By the end of this article, you will:
- Learn the pros and cons of working with a cybersecurity service
- Know what to look for when choosing a cybersecurity company
- Determine if you are a good fit for cyber security services
Highlighting careers in cyber security and the contributions and innovations the cybersecurity workforce has made to enhance security is important. But how do these innovations impact your daily life? Are you capitalizing on the contributions cyber security services have made to improve cybersecurity for the future?
Proven Data is committed to providing you with information on the cutting-edge professional cybersecurity services and best practices you should be using in 2023 and beyond.
Pro tip: check out how to recognize and respond to phishing attacks.
Learn how you can partner with cybersecurity professionals and services to improve your security. By working together, we can help you determine the path to comprehensive cyber security protection.
What are cyber security services?
Cybersecurity is a science that focuses on protecting data and information for businesses from any kind of industry.
Cybersecurity services provide businesses with high-standard security protocols.
Among the assistance and services provided by a cyber security company are:
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Detecting threats, mapping risks, and locating security breaches
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Providing specialized cyber security expertise and creating a cybersecurity plan to reduce risks
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Identifying cybersecurity vulnerabilities in your company’s system
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Training your team on cybersecurity best practices
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Working as a cybersecurity consultant to help with questions and issues
There are several cyber security services a specialized company can provide you. Contact Proven Data experts to see which service best fits your business needs.
What are the different types of cyber security services?
- Network security
- Data security
- Application security
- Endpoint security
- Database and infrastructure security
- Identity and access management (IAM)
- Internet of Things (IoT) security
- Cloud and mobile device security
- Disaster recovery and business continuity planning
Pros and cons of working with a cyber security service
Cybersecurity services offer a variety of benefits to keeping your security running smoothly. However, outsourcing cyber security is not a perfect fit for everyone.
That’s why we are outlining the pros and cons of working with a cyber security service, so you can have a transparent look at the positive and negative aspects of outsourcing cybersecurity.
Pros of outsourcing cyber security
1. Real-time threat detection and response
Having a cybersecurity service on call 24/7 ensures your organization can respond and remediate cyber threats quickly and efficiently, even when your employees are off the clock.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released an alert in August 2021 indicating an increase in large-scale ransomware attacks on holidays and weekends when offices are closed. In 2023, you can add hybrid and remote work to your list of cybersecurity risks.
Forensic data we have collected from previous cases, backs this alert, with the majority of attacks we see after business hours.
This is a good example of the importance of having a cybersecurity service backing you up.
2. More cost-effective and reliable than training internal employees
A cyber security service provider eliminates payroll and employee benefit package costs that come with internal cybersecurity teams.
According to Cisco’s 2020 CISO Benchmark Report, 55% of organizations choose to outsource their cybersecurity due to cost efficiency.
Also, organizations often only need a one-time service like a security architecture review or program development. In this case, hiring an external cyber security specialist saves your organization time and removes the cost of training and certifying an internal employee.
Also, specialized cybersecurity professionals are in shortage, and companies do not always manage to find these highly trained professionals.
3. Expertise and experience combatting evolving cyber threats
To be ahead of cyber threats require constant learning on threats, utilizing threat intelligence, and improving the understanding of the current cyber threat landscape.
Cyber security services are continually updating industry certifications and continuing education on new technologies and threats.
Cons of working with a cyber security company
1. Workload spread between clients
Since your organization is one of many clients served by a cyber security company, your request may not be addressed with the immediacy an internal team would be able to provide.
However, ensuring you have a carefully crafted service level agreement (SLA) can eliminate the downside of slower responses.
And even a slow service is in time to prevent considerable losses to your businesses. Besides, the cyber security company will guarantee your business continuity.
2. Lack of organization-specific knowledge
The job of a cyber security service is to keep its clients secure. However, they cannot have extensive knowledge of the inside workings of each client’s organization like an internal security team would. Even though cybersecurity services, such as Proven Data, have deep knowledge of each type of industry, their demands, and compliance needs.
However, outsourced cybersecurity professionals will not know the day-to-day updates, and new network configurations additions to your network unless you alert them.
This downside can be solved with consistent communication between all parties.
3. May not know the customized products/services your organization needs
Cybersecurity companies often provide security subscriptions designed to fit a generalized client base.
Unfortunately, your cyber security budget can easily be overspent by standard protection packages. Some cybersecurity vendors will attempt to oversell security solutions that are more than your organization requires.
The Proven Data cybersecurity team builds custom-tailor security offerings to meet your specific security and budget needs.
Top 5 traits to look for in a cyber security company
If working with a cyber security company appeals to you, there are a few qualities you should look for when choosing between security companies.
1. Qualifications
When deciding on a cyber security company to work with, find out if they follow a regulated security framework. Look for certificates and regulations such as The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The NIST framework ensures your security protection is operating at the highest standards and practices.
2. Up-to-date threat intelligence
The use of threat intelligence is a hallmark of a good cybersecurity company. Threat intelligence will collect, process, and integrate data to coalesce similarities between separate cyber attacks. This helps prevent similar attacks by using information and data from previous cyber incidents.
3. Accessibility
Cyber security services often have a specified capacity of endpoints that they can serve. Endpoint capacity limits are utilized to make sure a cyber security service can properly serve the bandwidth your organization requires.
When choosing a cyber security company, make sure the size of your organization qualifies for the service.
4. Transparency
When you select a cyber security company, you must check if they can provide an itemized list of the services offered—more than just their statement of work (SOW).
You need to know specifically what you are paying for when you invest in cyber security services. Understanding the costs of cyber security will help you select a company that is the right fit for your IT budget and company size.
5. Plan of action
An experienced cyber security company understands that breaches still occur despite all efforts to prevent them. Being prepared is the best way to mitigate damage.
When a cyber crime or data breach occurs, the cybersecurity service you choose to work with must have an incident response plan established to lessen the damage to an organization’s ability to function caused by these scenarios.
Efficient incident response plans should follow a coordinated and organized approach to minimize harm and increase the timeliness and success of recovering from a cyberattack.
How to tell if you’re a good fit for cyber security services
Still unsure whether cyber security services are right for you? Let’s recap what makes you a good or bad fit:
You might be a good fit to work with a cyber security service if:
- You want to have cyber security professionals on call 24/7 to remediate and respond to cyber threats quickly and efficiently.
- If you don’t want to go through the onboarding process, provide payroll and employee benefit packages and invest in continual training for an internal specialist.
- You’re looking for a one-time service like a security architecture review or program development.
You might not need to work with a cyber security company if:
- You want a dedicated security specialist working with your company without the distraction of handling multiple clients.
- Your organization is in a specialized industry that requires insight and specific data protection methods that an internal security team would be better equipped to handle.
- You don’t want to have to work out a custom-tailored security protocol with an external security team.
Next steps to becoming cyber secure
Cyber security products and professionals offer great ways to boost your security. But without your help, we cannot fully protect you. The best protection happens when we work together.
At Proven Data, we assist businesses with creating custom-tailored preventative cyber security solutions. We are standing by to help you discover and resolve your network vulnerabilities before a cybercriminal takes advantage of those vulnerabilities.
You can learn more with the documentary Operation Cyber Aware from the Proven Data team and Fmr. FBI Special Agent Patrick Gray of the Computer Crimes Squad.
Want to learn more about cyber security solutions?
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