When it comes to cybersecurity, mid-market organizations are uniquely challenged. They encounter many of the same issues that large enterprises do, but in most cases are forced to try to remedy them without the substantial budgets and IT departments that major corporations have.
According to first quarter 2021 Middle Market Business Index data from advisory firm RSM, 28% of middle market executives reported a data breach at their company in the last year, the highest level since RSM began tracking data in 2015 and a significant increase from 18% in 2019. Larger middle market organizations were most at risk, with 42% of executives at those companies reporting a breach, compared to 16% at smaller counterparts.
As attacks and adversaries ramp up, mid-market businesses find themselves in a battle to sustain their growth and security budget. Facing a shortage of security talent without the deep pockets to pay the high salaries demanded by top-level security professionals, these positions often go unfilled and the responsibilities associated with them are assigned to other staff members who are already overworked and wearing too many hats. In other cases, these positions get filled by less-qualified candidates. Either way, the organization is at risk of increased vulnerability to security breaches.
Another challenge is the siloed nature of security tools. The effectiveness of an organization’s security program on the operational side is often inversely proportionate to how many times IT professionals have to switch screens to figure out what’s going on. If you do not have a highly scalable and optimized security infrastructure backed by a qualified team to analyze threats in near real-time and respond, it puts you at significant risk and disadvantage – no matter how much technology you buy.
The pandemic and resulting economic downturn of 2020 exacerbated these issues. When countless companies throughout the world were forced to shut down, mid-market organizations with outdated infrastructure were unable to scale down in response. They overpaid for technology, licenses and features they no longer needed at a time when they couldn’t afford to waste valuable budget dollars. Moreover, with the majority of staff forced to work from home, users were accessing the network and data from everywhere, making the challenges of protecting assets even greater and requiring an increasing number of resources.
Outsourcing and the evolution of security service providers
What is a security threatened, budget constrained, short-staffed mid-market company to do? Many organizations are led to the decision to fully or partially outsource the day-to-day operations of their security program. For the past 20 years, this meant hiring a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP). While doing so took some of the security management responsibilities off of the in-house IT team, it was not without its flaws. In order to remain profitable, most MSSPs rigidly deliver “cookie cutter” solutions. They are paid to monitor a dashboard and if there are any concerns, they simply alert the company to the issue. It is a best-effort model wherein the customer still remains very much engaged – thus delivering little real value.
Today, the MSSP is slowly being replaced by Security as a Service (SECaaS). With this new and improved “all-inclusive” delivery model, the service provider integrates their security services into the corporate infrastructure on a subscription basis. In most cases this is more cost effective than it would be for the midsized organization to manage its own security, particularly when total cost of ownership is considered. With SECaaS, the organization no longer has to worry about purchasing and managing infrastructure, tools and licenses. Instead, it is protected by a provider that partners directly to provide everything needed – tools, expertise, staffing – to deliver a next generation security services in a pay-as-you-go model.
This new model delivers immediate value by completely lifting the day-to-day security management off the IT department. And when the business needs to scale up or down quickly in response to seasonal or other shifts in demand, they can simply add to or remove services and scale up or down as business requires while delivering desired security outcomes.
In today’s world where the unpredictability of life comes at you fast, organizations must have the mindset that “IT comes at you faster.” IT must have the ability to immediately respond, support and thrive under whatever circumstances the organization is experiencing. It is imperative that organizations adopt a zero trust model, which trusts no one and requires continuous verification and multi-factor authentication for anyone trying to access the network. Mid-market companies that partner with the right SECaaS provider can gain peace of mind by relying on their vendor to update settings based on current threats.
For advice on how your midsized business can overcome its security challenges and adopt a zero trust model, contact the experts at Lightstream. As a networking and cloud company that integrates security into everything we build, we specialize in 24x7x365 network monitoring, detecting, protecting, analyzing and remediating security issues. We’ll help you manage costs effectively, reduce complexity and improve the efficiency and efficacy of your data center, network and cloud security.
