Top Security Offerings to Increase your Profits as a Managed Service Provider

Posted by Geraldine Hunt on Mon, May 13th, 2019

Corporations entrust their entire reputation and consumer privacy to MSPs and every client is a possible target. Managed service providers need an arsenal of security and IT offerings that give customers the best services.  Poorly designed infrastructure, outdated software, and weak security can be the end of an MSP when clients can’t entrust their data to a provider.

There is a learning curve to running a security-minded organization. For MSPs, nothing can damage brand and reputation more than one or more of your customers falling victim to a ransomware attack or experiencing or a data breach. Below are some of the key security services MSPs can offer to expand their security stack to increase profitability and safeguard clients.

Assessment and Auditing Tools

Onboarding a new client means discovering issues and finding the right solutions for each new enterprise added to a client roster. Assessment and auditing tools help MSPs determine risk, vulnerabilities, exploit possibilities and find areas where security is needed the most. It’s the first step towards cybersecurity. With these tools, much of the assessment and auditing can be automated. Another reason to have these tools is to help clients understand the need for cybersecurity. It’s not uncommon for clients to put aside cybersecurity for other budget concerns, and it can mean their data privacy and lead to a data breach.

Password Management Tools

Using one password across multiple platforms is a cybersecurity risk to a client, so the user should be forced to use different credentials to avoid the risk of losing multiple accounts to a data breach. Unless a single sign-on option is used for all enterprise accounts, users forced to keep track of passwords can often write them down or store them in insecure locations. A password manager eliminates this risk by encrypting and protecting passwords and giving users a way to keep dozens of 10-character passwords in a safe location.

Not only do password managers keep credentials safe, but many enterprise solutions have centralized controls that allow an administrator to quickly revoke credentials should an employee leave the organization. This gives MSPs a better way to manage onboarding and offboarding without letting any rogue user accounts stay active.

Backup Resources

Many small to midsize businesses have poor backup solutions mainly because they don’t have the resources to automate them. Busy onsite IT staff leads to ineffective backup automation, and just one corrupted file can mean thousands of dollars lost. MSPs can improve upon client backup procedures by adding their own backup automation that’s more reliable and usually available on a private cloud. By improving backup automation, an MSP greatly reduces the risk of severe outage and data loss.

Email Filters and Security

Attackers know that the easiest way to gain access to credentials or even a local machine is using phishing and malware attachments. Phishing attacks are now more common than any other form of cyber risk, and they have increased by 250% in recent years. Not only have phishing attacks increased in number, but attackers have also become more sophisticated in the way they trick users.

With the increase in phishing, it’s more important than ever that an MSP finds the best cybersecurity for email servers. The best include artificial intelligence and a system that can use DMARC. DMARC is the most recent in email security that uses DNS and filtering rules set up by an administrator. This system greatly reduces the potential for phishing, spoofing, and emails with malicious attachments to reach the targeted recipient.

Security Helpdesk and Training

Cybersecurity issues can enumerate into the thousands for a large organization. Training is the first step in defenses, which empowers users to identify and report suspicious behavior. Users should be encouraged to report cybersecurity issues, but before they can report issues, they must be able to identify them. Training is an effective way to give users the ability to identify attacks and confidence to report them.

A helpdesk is also useful in streamlining reports and routing issues to the right person. By streamlining reports, cybersecurity issues can be handled more quickly and more efficiently. Users can feel free to call helpdesk people who will guide them in the right cyber security choices and determine if an issue should be sent to another group to investigate a report further.

Monitoring and Patching

Without efficient monitoring, an MSP can’t be effective during an attack. By offering a monitoring solution, an MSP can provide 24/7 protection to clients.  It’s the final component to a full-service list of offering imperative to MSPs.

Monitoring along with all other offerings is how an MSP distinguishes itself from competitors. It lets MSPs be proactive instead of reactive, giving them better cybersecurity service. The best monitoring solutions and defenses can make an MSP the better choice for any enterprise.

DNS Filtering

What would your customer organizations do without the Internet?  You can ask the same question of cybercriminals as well.  They depend on the Internet.  Whether it be an embedded link clicked by a user or a drive-by website that someone coincidently visits, malicious code nearly always gets download from the web.  That is why you need a web filter that blocks these threats at the source before a web session even has the opportunity to begin. 

The Importance of your Stack Offering

As an MSP, you can’t prevent your clients from clicking on something bad.  What you can do is secure their environment and reduce their exposure to risks.  Security tools by themselves can’t totally eliminate risk.  By offering a competitive security stack, you can distinguish yourself by not only serving as a cybersecurity enforcer but also as an educator.  Take the time to train your clients concerning good processes and procedures.  Send a weekly or monthly cybersecurity newsletter or “tip of the day” to reinforce these practices on a frequent basis.  As an MSP, you are not only the manager of their network, you are the protector of it.  Make sure you have the proper cybersecurity stack and strategy to provide your clients with the protection they need.  

It’s an amazing time to be a managed services provider. As more SMBs and enterprises concentrate on their core competencies, an opportunity arises for MSPs to pick up the IT tasks their customers need to keep the business running.  MSPs that want scale their business must help customers address growing cybersecurity threats. Now is the perfect time for MSPs to strengthen their technology stack and begin offering security services and at the same time staying ahead of the competition.