What Is an MSSP, and Why Does My Small Business Need One?

The answer is it is a Managed Security Service Provider, or MSSP, because lord knows we always need one more acronym. An MSSP is a specialized company that provides cyber security. MSSPs are typically a third party that remotely monitors, manages, and secures your business's IT infrastructure, networks, devices and computers, now known today as endpoints. Typically an MSSP such as CyberCloak.Tech utilize a dedicated security operations center to deliver continuous around-the-clock threat detection, incident response, and regulatory compliance, which is important for a lot of small businesses. Aka: small business cybersecurity without a full-time IT team.

Why Hire an MSSP for Your Small Business?

Why even hire an MSSP? Does my small business even need that and Is it worth it for my small business to Hire an MSSP?

A key reason to hire an MSSP today is that the small business is now the single most sought-after target or rather that they are a huge percent of the target market. A large percent of small businesses are actually just one or two owners and of the small businesses that then actually have employees, something like 82% of them are fewer than 20 people. It probably means you don't have a cyber security operations team, especially since the cost to put one of those together can range from high six figures to low eight figures. Small businesses have become the center of attacks because of the very nature of the small business. A lot of the thought process of many small business owners is, "I'm too small and I've never had to deal with that before so I don't need to deal with it now." It's funny that that's the exact reason small business has become the biggest target for threat actors. With the advent of artificial intelligence tools, the threat actor or hacker can dial up large specialized attacks devoted just to you with little to no effort, lowering that barrier to entry. In fact they can automate it so much that they don't even do anything until you click on the wrong thing or answer the wrong telephone call. An example I would give you is a recent customer of ours who literally had just formed his LLC and got permission from a local city council in the Upper Midwest to go ahead and build out their project. Within 72 hours they had three emails that legitimately look like they came from the city, with proper names of elected officials asking for money. If the amounts hadn't been so high or their security awareness less, this customer may very well have clicked on those emails and started looking into the invoices.

What's the Value and Risk to Your Business?

The value and worth for your small business is manyfold. Ask some questions. If I couldn't access any of my systems or data tomorrow what is my plan? How much is down time gonna cost my business?

For example recent study data concludes, the average global cost of a security breach was $4.44 million. IBM Study. For the U.S. that number more than doubles to over $10.22 million per incident on average. Up 9% year over year and an all time high. Preventing that kind of exposure is critical for small business.

Many businesses may not even carry cybersecurity insurance and if you are you're probably not carrying $9 million or $10 million of cybersecurity insurance. In a recent tragedy a trucking company that had lasted over five generations was just extinguished simply because of improper cyber security posture. And ransomware was around $6 million, which blew through their insurance and still left them needing millions more. They didn't and couldn't pay the ransom. I'm not a big 'fear' marketing person. This isn't to scare you. These are just facts. A 158-year-old company just gone.

Cyber Threats Don't Need to Be Sophisticated to Succeed

Cyber threat actors continue to evolve and increase their advantage using complex and advanced methods. Which is all true, however threat actors still use the tried and true methods that are simple. In fact I would venture to guess that nine times out of ten the 'sophisticated' attacks were actually simple attacks. In fact that 158 year old company was lost because of a password. The attacker didn't do some complex sophisticated movie scene hack. No they just guessed it. As a small business owner you wear many hats and if you engage with the right MSSP partner, you can eliminate so many of the simple attacks and the advanced attacks without having to hire a full security team. Things like being able to enforce passwords that are complex and not easy to guess.

What Does an MSSP Cost for a Small Business?

What is the cost of an MSSP for small business? How much does managed detection and response cost? The advent of the MSSP has created a situation where now something that was previously unreachable for small business, is available at an increasingly higher value proposition. A small business can expect to pay anywhere in the $500, $1,000, to $5,000 range for MSSP services. Getting access to services such as managed security operating centers like our ZT Layer. I like to compare it to that scenario where you and your friend happen upon a bear, and your friend says we have to outrun the bear, and you protected with ZT Layer know that you are already outrunning your friend. The cyber threat actor being the bear of course.

How Do Small Businesses Actually Use an MSSP?

How do small businesses use an MSSP? Research shows that over the past few years the main reason companies hire an MSSP, is detecting and responding to advanced cyber threats, including using managed detection and response or MDR. You can often also see the term EDR which references back to endpoints. The key is managed. Actually having someone who knows what they're doing: set it up, configure it, and monitor it so that it's effective and provides the results that your company actually needs. Small businesses also use MSSP to help with compliance and audit work, typically reducing speed to compliance milestones by working with knowledgeable MSSPs. Freeing up internal resources to position to better enable the business. Many small businesses cite the cost savings they experience from engaging with MSSPs. However, more important to these businesses in their decision to outsource their security tasks were speed, efficiency, time savings, and expertise.

Start Your Cyber Security Journey

I hope this helps explain what an MSSP is and why your small business would benefit from engaging with one. Contact us for our free security pulse, where we sit down and ask you 12 questions and give you a risk analysis to start your cyber security journey, free and with no obligations.