grow by 65% with almost 200,000 people needed in Europe alone.

And all of this comes at a time where security threats are becoming increasingly complex and dangerous. And at the same time, businesses are seeing their own IT environments become more complex and distributed. Organisations are having to contend with the likes of multi-cloud environments, remote or hybrid working practices, SaaS and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies - the list goes on. It is clear therefore that organisations need to adopt resilient cybersecurity strategies that allow them to run their businesses smoothly, whilst protecting against any potential security threats. But many SMBs cannot afford to employ dedicated IT personnel, never mind cybersecurity experts. It is therefore critical that they work with a good MSSP that has the right skills and tools in place to deal with the increasingly complex and rapidly evolving IT and cybersecurity landscape. However, even the best MSSPs are challenged with hiring and retaining highly skilled cybersecurity specialists.

“The global cybersecurity workforce needs to grow by 65% with almost 200,000 people needed in Europe alone.”

In conjunction with a critical skills shortage in this area, the skilled staff retained by MSSPs do not want to end up dealing with such mundane tasks as wading through thousands of low priority or false positive security alerts and incidents. Working at an MSSP can involve simultaneously supporting a variety of clients, all of whom will have different security tools, processes and even SLAs. There is an awful lot of switching between tasks and constant tool toggling that can end up being tedious for someone who is highly skilled. Tools such as SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) can significantly help in dealing with all of this “noise” and allow the engineers to focus their skills on only the most important and critical threats. By leveraging technology to standardise any repetitive, high-volume tasks that can threaten to overwhelm security analysts, means more time for innovative and competitive projects and happier, more satisfied workers. In this way an MSSP can operate with a smaller team whilst also delivering a better quality service.

For any business, managing IT security represents a huge challenge. With the changes to how we all work these days alongside the complexities introduced by the move towards cloud computing, cybersecurity is providing headaches to all involved. Many organisations are choosing to work with an MSSP but even the best of these providers are finding it extremely tricky to hire and retain highly skilled cybersecurity specialists. Tools such as SOAR will certainly help to streamline things but addressing the low numbers of skilled security workers should be a number one priority.