Top Reasons to Outsource Your Business Cyber Security Needs

50% of businesses have a cyber security team of one person. Even in larger companies, two or three people is often the max.

This holds true even as our lives went digital in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic. School, work, and shopping for many people, the primary facets of their identity went online.

The same was true for brands. Instead of their security risks being consolidated to one building, employers were logging in from personal laptops or mobile devices, often from an insecure connection.

Cyber security threats cost billions each year. And it’s not just big gurus like Microsoft and Facebook that are being targeted, either.

Many brands don’t know where to start with cyber security advice. It doesn’t help that there is a significant shortage of IT professionals. Given the shortage and the high salary they command, it’s no wonder that many employers only have one IT professional.

However, that’s no way to keep your business safe. One person can’t conduct the 24/7 network and vulnerability monitoring that you need.

What can you do? We’ve assembled a guide to outsourced cyber security support services. It could be the answer to all the issues you’ve been dealing with.

Save Money While Gaining Experience

With the above-mentioned shortage of cyber security professionals, assembling an entire team can be quite costly. Here’s the thing—you won’t need an entire team all the time.

You’ll need a baseline number of employees to provide around-the-clock monitoring. But cyber security sometimes comes in peaks and valleys. You need the flexibility to save the most money possible.

That’s why outsourcing cyber security work is such a great idea. You only pay for the amount of time they use or the number of projects they work on.

In addition, cyber security professionals who work for an outsourcing agency have so much experience to bring to the table. If they’ve worked in a traditional environment for years, they have a lot of experience too.

But outsourcing agencies throw their IT professionals into a wide range of situations. They’ve worked for so many different clients that they’ve encountered any problem you have.

They also know how to troubleshoot problems that might be unprecedented in other fields. With this type of experience, they’re also up-to-date with the latest tactics, software, and techniques that are being used in their field.

Another plus is that an outsourced cyber security team saves so much time. The recruiting and onboarding process alone can cost many hours from multiple team members.

You’ll also waste time ramping them up. It takes time for a new team member to go full throttle on productivity in a new environment.

This isn’t true for cybersecurity teams. Instead, they are trained to dive headfirst on new projects.

Develop Your Brand

Customers have a long memory. If they feel like they’ve been betrayed, or that your company has let them down, they’ll remember it. They might refuse to ever do business with your company again.

Even worse, they could leave a bad review, tell their friends and family not to shop with you, or call out your brand in a post that goes viral.

This is especially true when it comes to data breaches. Customers give you a lot of highly personal information, such as their home address and banking information.

If this gets out, it could be detrimental. And that’s just information common in the retail industry? What if the stakes are even higher for your company, which is the case if you’re in an industry like healthcare or finance?

Customers may become victims of theft, identity fraud, or burglary if your brand is negligent with your data. Feelings of distrust and a lack of safety are the last things you want to be cultivating with your customers.

If you put in the work to hire a talented outsourced cybersecurity team, you’ll have the resources to make sure your customers’ data stays as safe as it possibly can.

Maintain Compliance Around the Clock

Like we mentioned above, you could be dealing with catastrophically high stakes depending on the industry that you find yourself in. And if you are in those high-stakes industries, such as healthcare and finance, there are strict data compliance standards in place.

Failure to adhere to these standards can result in data breaches. But they can also result in huge fines that could cripple your company.

To make it worse, digital laws are constantly evolving. It’s a wild West out there, and new data regulations keep coming out. It’s hard for your in-house IT team to keep track of, particularly if they are overworked and undereducated already.

Putting the burden on an outsourced third-party team can save your business from lawsuits, fees, and other disasters. It’s their responsibility to stay on top of data compliance laws and adjust accordingly.

This can be a huge stressor taken off your plate. Compliance is one thing, though. What about protection?

It’s like establishing security at your building. There’s no guarantee when someone will try to break in, commit vandalism, tamper with the security cameras, or do other unsavory activities.

That’s why investing in 24/7 cybersecurity is a must, too. There are no set hours in which a hack can occur. If a hack occurs at 6 PM after all your employees have gone home, and no one catches it till 10 AM the following morning, you could have sustained irrevocable damage.

That’s the type of thing that some companies simply don’t recover from. You need around-the-clock watchdogs monitoring your network and vulnerabilities.

And if an issue does crop up, they are already on hand to do damage control and mitigate any issues that do arise. It’s the best way to protect data, keep your business up and running, and serve customers in the best way possible.

