What business owners and company leaders should finally comprehend is that cybersecurity matter is not the issue for the IT department. It is a business risk and should be considered an essential part of risk management. In plain language, your risk management program should comprise all possible patch tools to prevent and avoid any attacks. The question of what means to apply is not just up to you. The best practice nowadays is to turn to a professional MSSP (managed security service provider) and trust your cybersecurity to them. According to Gartner, half of the businesses will switch to only MDR services by the year 2025.
Would you consider managed detection and response services the most popular and secure? Let’s tackle this question.
Pros and cons of MDR services
When your in-house IT specialists take care of both business and security matters, they kind of disperse their attention, and there is no proof that you are fully protected.
While outsourcing cybersecurity services, you are sure that the MDR service provider has the only duty – to guarantee your data and information safety. They are experts in their field, so they invest a lot into technologies and make sure these technologies are resistant to any types of cyber attacks.
Another important advantage is that they hire only skilled and experienced specialists whose expertise protects your data from any hazardous attack. Moreover, such companies have multiple clients. That is why they are able to provide cross-reference threats. It is possible due to the fact that they gather, analyze and predict the data they get from various resources at the same time. It results in them knowing all types of attacks, how they evolve and what complications they may bring. It is way more efficient than any in-house specialists can do.
One more advantage of MDR services is that they detect and respond to any hazards on multiple channels (social, mobile, and web). Being narrow-specialized, managed detection and response service providers are able to scale down or scale up their services, and they know themselves when their clients need some extra assistance. Moreover, the data they get is easily analyzed. As a business owner or company leader, you do not need to invest in various expensive technologies, as everything is taken care of without you.
When speaking about the disadvantages of MDR services, it should be noted that providers get access to all your sensitive data inside and beyond the network. It is needed to protect your information system from any cyber-attacks fully. However, it can be an obstacle for publicly traded companies though. It is because of the fact that their stock prices may be affected in case of even minor data leakage. Of course, it is not even an issue if the MDR service provider is trustworthy.
Nevertheless, it is rather a food for thought for you in terms of your customers’ reactions. Most providers of managed detection and response services have everything under control. They secure all the data, especially sensitive ones. However, it should be taken into consideration to assess whether your customers will consider it safe for them.
The metrics to use to evaluate MDR efficiency
Assessing the effectiveness of managed detection and response services is not so easy. However, there are a few metrics that could help you figure out if MDR works for you.
- Consistency. It means that all security measures should be on the same level of efficiency over time for all company aspects. All measures should be updated, reported, and evaluated on a regular basis (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually). The consistency metrics include risk assessment of third-party intrusion and security awareness. The first one is about the same percentage of risk coverage of third-party threats. The second one is the percentage of employees that overgo special training and are acquainted with needed security measures. The conclusion, these percentages should remain the same over time.
- Adequacy. This metric points to the level of satisfaction of all security controls that align with your business needs. This metric is about lining up your business needs and your stakeholder expectations. It includes two main indicators: achievement of patching and achievement of malware update. Basically, it evaluates protection level agreement (PLA).
- Reasonableness. This one may not need a rigorous explanation as it is about fair and moderate security controls. When speaking about the controls being reasonable, the risk manager should assess delays and downtime as well as a number of complaints. When creating new access, delays are estimated on average, usually in hours. Complaints are counted due to a certain security measure.
- Effectiveness. You should answer the central question: Do all security measures and controls work as planned and wished? In other words, do you get the proper and desired results? The two metrics in this matter are vulnerability remediation (it can be the average or the maximum number of days) and the prevalence of cloud security incidents (with relation to cloud configuration issues, it is assessed per year).
Why is MDR a smart investment?
Last but not least, MDR services are highly beneficial to your company’s ROI (return on investment). An experienced provider has all the advanced technologies and top-notch expertise to conduct round-the-clock checks and monitors, leading to a significant boost in your cyber security opportunities. As a result, you save your time and money and have more resources to invest in your business itself. As expenses on professional MDR providers break even much faster than the same amount of investment in technologies for your in-house team, companies are able to reach their expected level of ROI way more quickly.
Summary
Still not sure if your company is on the right track? Still find it difficult to evaluate what you need and reach a conclusion about what is best for you? Our advice for you is to turn to a specialist who will provide you with the required analysis and recommendations for precisely your company. Remember that MDR services are most adapted to market changes and threats evolution. Thus, it is the best way to secure your business to its full.
