Cybercriminals are working as devils for all businesses globally. Creating adequate cybersecurity is now becoming one essential priority for all businesses operating globally. However, management of cybersecurity could be a struggle for almost all businesses- however, managed security services are changing this.
While with larger enterprises there are multiple layers of cybersecurity protection, small and medium enterprises don’t come with so much privilege. The reports say most of the SMEs in Southeast Asia still find it challenging to arrange for cybersecurity protection for their businesses. Amongst the main reasons for this is – that cybersecurity is mostly an afterthought for almost all of them.
Most of the businesses address cybersecurity reactively when they would require taking a proactive approach. There are two prong benefits to this – it keeps your business prepared also use advance methods of threat detection so that they could deal with tougher threats.
Cybercriminals are highly aware that businesses are mainly just reactive towards any cybercrime. Research states cybersecurity threats have increased at an alarming rate to 168% in May 2021. When Covid forced business to remote working modules, most businesses, especially SMEs spent a huge amount of their finances on the business continuity tools. This and making sure employees possess the right kind of devices to work from home plus also increased their adoption of the cloud services.
In cybersecurity tough, maximum companies don’t possess the right kind of skills that can ensure that their businesses and data are all well secured plus protected. Complicating further is the fact the global body of cyber security professionals are just a few in number. However, there are tech giants like Microsoft and Cisco that are partnering with the regional businesses and the institutions of higher learning to help in bridging the skill gaps in digital functions.
The reason behind Cyber Security Being a Business Challenge
Although there have been technological advancements like the topologies in network without perimeters that makes our lives smoother, multiple challenges in security have been posed to endpoints, traffic on the internet, cloud capabilities and added software. These challenges have been in security are faced by small organizations:
Lacking in preparedness
All the businesses would experience incidence in security in a certain form or another at certain point. It is not about ‘if’, it’s ‘when’. Hence, preparation is the key to resilience, understanding and accepting the cyber threats, preparing for a certain cyberattack also ensuring that the business could respond also recover as rapidly as possible.
Over-relying on IT Service Providers
Providers of IT services has solved all kinds of technological challenges for the SMEs as they remain the go-to people for anything that is related to IT. IT security remains a completely different ball game as there is no one solution that could protect your small business. When at point it is possible that you have an IT service enhancer who is good at offering security, most of small business provider in IT are merely resellers of antivirus and firewall solutions. These kinds of cyber security solutions for the SMEs are sold as the one-stop solutions where they fail to make informed choice.
Constraints in Budget
There is a dearth in budget for all small businesses. It is also true that more than often senior management is unaware of the technological side of the business also how SMEs remain easy target for the cybercriminals. This should never be merely a ticking on the boxes provided approach if the security conducted service for cases like GDPR, PCI, etc.
Theft of Sensitive Information
This can very well be information pertaining to personnel or even the IP of your business profile. Losing the compliance because of theft of sensitive information or leakage could easily lead to legal and financial risks for any small businesses. Hence, relevant controls pertaining to business area makes sure that the network security in small businesses along with web protection help in growth.
Mobile Workforce
Even though businesses wish to use the latest of devices coming in market, SMEs do not have the processes plus resources to think about it through a perspective of risk. Hence, the mobile devices, Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD) policies could provide a wide range of gap within the IT risk posture.
Security Solution Option
It’s a simple answer. Businesses could get someone else to do the task for them. With the growing number of SMEs embarking into the cloud, the businesses are getting managed from anywhere. For you could also choose to outsource your cybersecurity.
MSS or managed service providers offer security services towards businesses, where the companies can monitor plus manage the security systems and devices. Through the entire year, most of the SMEs have already given their IT functions to an outsourcing company. Hence, it is not new that they outsource their cybersecurity also.
There is a plethora of MSS providers today, from bigger industries like SecureWorks and Accenture to some of the startups flourishing today. Services that are provided include anti-viral service, scanning the vulnerability, VPNs, intrusion detection, and managing firewalls.
The MSS could also help SMEs to adopt a zero-trust aptitude towards security. Most of these services remain the common business domains where they are weak in robust cybersecurity issues. The following reasons tell you why MSS is a probable solution for your business:
- Talent Management – It is going to be a while before security skills gap is narrowed down, however till such time, the best solution could be outsourcing cybersecurity to the experts.
- Bring down the cost of cybersecurity management – A common issue faced by SMEs is how much cybersecurity protection would be needed. With MSS, they would not need to worry of cybersecurity solutions or updating their security software. Managed security services ensures that the security and protection patches remain updated thoroughly and constantly.
- Alerts on immediate intrusion – Managed security services will notify the businesses instantly if they detect active threats, also assist towards removing suspected threats.
- Compliance Management – As the data privacy laws are getting stricter, SMEs could struggle towards meeting all kinds of set compliance plus regulations. Managed Security Services helps them in managing the issue by making sure data remains well protected also secured based on local requirements.
- Focus on different other areas – As managed security services would focus on cybersecurity; businesses could shift their focus along the lines of business development plus implementing other kinds of technologies to find greater efficiency.
Conclusion
The challenge now is to get the SMEs to understand the significance of seeing cybersecurity as one priority for their enterprises, instead of being an afterthought. As we all know, managed security services along with their customized solutions at lesser costs could afford SMEs the best kind of solutions towards cybersecurity needs.
While your consumers can make easy targets, businesses that are unprotected remain highly valuable to all cybercriminals. When you ignore cybersecurity, it is as good as leaving yourself vulnerable to anyone.
