How CISOs Lean on MSPs for More Secure Operations and Data for the Future
Workspaces have evolved rapidly in the past 18 months with new, distributed workflows accelerated by the pandemic and the need for remote working. These workspaces need to accommodate an increasing number of digital natives that expect always-on, instant connectivity and are defined by the need for agile, adaptable business practices.
Creating a unified digital workplace, regardless of physical location, has become mission critical. A recent Gartner survey estimates that remote workers will represent 32% of all employees worldwide by the end of 2021.
As a result, CISOs must implement secure remote-work strategies and balance continued customer engagement and employee productivity with resilience against cyberattacks.
The weaknesses in digital workspaces
“The digital workspace ecosystem is expanding with a growing number of different applications dedicated to supporting remote work, such as virtual assistant technology,” comments Toby Alcock, Logicalis Group CTO. “Ensuring the security of the entire ecosystem is becoming an increasingly complex task as the technology stack shifts, expands and evolves.”
Without the security protections that traditional office systems grant employees, such as firewalls and blacklisted IP addresses—and with employees often tending to mix and match their own equipment with company-issued hardware and devices—the digital workspace needs a different approach to security.
Seventy-one percent of IT professionals recently surveyed said they have seen an increase in security threats since the coronavirus outbreak. And 47% said they were concerned about employees working from home using shadow IT solutions. Meanwhile, a recent IDC survey found that more than a third of organizations worldwide experienced a ransomware attack or breach that blocked access to systems or data in the last 12 months.
As a result, CISOs are having to rethink how they manage risk across their distributed workspaces, following the shift to remote working.
Learning to live with remote working, securely
Developing a flexible infrastructure that can handle the demands of a remote workforce and increasing cyber risks is essential for any business in the digital economy.
The 2021 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report concluded that 85% of data breaches involve human interaction, often due to the demands of the new digital workplace. Internal IT teams are already stretched thin and help desk tickets have risen significantly due to remote working. And attracting the skilled experts necessary to manage these evolving risks is difficult, especially in the wake of a war for talent and shortage of cybersecurity skills.
But simply hiring more staff isn’t the answer.
Partnering with a managed service provider (MSP) with security expertise can help. MSPs have an arsenal of dedicated security employees with specific knowledge and expertise, eliminating the need to recruit and retain security talent. They can also offer advice, guidance and support to best mitigate challenges using IT security solutions.
By leaning on the experience of an IT security services provider, CISOs enjoy an optimized solution that keeps pace with rapidly changing real-world demands, while freeing internal resources for other critical projects that support digital transformation and drive business growth.
“Balancing all differing strategic elements without impacting the overall efficiency of the business or negatively impacting employee satisfaction is a growing challenge for CISOs. However, with the support of a trusted MSP that can manage security, companies can prevent risks before they happen. Not only can businesses increase IT productivity and employee satisfaction, but they can also rest assured knowing that their data is safe and secure in an optimized infrastructure model mapped to their unique business needs,” states Alcock.
An MSP with security expertise also offers CISOs a way to future-proof their security strategy using creative IT security solutions and services to stay one step ahead of the threats. While the MSPs thwart the threats, CISOs can focus more on driving better business outcomes and keep them one step ahead of the competition.
Logicalis: Helping you secure your infrastructure
Logicalis helps organizations successfully deploy and secure digital workspaces, ensuring they are protected while allowing employees the flexibility to access the tools they need—any time, from any location and using any device.
We take a practical approach to zero trust that helps you develop incident prevention, detection and response capabilities to protect your critical digital business environments.
We’ll help you make the right investment in your security infrastructure, programs and policies.
If you’d like, we can assess your security maturity with this simple online security assessment. It requires 20 minutes of your time and will return a score up to 100 so you can see what’s working. Or reach out to your Logicalis account executive for the full report or test the strength of your security solutions provider with this checklist.
Contact us for more information about how Logicalis can help strengthen your organization’s cybersecurity strategy.