When you're interested, you do it when circumstances permit. When you're committed you make it happen.
For security, if you’re not all-in committed, balls get dropped and holes remain open. We often say we’re committed, but sometimes our actions may tell a different story.
I am on a mission to help protect a million people. That may seem like a small number in the scheme of tens of billions of Earth’s inhabitants, but it’s no small feat.
That’s where you come in.
MSPs are in my opinion the most valuable resource to the cybersecurity industry in today’s economy. As an MSP, you service the businesses that essentially make our economy run. Without you and your continued efforts to protect small and mid-sized businesses, I’m positive that we would have more cyber attacks decimating our economies and drastically changing our collective quality of life.
To that end, I have confidence that you are one of the IT services companies looking to do the right thing. You don’t just sweep problems under the rug hoping that they’ll magically disappear.
You’re the type of company that takes problem head on and doesn’t give up until you’ve come up with a solution that works.
I know that cybersecurity problems are probably top of mind nearly every single day. When I was running my MSP (that I sold in 2020 to help MSPs be better prepared for growing attacks targeted them and their clients) that was the nightmare that was constantly replaying in my head.
The big ‘what if’…
What if my business was targeted? Would we be able to recover (even if we had plans in place?).
What I needed was assurance that my team of 54 were all moving in sync. That we were all bought into the same mission. That first and foremost we were there to protect the livelihoods of each and every one of our users.
To confront the growing sense of anxiety or fear of what might be to come, I took a deep breath and decided to follow the following 3 steps:
Inspect What You Expect—of the nearly 1000 MSPs that I’ve evaluated in the past year, nearly every single one discovered issues on their network that they thought were under control. Many were even relatively simple to fix. The problem is it’s hard to focus on everything or even know where to start.
Build the Muscle – even some of the most security conscious MSPs that I’ve spoken to admit that one of the biggest challenges confronting MSPs today is continually and consistently implementing security that works. Unless your team is focused on the intersection of Security and Operations, you likely will have challenges getting security right.
Learn How To Communicate The Issues— A big reason why clients aren’t interested in buying your cyber stack is rooted in them not understanding the value you’re providing. Whether it’s clients, prospects, or even team members, getting everyone to understand why cyber issues are tangibly important to them will lead to them being invested in the cause.
Keeping the business community safe is NOT easy. And I see MSPs as the secret weapon to confront the rise in ransomware attacks. We need to keep focused on doing better. Better at securing our houses. Better at using our resources effectively. And better at educating our clients to buy the right cyber stack. If you are committed to this cause, and break through the cycle of on-going attacks, seriously consider a cyber stack evaluation.
