What is a cybersecurity service provider?
What Is a Cybersecurity Provider?
A cybersecurity provider is a third party that handles your network security. You can outsource certain aspects of your cyber protection to a cybersecurity provider. Or, you can partner with a cybersecurity provider that offers all-in-one cyber protection. Cybersecurity providers keep pace with emerging cyberthreats to help protect your organization against cyberattacks, like ransomware and data breaches.
Cybersecurity Providers Offer
- Application Security: Helps you securely build and launch apps and make sure they comply with industry data protection requirements
- Cloud Security: Protects your cloud data, applications, and infrastructure, helps you migrate to the cloud or safeguard your existing cloud environments, and monitors and manages your cloud environments
- Endpoint Security: Safeguards your end-users and devices against ransomware, malware, and other cyberthreats, monitors your users and devices, and detects and resolves cyberattacks and data breaches
- Intrusion Detection: Monitors your networks and systems and alerts you about any indicators of compromise (IOCs)
- Managed Detection and Response (MDR): Provides threat intelligence and analytics and investigates and responds to security incidents
- Network Security: Monitors and manages your network, makes sure only authorized users can access it, and offers tips and recommendations to maximize security across your network
- Security Information and Event Management: Monitors and analyzes security events in real time and tracks and logs security data
- Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR): Coordinates and executes incident response activities and identifies and eliminates security gaps in your IT infrastructure
- Security Monitoring: Looks for suspicious activities and behaviors across your IT infrastructure and notifies you about them
- Vulnerability Analysis and Assessment: Looks for security flaws in your IT infrastructure, analyzes security vulnerabilities, and provides you with insights on how to address them
How Cybersecurity Services Are Delivered
- On Premises: Your services are set up on site at your business, and you manage them on your own.
- Managed: One or more of your services are outsourced and managed by an MSSP.
- Hybrid: Some of your services are set up on site at your business, and others are outsourced and managed by an MSSP.
Why Partner with a Cybersecurity Services Provider?
- Industry Expertise: Your services are backed by a cybersecurity provider that has industry professionals on hand to address any security issues.
- Time and Cost Savings: You don't have to look for or pay in-house cybersecurity staff to handle your security; instead, your cybersecurity provider manages your security so you can focus on your day-to-day business activities.
- Personalized Cyber Protection: Your cybersecurity provider learns about your business and its security requirements and offers services that line up with what you need.
- Security Coverage: You get 24/7/365 cyberthreat protection.
- Compliance and Auditing: Your cybersecurity provider can secure your IT infrastructure in accordance with GDPR, PCI DSS, and other industry requirements.
How to Choose a Cybersecurity Services Provider
Figure Out What You Want from Your Cybersecurity Provider
- Evaluate your security operations
- Determine how much money you can spend on cybersecurity — and how much you'll need to get the optimal level of cyber protection
- Conduct surveys and questionnaires of employees and C-suite leaders to learn about any security issues that they deal with on a regular basis
- Ask a cybersecurity provider to audit your IT infrastructure and tell you about any security gaps it finds
- Get information from the provider on what services you can use to secure your infrastructure
Questions to Ask When Meeting with Cybersecurity Providers
- How will you protect my data and systems against cyberattacks?
- Can you tell me about your staff's cybersecurity qualifications?
- Do you have your own security operations centers (SOCs)? If so, where are they located? And are your SOCs operational 24/7/365?
- How do you work with customers during security incidents?
- If a cyberattack occurs, how quickly will you respond to it? And when will I find out about the attack?
- Can you describe a time when you put an incident response plan into action?
- How do you onboard a new customer?
- What do your service-level agreements (SLAs) cover?
- How much do your cybersecurity services cost?
- Will I be able to use my existing cybersecurity tools with your services? Or, will I need to implement new cybersecurity tools or systems?
- Who do I contact if I have a concern or question?
- Why should I choose you as my cybersecurity provider?
Take As Much Time As You Need to Make the Right Decision for Your Business
- Meet with multiple cybersecurity providers, multiple times, to learn about a cybersecurity provider and how it can help you improve your security posture
- Get quotes from cybersecurity providers so you can see which providers offer computer security services that align with your budget
- Request customer references and reach out to them to get insights into what it is like to work with a cybersecurity provider
- Find out how long it will take a cybersecurity provider to implement its services across your operations
- Get documentation that verifies the pricing and services that a cybersecurity provider offers
Looking for Cybersecurity Services That You Can Trust? Sophos MDR Delivers
Sophos MDR is a fully managed cybersecurity-as-a-service offering backed by threat hunters and experts that:
- Hunt for and validate cyberthreats and security incidents
- Provide insights into a threat's context and potential impact
- Remotely disrupt, contain, and neutralize threats
- Provide guidance for addressing the root cause of recurring incidents
- And much more
To get started with Sophos MDR, please contact us today.
Related security topic: What is cyber insurance?