That’s hard for in-house teams to do. Hiring a full in-house team with enough people to ensure twenty-four-hour coverage is a massive expense. Some brands can’t even afford to hire a full team to cover a complete eight-hour shift.

This isn’t an issue that third-party cybersecurity teams face. They could be located all over the world, which gives you complete time zone coverage. No matter what time a hacker strikes, you will be well prepared.

The goal is to prevent downtime. Downtime alerts your customers that something is wrong, and it also frustrates them if they can’t access your site. Rather than dealing with a simple cybersecurity issue, you’ll also be dealing with customer service and PR nightmares.

Take A Holistic Approach

It’s tempting to treat your brand like your baby. After all, no one else knows or loves it in the same way you do. No matter how professional or talented an outsourced team is, it won’t be the same.

These worries are often what prevent companies from hiring outsourced cyber security teams. They don’t trust their brand in anyone else’s hands.

New hires get the full company treatment of understanding culture, ethics, and expectations. Outsourced teams don’t get marinated in company culture in the same way. For some employers, particularly those that get protective over their brand, this can be a big issue.

However, being marinated in that culture is a problem with cyber security support. This is especially true if your team built your defenses from the ground up.

They are too close to the actual issues at hand. Since your team is company insiders, they have huge blind spots. Hackers don’t share these blind spots, though, which leaves your company open and vulnerable.

Outsourced cyber security services will be able to perform an unbiased third-party audit. They can see where you are vulnerable, and what tactics can be used to layer defenses across your entire company.

With advanced techniques, they can model and predict risk at lightning speed. This means that with a solid roadmap in place, your outsourced team will be able to respond faster.

Here’s our top piece of cyber security advice—before you start Googling terms like “IT support near me,” take a good look at what you actually need. Chances are, you need much more than a team ready to put out fires.

You need a team that can perform a comprehensive audit, create a plan, and then execute it. From monitoring endpoint security to supervising your network, all of the bases will be appropriately covered.

Reducing Pressure

When it comes to any in-house IT professionals, they are likely overworked. Many companies can’t afford to hire a full team, so they do the best they can with the few individuals they can afford.

This means a massive workload is concentrated on the shoulders of a few individuals. The cyber security defenses of an entire company are a huge weight to carry.

It’s also too much of a strain to carry well. There’s no way one person can perform an unbiased audit, identify the best technologies and strategies, and implement them while still putting out day-to-day fires.

You want the best out of your cybersecurity team. And the truth is, they will be an invaluable resource when it comes to coordinating with an outsourced team.

By respecting their time and labor, you’re doing yourself and your team a huge favor.

Get Ahead of the Curve

68% of business professionals think IT concerns will spike in upcoming years. The world is becoming a digital playground for employers everywhere, and it’s hard for cyber security teams to get a good grip on how to meld remote work and best security practices.

As companies increasingly embrace hybrid work practices, cyber security teams are facing unprecedented challenges. It’s tough to try to adapt to a new environment, especially when demands are always changing.

If you’re wondering where to find cyber security services, prioritize those that have experience with remote work. For instance, their employees could be spread across time zones.

This helps indicate their level of comfort with hybrid work endeavors. Their efforts also give you more time to focus on your core business offerings.

Cyber security is a prime example of the old saying—the squeakiest wheel gets the most grease. If security concerns are being defended against and tended to, there’s no reason for anyone to pay attention to the IT team.

Productive, behind-the-scenes work is what IT teams strive for. If things are quiet, things are going well.

If things are going well, that means you have time to focus on pumping out new products, marketing them, doing customer research, and so much more.

Scalability

Flexibility is a top priority when it comes to outsourced cyber security services. You need a team that can adjust to a hot incident that needs immediate attention, or the ability to revise their hours downward if things are slow.

When you have an in-house team, this presents a huge dilemma. When things are slow, should you lay off employees? What kind of employer are you if you can’t keep your IT professionals consistently employed, and what impact will this have on employee morale?

When you have an outsourced team, you don’t need to worry about these kinds of hiring, lay-off, and rehiring dilemmas. They will be working on other client projects if you aren’t currently using their hours.

Scalability when it comes to cyber security can make a huge difference when it comes to leveling up your business.

Cyber Security Advice

When it comes to cyber security, developing a comprehensive strategy is crucial. That’s exactly what professionals are here for. With the experience of dealing with cyber security issues, find a company that has worked with countless brands to help protect their data, provide 24/7 monitoring, audit their defenses, and create a plan of layered defenses.

A world-class outsourced cyber security team can make all the difference in scaling your brand. Take the jump today!

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