The MSP’s Blueprint for Cyber Resilience

For many businesses, downtime and data loss are simply not an option–but merely rejecting these scenarios doesn’t preclude them from happening. The old adage that “failing to plan is planning to fail” is even more true when it comes to cybersecurity.

Unfortunately, the ever-evolving nature of the modern threat landscape presents a greater challenge to today’s increasingly data-reliant organizations. SMBs, and the managed service providers (MSPs) they rely on, need concrete cyber resilience strategies that help them reduce their vulnerability to threats.

The Modern Threat Landscape

Despite the troubling headlines, few people who aren’t directly involved in security realize that cyberattacks have become big business during the last few years. Estimates indicate that global ransomware payments amount to $20 billion per year, a number expected to rise to about $265 billion within a decade. Average payouts have also gone up by over 171% in the last two years, reaching over $300,000.

Smaller businesses are at particular risk. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, “88% of small business owners felt their business was vulnerable to a cyberattack.” Yet these are the very companies that are most likely to lack a comprehensive cybersecurity team, the knowledge of how to begin mitigating the threat or a security-focused MSP to help them.

Today’s hackers are no longer the iconic “guy in a black hoodie.” They are sophisticated, well-funded and well-equipped–and they’re going after your clients’ data.

No organization is immune. Helping clients survive in this threat environment means being able to predict, withstand, and adapt to challenges.

Building Cyber Resilience

Cyber resilience is a measure of your ability to prepare for, respond to and recover from adverse events such as cyberattacks, natural disasters, equipment and communication failures, and more.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated in 2019 that “every company is a software company.” Think you’re not in the software business? You’re probably wrong. Today, software doesn’t just drive productivity, it unites almost every department of an organization. Everyday processes are both defined by, and dependent on, software.

What this means is that as an MSP, you can’t afford not to understand your clients’ IT infrastructure underlying their everyday business activities. And as your clients grow, you’ll naturally want to add layers of protection, recognizing the criticality of software to your services.

Understand Your Clients’ Unique Needs

There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits all data protection and security strategy. No set of policies or procedures can be created that suits all businesses, so it’s up to you to determine, in collaboration with all departments and stakeholders, what the most vital resources and processes actually are.

Build a holistic view of your clients, making sure to:

Balance Security and Protection

Don’t assume that data protection and data security are the same thing.

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Collectively, delivering effective data protection and data security requires service providers to:

Adapt to the New Normal

Old-school, tool-based security strategies no longer cut it when protecting clients with a massively distributed workforce working from home–especially those with BYOD policies.

To secure your clients in a remote-first world with evolving IT standards, master these essential capabilities:

Don’t Forget the Cloud

Perhaps the biggest mistake most organizations make in migrating to the cloud is assuming that SaaS app providers handle security. In fact, the risks increase as your clients migrate more and more to cloud-based platforms and their cloud posture becomes more complex.

Most SMBs aren’t aware of the security hazards inherent to cloud-based apps, even Google or Microsoft’s productivity and collaboration tools. As a service provider, your role is to:

Plan for Disaster

While both data protection and data security are essential, neither fully prepares you for what needs to be done when disaster does strike. For that eventuality, you need to provide comprehensive plans for backup, recovery and remediation:

In theory, working with an MSP can help resource-strapped SMBs level the playing field, letting them outsource some or all of their IT management and security needs. But not all MSPs are equally qualified to play this role. Any provider hoping to find success must deliver a broader range of offerings to help them stand out from the crowd and establish their expertise in the key domain of security.

Kris Schulze is the Disaster Recovery Program Manager at Acronis. A writer and marketing professional, she has published pieces on a wide variety of topics in B2B technology, including disaster recovery, data privacy, and ransomware.

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.