If the global pandemic weren't enough, MSPs will be facing new changes in the coming months and years pertaining to internal (and external) security practices and technologies. What does this mean for your MSP security practice? We will explain.
Post-Pandemic Security
It should be no secret that cybercriminals have used the global pandemic to increase and shield their nefarious activities over the last 12 months. While bad actors were quite active leading up to the pandemic, since the outbreak, these cybercriminals have simultaneously ramped up their attacks while at the same time using the pandemic as cover. After all, what better time to launch cyberattacks than during a global pandemic.
As the world begins to get vaccinated and a post-pandemic norm settles in, the cybercriminals will undoubtedly continue their activities, leaving organizations and MSPs to prepare for what is coming next. But, what should the MSPs anticipate?
Next-Gen MSP Security
The days of having only a firewall are over. I think we all know this. Firewall management has been a standard managed services offering from MSPs for years. Still, policy-based firewall protections are no longer sufficient to protect MSPs (and clients) from the dangers lurking out there.
SIEM (security information event management) has been a great supplement to firewall and other endpoint management technologies. Still, the SIEM tools have traditionally required people (in a SOC) to unleash those benefits. With cybersecurity unemployment maintaining record lows, growing a SOC practice can be challenging for many MSPs, both from a cost perspective and finding the talent.
This brings us to XDR.
XDR for Managed Services is relatively new and still making its way throughout the enterprise community, not to mention the MSP community. Extended Detection and Response may not mean a lot to you right now, but that will change soon. First, let's establish some definitions to help you better understand what is coming.
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) was coined by a Gartner analyst back in 2013. Aimed to enhance the existing endpoint devices commonly used by MSPs to protect themselves and clients, these devices needed additional analysis to exploit the benefits fully. https://blogs.gartner.com/anton-chuvakin/2013/07/26/named-endpoint-threat-detection-response/
