Will Cybercrime Court Help or Hurt MSPs?

As more individuals and organizations get involved in cybercrime, you can expect a sharp increase in the number of cybercrime related prosecutions.

MSP Involvement in Cybercrime Prevention

MSPAlliance has, almost since its inception, been an advocate for the use of MSPs as often first lines of defense against bad actors trying to harm end-user organizations. I think most MSPs also see themselves as useful resources for their customers in helping them fight against cybercrime. In many cases, the MSP is the only resource available, particularly in smaller organizations, when it comes to being capable of monitoring networks and identifying if cyber attacks are being aimed at a customer.

Data Breach Notification Cases

I believe it is likely that MSPs will become most visibly involved in fighting cybercrime in the next 10 years as data breach notifications become "mainstream". Now that all 50 states in the US have data breach notification laws, and now that all of the European Union (via GDPR) has it as well, MSPs have a "primary" duty to help customers know whether there was a breach.

This is where it gets tricky. MSPs may view assisting customers with data breach notifications as contrary to the best interests of the MSP. I disagree. I believe data breach notification events provide fantastic opportunities for MSPs to work with and educate their customers on what happened and what can be learned. This assumes that the MSP did not make a mistake.

Assuming the breach was not a fault of the MSP, in many cases we have seen situations where the customer chose not to pursue a particular path in protecting their IT resources (purchasing data backup as a protection against malware, for example). In these situations, data breaches (even breaches occurring elsewhere) can serve as useful tools in educating customers on how best to protect their most valuable IT assets.

Conclusion

MSPs had better come to grips with becoming more visible to the non-technical world. Particularly when it involves criminal court proceedings, it is in the best interest of MSP organizations to be prepared for this eventuality, rather than resist and not embrace change.