5 Ways a Managed Service Provider Can Protect You From Cyber Crime

5 Ways a Managed Service Provider Can Protect You From Cyber Crime

With new cyber threats emerging on an almost daily basis, and long-standing ones still causing problems, how do you protect your business from cyber criminals? According to research by Accenture, cyber attacks cost businesses $11.7 million in 2017 alone, with security breaches increasing by 27.4 percent. This shows it can be a challenge for any business to stay on top of the latest threats.
However, one way to ensure your security is tight is to hand the reins to a managed service provider. Here are five ways your MSP can protect you from the latest and largest threats to your business, and ensure the "bad guys" don't get what they came for.

1. Start From the Inside Out

This may seem ironic, but your employees could actually be the largest threat to your business. Whether they are working with company data outside the confines of your office, or opening unknown files on their computers, their actions could end up derailing your business and costing you a fortune. Poor passwords and poor judgment, and even disgruntled employees with a thirst for revenge, are all areas that your MSP must take into consideration.

2. Get the Board on Board

Whether you are a small business or a large corporation, your company owners and shareholders must be on board with investing in robust security measures. Without the necessary budget or a good understanding of issues the company could face, security strategies can often fall flat. A good MSP will be able to explain in layman's terms the risks to those at the top, so that quick and sensible decisions can help with budget allocation and revealing the way forward.

3. A Multi-Layered Approach

It is impossible to avoid a cyber attack completely. However, you can do everything in your power to protect your data and recover any data lost during an attack. By applying a multi-layered approach to your data and systems, you can ensure your most valuable data is as difficult to access as possible. Firewalls, strong encryption and robust user policies are all ways you can protect what matters.

4. Build in Resilience

While you may not be able to maintain a record of 100 percent downtime, you can build resilience and redundancy into your infrastructure. Your MSP may advise you to move everything to the cloud, including data and systems, or to have a failover service to deploy should an attack bring down your main service.

5. Email Filtering

Many cyber criminals rely on employees to do a lot of the hard work for them. Email can be a particularly successful channel for delivering their payloads, whether through a rogue file or a link to a website. While you can educate your employees on the best way to deal with unknown senders, files and links, there will always be somebody who forgets the rules. Instead, your MSP may suggest implementing an email filtering system that stops malicious emails from reaching mailboxes in the first place.

A Worthwhile Investment

Protecting your data, systems and hardware can cost time, money and effort; however, this is time, money and effort well spent when you consider the consequences of a cyber attack. Damage to your reputation, lawsuits for lost customer data, and ransom costs to retrieve your stolen data are just some of the ways cyber criminals could make you pay. By choosing a good MSP with their finger firmly on the pulse of the latest threats, you can ensure your business is less likely to become the latest victim of cyber crime.