Benjamin Hosack, Chief Commercial Officer at Wiltshire-based cyber consultancy Foregenix, believes 2018 legislation such as GDPR, continuing high profile hacks and their consequences, including resignations at board level, are starting to change minds.
He says: “Increasingly the board, rather than just IT or operations departments, is realising it has a responsibility to understand cybersecurity and ensure comprehensive procedures are followed. The trend is moving away from viewing issues such as compliance as a tick box exercise and towards a procedural framework which improves security. After all, what’s the point in just trying to get through ‘a sign-off process’ if the breach happens and the results are costly?
“Many businesses appreciate it might be a matter of time before they experience a major incident, so a more proactive approach to cybersecurity is necessary. One result will be more investment from firms in solutions which want to cut through the data, see alerts which really matter and so action can be taken quickly.”
Hosack also believes we will see a switch to Managed Detection and Response services. He says: ‘Continuing skills shortages will mean businesses which lose cybersecurity expertise will be left facing the challenge of operating security systems and determining the real threats within all the noise of day-to-day business-as-usual alerts.
“The solution could be greater use of specialist Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services for many businesses. SMEs, unable to afford or warrant a full-time cyber-security professional will see MDR services as critical to monitoring assets and detecting threats early in the breach cycle – before data assets are stolen.”
Jason Howells, Director EMEA, Barracuda MSP (Managed Service Provider) recalls that cybersecurity and industry consolidation continued to be hot topics for the EMEA IT channel in 2018. “While it’s not a very controversial prediction, I really do not expect this to change in the next year or so. But what does bring potential is the way channel partners adapt to and address these challenges. That could make all the difference.
“In the coming year, the channel will need to identify new ways to work smarter and faster to meet the needs of their customers, along with the demands of what is becoming a very dynamic and crowded marketplace.”
He suggests that cybersecurity education is the key to a bulletproof security posture; MSPs should educate their customers on why they can’t afford the negative consequences that come with not investing in the services.
