Every business is different, so it’s safe to say that the way security is managed greatly varies from organization to organization.
Within some larger companies, the C-suite recognizes the importance of security to the business’s bottom line. In these cases, there’s often a Chief Security Officer (CSO) or Chief Information Security officer (CISO) and a Cybersecurity Operations Center (CSOC) team set in place, with plenty of budget for sophisticated security monitoring tools, enough staff to manage them and the human capital to execute and support.
Unfortunately, that’s not the reality for all companies. Most IT and security teams spend their days fighting fires with never enough staff, time, visibility or certainty. For these businesses, it’s essential to focus on consolidating skillsets and toolsets, and effectively organizing teams for success.
That’s where it becomes advantageous to lean on a security partner. As a Managed Service Provider (MSP), Windstream Enterprise is experienced in filling the gaps to ensure your organization has the roles and responsibilities in place to support cybersecurity during an era where it matters the most.
Security professionals: High demand, short supply
Cybersecurity Ventures’ Cybersecurity Jobs Report found that there will be 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs globally by 2021, up from one million positions in 2014.1 That’s a grim reality to face with ransomware attacks growing 62% worldwide (158% in North America alone) between 2019 and 2020.2
Security professionals today are being heavily recruited and the market for talent is seriously competitive. This presents a challenge to companies trying to better their security to combat mounting cyberattacks. Many businesses struggle to afford the type of talent that can answer every threat from every angle. Having a security partner helps keep your organization secure by providing 24/7 security during a time that’s very difficult to acquire or retain talent.
Security skillsets, training and toolsets
Remember those 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity job openings? What if you learned that of the candidates who do apply, fewer than one in four are even qualified?3
Security professionals must adopt a “stay current” mindset to be always learning and remain knowledgeable of the latest vulnerabilities. This is in addition to expensive certifications—such as a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) accreditation—that IT professionals must renew every one to two years. On top of that, it’s beneficial for your IT team to be educated about the latest network and security architectures like Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), and to be certified across all vendors that you do business with.
Partnering with a security partner alleviates the pressure for many organizations that are lacking in resources and talent by providing deep expertise and hands-on support into the solutions you’ve purchased. Investing in a trusted partner—versus the costs of training staff on hardware, licenses and other unknowns—will help you combine administration and key network security functions into a single platform, while greatly reducing costs.
Patch management
It seems that the more the world connects, the bigger the cybersecurity risks are. The shift to remote work at the onset of the pandemic ignited a fire, making people and businesses more vulnerable to cybercrime. With everything else that IT professionals have been juggling over the last two years to keep networks up and running, it’s proving to be difficult to prioritize code patches and fix vulnerabilities without any outside support.
Leveraging a security solution with built-in support is a way to work around this challenge. Managed Network Security (MNS) from Windstream Enterprise offers an integrated suite of network and security solutions that detects and mitigates threats in real time, removing all the burden from IT professionals. MNS comes with firewall, intrusion prevention, security information and event management (SIEM), content filtering and application control, and it’s run by a team of security professionals in our CSOC to handle your tactical security issues and free up your staff for more strategic endeavors.
What’s right for you?
Our customers come from many industries and in many shapes and sizes, but cyberthreats do not discriminate. Every organization needs to take cybersecurity seriously. That starts with making security needs a part of your business’s bottom line and establishing organization-wide training to stay as safe and smart as possible.
We wish there was a hard and fast rule to know precisely if and when you’ll need to outsource your CSOC to a service provider. While IT staff size and skillset are important factors, some of the largest enterprises rely on MSPs and Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) instead of building out their own CSOC. Furthermore, many chief information security officers (CISOs) and security teams are turning to a SASE framework to help address the remote access environment, enhance operational efficiencies, and support antivirus efforts and patch management.
Not only does SASE offer better security, but it does so with more features, functionality and enhanced visibility. All of these factors require someone to proactively configure and monitor, while being able to react to the latest vulnerabilities and attacks in real time. This is where Windstream Enterprise’s CSOC team excels—by being the partner to manage your security needs.
The choice really comes down to one question: How confident are you that your team has the resources and skilled staff to detect, contain and respond to vulnerabilities and cyberattacks? If your team’s resources are concentrated on other top-level priorities, it may be wise to leverage a security partner to provide CSOC capabilities.
References
- Morgan, Steve. “Cybersecurity Talent Crunch to Create 3.5 Million Unfilled Jobs Globally by 2021.” CyberSecurity Ventures. 2021.
- “SonicWall Cyber Threat Report.” SonicWall. 2021.
- Winick, Erin. “A Cyber-Skills Shortage Means Students Are Being Recruited to Fight Off Hackers.” MIT Technology Review.
