Managed Cybersecurity Services: Everything You Need to Know

As the cyber threat landscape grows increasingly complex, organizations are forced to make a choice: invest more into cyber security or risk falling victim to hackers. 

Let’s face it, neither option is appealing. Luckily, there is a middle-ground that allows you to drastically improve your digital defenses without breaking the bank: managed cybersecurity.

In this article, we will discuss what cybersecurity managed services entail, how they work, and some of the key advantages you’ll gain by partnering with a reputable managed security service provider (MSSP).

What are Managed Cybersecurity Services?

Simply put, managed security is the outsourcing of your cybersecurity needs to a third-party provider. This approach offers many benefits. For one, it allows organizations to focus on their core business activities by offloading tedious security workloads. Moreover, most MSSPs offer 24/7 monitoring at a fraction of the cost you’d pay to run it in-house. Let’s now look at the two varieties of cybersecurity managed services you can choose from.

Fully Managed Security Services

Fully managed cybersecurity services are a great choice for starts-ups, small businesses, and budget-conscious organizations.

As the name implies, you’ll get complete access to a provider’s technologies and services. Additionally, they’ll take care of all the implementation, integration, monitoring, and management.

Co-Managed Security Services

For companies who already have some degree of security infrastructure or resources in place, co-managed security services are an excellent option. Partnering with an MSSP is an affordable way to keep these systems active 24/7/365.

Co-managed services are also useful if you wish to build your own security operations center (SOC). Your MSSP can provide strategic advice and offer a framework for successful implementation.

In the meantime, they’ll reduce the tedious strain of round-the-clock monitoring, letting your internal IT team focus on more important tasks.

What’s Included in Managed Cybersecurity Services?

You already know that an MSSP defends your digital assets and infrastructure from cyber attackers. But you may still be wondering exactly how this is done. Most cyber security services include the following:

Threat Monitoring and Management

MSSPs provide round-the-clock surveillance of your systems to ensure no suspicious or malicious activity. Data is collected from an array of sources and analyzed for anomalies. Specialists then determine whether an event should be escalated.

Management refers to all the tasks associated with handling security threats and incidents, from early detection and prevention, to remediation and recovery.

Network security and endpoint security are both central pillars of threat management. This includes things like anti-virus and anti-spam tools, content filtering, and web filtering.

Security and Threat Intelligence

Cyber threats are continually evolving. In order to effectively mitigate cyber risks, it’s imperative to stay on top of current vulnerabilities and emerging threats. If your organization struggles to gather the latest intelligence updates, then an MSSP may be right for you.

MSSPs leverage open and private sources to defend against a variety of dangers, from zero-day exploits and devastating ransomware, to vulnerabilities in outdated software.

Between their insight and experience, they’re not merely well-equipped to tackle passive response. Rather, they can mount a proactive defense in pursuit of abnormal activity. This sets MSSPs apart from many in-house cyber security teams.

Incident Response and Event Investigation

An experienced MSSP is always ready to deal with the worst. In the event of a security alert, your MSSP professionals will immediately work to resolve the problem.

Unlike in-house teams, MSSPs can afford to fully devote themselves to handling events without becoming overwhelmed.

An event investigation occurs in the aftermath of an incident. During this time, software patches will be installed, AV signatures will be updated, and vulnerabilities within your systems will be carefully examined.

If necessary, a third team of highly trained specialists can be brought on to further minimize the intensity, impact, and duration of an event.

Protect Your Business With Our Managed Cybersecurity

Consider partnering with an MSSP as part of a strong security posture. At XL, we offer safety and peace-of-mind to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), all across the greater Chicagoland area with our reliable managed cybersecurity services.

Our unique cybersecurity services include monthly technology audits, helping to reduce risk and IT issues by as much as 80%. Our other cybersecurity managed services include:

• Cloud security
• Penetration testing
• Round-the-clock helpdesk
• Security Operations Center (SOC)
• Compliance management services
• 24/7 Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
• Intrusion Detection/Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS)
• Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

In today’s world, information is your number one asset. That means information security should be your number one priority. 

For more information about our cybersecurity management services, contact us today to get the security solution your business deserves.