October 6, 2023 | By christa

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Navigating Cybersecurity Awareness Month: Your Guide to Securing Your Organization

• Tech News

October marks Cybersecurity Awareness Month – the perfect time for companies to review their cyber defenses and ensure they’re protected against the growing digital threats. With data breaches and ransomware attacks rising, focusing on security is more critical than ever. Partnering with a managed service provider (MSP) can help reinforce your organization’s protection from these malicious actors – but how? In this article, we’ll explore how an MSP can bolster your cybersecurity efforts for maximum safety.

The Current Threat Landscape

The current digital security arena is constantly shifting and complex, with bad actors using more advanced tricks and tactics all the time. Cyber threats are also becoming more frequent and costly – according to IBM, the average data breach now costs $4.45 million.

Ransomware hits remain a huge worry, with threat groups demanding massive sums to unscramble important data. Phishing and social engineering attacks have gotten more convincing and personalized, making it hard for people to distinguish genuine communications from malicious ones. Also, supply chain hacks have surged in prominence, with cybercriminals sneaking into the systems of trusted suppliers to compromise their customers.

Despite all this, 62% of SMBs lack the in-house skills to handle cybersecurity, which is where working with an MSP can help.

Outsourcing Security: The Benefits

Outsourcing your security to an MSP isn’t just about access to a specialized team – it’s about having the peace of mind that you’re getting superior protection. An MSP brings more than just sophisticated tech and threat awareness; they provide comprehensive coverage with minimal internal resources, so you don’t have to worry about managing complex systems or defending against cyber threats yourself.

Investing in an MSP means safeguarding your organization with industry-leading expertise and up-to-date info, allowing for better defense without breaking the bank.

Let’s explore some key benefits of partnering with an MSP to secure your organization:

24/7 Monitoring and Management

MSPs monitor networks and devices around the clock to quickly catch potential vulnerabilities and threats. This means they can respond right away to contain the damage from cyberattacks. They act as an extension of your IT team, handling your security infrastructure, maintenance, and support 24/7.

With nonstop oversight of your systems and data, MSPs can spot unusual activity that may signal an impending attack. These experts know what to look for and can rapidly investigate and tackle emerging threats. This constant vigilance allows MSPs to stop attacks before they spiral into expensive data breaches.

Backup and Disaster Recovery

Data is the lifeblood of any organization, so having a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy that includes backup and disaster recovery measures is absolutely essential. MSPs provide both to safeguard your systems and information.

Backup involves regularly copying and archiving mission-critical information. If a breach or outage occurs, backups allow you to restore systems and files without data loss. MSPs can set up automatic on-site and cloud backups to run continuously or on a schedule. Cloud backups give geographic redundancy, so backups are not impacted if your office has a fire, flood, or other disaster.

Disaster recovery means planning and preparation to respond to unplanned downtime quickly. Having documented policies and procedures to restore systems, regain access, and coordinate teams will enable faster recovery. MSPs can create and handle your disaster recovery plan based on your operations, systems, and goals. Their breach response experience gives practical insight into effective recovery processes.

Ransomware Protection

Ransomware attacks have been rampant with no sign of slowing down – increasing by 37% from April 2022 to April 2023. MSPs offer multi-layered ransomware protection, including email and spam filtering, endpoint detection and response, patch management, access controls, and data encryption.

MSPs proactively prevent ransomware infiltration by locking down vulnerabilities, monitoring networks, and keeping systems current. If an attack succeeds, MSPs are skilled at swiftly isolating infected devices, restoring encrypted data from backups, and activating recovery plans to restore productivity. Their methodology defends your organization while minimizing downtime and avoiding ransom payments.

Partner with an MSP and Secure Your Organization

As technology continues to evolve, so do the risks associated with it. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) have opened up new entry points for potential cyber-attacks – making it more important than ever for companies to be diligent

in their cybersecurity efforts. To stay one step ahead of these threats, organizations should prioritize investments in security solutions.

For a cost-effective way to access enterprise-level protection against modern cyber threats, consider partnering with an MSP like LeadingIT during this Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Our team is well equipped with the expertise needed to strengthen your organization’s security posture by transitioning from a reactive approach towards proactivity, focusing on early detection and mitigation of malicious activities before they become a problem. Contact us today if you’re ready to strengthen your organization’s cybersecurity posture.

LeadingIT is a cyber-resilient technology and cybersecurity support provider. With our concierge support model, we provide customized solutions to meet the unique needs of nonprofits, schools, manufacturers, accounting firms, government agencies, and law offices with 20-200 employees in the Chicagoland area. Our team of experts solves the unsolvable while helping our clients leverage technology to achieve their business goals, ensuring the highest level of security and reliability.