The Secure Path: Why MSSPs Must Walk Before They Can Lead
In my two decades advising businesses on cybersecurity, I’ve witnessed incredible progress. Technology has advanced by leaps and bounds, bringing wondrous innovation that makes life easier and businesses smarter. But there’s a downside to this momentum: it leaves many organizations struggling to keep up.
Cyber threats evolve at lightning speed, unleashing new and more ruthless attacks before defenses can be erected. It’s easy to get left behind, vulnerable to breach. This is precisely the challenge faced by small and mid-sized businesses, which lack the extensive resources of enterprise companies.
And yet effective cybersecurity is not about having endless budgets. It’s about establishing foundational protections and vigilantly maintaining them, regardless of company size. This is a truth I’ve repeated countless times to my clients. However, I’ve come to realize that we who provide security services must also heed this wisdom. Managed security service providers (MSSPs) like my own company must “practice what we preach” if we aim to secure both our clients and ourselves.
The Dangers of Neglect
MSSPs rightly advise continuous enhancement of cyber defenses through technologies like AI-powered threat detection, zero-trust network segmentation, and rigorous access controls. However, many do not consistently implement these same measures within their own environments.
This discrepancy exposes dangerous gaps. An MSSP that fails to rigorously secure its own assets provides attackers a point of entry into customer systems. Once inside, bad actors can exploit trusted network connections to stealthily spread.
The consequences of a breach originating from an MSSP extend far beyond immediate financial loss. Customers lose faith when their security partner proves insecure itself. An MSSP’s reputation takes a major hit, along with future revenue, from which it can take years to recover, if ever.
Walk Before You Lead
To address this problem, MSSPs must shift perspective. It's easy to get caught up in customer deliverables and lose sight of one's own protections. But an MSSP cannot credibly guide clients unless it masters security fundamentals itself.
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Just like personal health, cyber preparedness requires discipline. Regular checkups, monitoring, and hygiene to stay resilient against illness. For MSSPs, this involves routinely validating security controls, re-evaluating risk, and rehearsing incident response, not just advising customers to do so. It means implementing the same layered defenses recommended to clients, including:
By living out the advice shared with customers, MSSPs build an intimate understanding of cybersecurity best practices. This lends genuine authority when guiding clients in what to do (and not just theoretical explanations of why). It grants insight into which capabilities bring the highest value. And it enables speaking from experience rather than hoping clients implement something untested.
Shared Security
Of course, no company can eliminate risk entirely in today's threat landscape. But MSSPs who walk the cybersecurity path with clients - practicing the same precautions and facing the same challenges - instill confidence. It demonstrates their guidance stems from real commitment versus just being sold as a service.
This empowers small and mid-sized businesses to tackle security with a trusted partner that understands firsthand how to implement solutions that work at their scale. It means an MSSP willing to be transparent about residual risk and be accountable if a breach occurs despite safeguards. This deepens cooperation that allows rapid response when threats arise.
At its core, practicing what we preach recognizes that security is a journey requiring shared vigilance between MSSP and client. Neither can afford to be complacent. As much as we help clients, they propel us to regularly re-examine and strengthen our own defenses. Together, we move forward guided by timeless principles rather than the latest hype. Our progress may seem slow, but with consistent care we will reach our destination.
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