Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are being targeted by highly sophisticated, targeted cyberattacks, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, SMBs and mid-market companies are accelerating their spending on cybersecurity, and a significant portion of this money is being spent on managed security services. Ninety-five percent of MSPs have had clients request cybersecurity assistance, and spending growth on managed security services is projected to reach 13% per year between 2020 and 2024.

Cybersecurity presents an enormous opportunity for MSPs to differentiate themselves and remain competitive as standard MSP services, such as remote administration and backup, rapidly become commoditized. However, MSPs may have limited expertise in selling cybersecurity solutions and are unsure how to address client objections.

To help MSPs talk customers through the knowledge gap, we have listed five of the most common objections, along with ways to counter them.

We have cyber insurance, so why do I need active protection?

Cyber insurance policies have coverage limitations and loopholes. For example, some policies classify breaches that are traced back to phishing emails, a common network attack vector, as occurring due to employee negligence, which is not covered.

Even a robust cyber policy will not cover all of a business’ losses after a cyber attack, particularly if the losses are difficult to quantify. These losses include the theft of digital intellectual property and the costs of repairing damage to the company’s reputation. Nearly 40% of the average total cost of a data breach is due to lost business, which includes customer turnover, lost revenue due to system downtime, and increased costs of acquiring new customers in the wake of a damaged company reputation.

We don’t have the budget or leadership buy-in right now. 

Do you have the budget to remediate a cyberattack? U.S. companies have the highest data breach costs in the world, at an average of $8.19 million in 2020, or $146.00 per record. On average, successful ransomware attacks cost $733,000 to remediate when companies pay the ransom and nearly $1.5 million when they do not.

When was your last security assessment performed? Cybersecurity failure is not always the fault of the CISO or IT team, especially if they have not been given adequate tools and resources to prevent attacks. However, if you haven’t openly communicated to the board what you need in terms of tools and services, you are leaving the door open to get blamed when a breach occurs.

We have backups and a firewall. Why isn’t that enough?

Before attacking production systems, cybercriminals frequently attempt to maliciously edit backups so that victims cannot restore from them. Monetizing a cyberattack is much easier when backups have been corrupted, and the longer attackers are inside the network, the more records they have access to. This translates to increased regulatory compliance fines, increased risk, and further reputational damage.

For the past several years, cybercriminals have been using social engineering techniques to get around firewalls, and COVID-19 accelerated this trend. Sixty-three percent of U.S. SMBs report an increase in phishing/social engineering attacks since the start of the pandemic, 52% report an increase in credential theft, and 50% report an increase in account takeover attacks.

We collect logs, but we don’t monitor them 24/7. Is that really necessary?

Hackers don’t take time off! A cyberattack can happen at any time, even at 2:00 a.m. on a major holiday, making it absolutely necessary to monitor audit logs 24/7. If a customer sues your company after a data breach, unmonitored or insufficiently monitored audit logs can be presented as evidence of negligence on your part. Additionally, you can be subject to regulatory fines under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), the General Data Protection Rule (GDPR), and other data privacy laws, which require that companies practice due diligence in securing their data.

I’m in the cloud and using standard security tools.

Standard cybersecurity tools are woefully insufficient to defend against today’s highly targeted, highly sophisticated cyberattacks. One of the biggest reasons why cybercriminals are turning their attention to SMBs is that large enterprises have robust defenses that make them more difficult to breach. Smaller organizations are considered “soft targets” with inadequate security.

CloudJacketX helps MSPs solve their clients’ security issues, as well as their own

SECNAP’s CloudJacketX security platform was built on the premise that SMBs and middle-market companies should be able to purchase comprehensive security solutions at a reasonable price. The SECNAP Partner Program enables MSPs to offer their clients the same robust cybersecurity protections as large enterprises, without any added responsibility or overhead costs and with service pricing that scales with the size of your clients.

Our flexible security modules enable your MSP to deliver exactly what your clients need, to include: 

• The CloudJacketX Managed SIEM, a groundbreaking security-as-a-service solution that provides superior layers of detection and protection.
• Real-time security monitoring from our 24/7/365, U.S.-based SOC, staffed by U.S. citizens who are all SECNAP employees.
• MDR services that include an intrusion detection system (IDS), intrusion prevention system (IPS), internal threat detection (ITD), lateral threat detection (LTD), and data loss prevention (DLP) tools.
• Endpoint protection, integrated security vulnerability scanning and reporting, and integrated cloud configuration assessments.

All of SECNAP’s technology is developed in-house by our security engineering team, which means that we support all of your cybersecurity platforms and your clients’ compliance needs. As a SECNAP Partner, your MSP staff will be transformed into security experts overnight, enabling you to differentiate your business in a crowded marketplace, grow your client base, and cement your position as your clients’ trusted advisor, enhancing customer retention and boosting customer referrals.

The MSP’s Guide to Securing SMBs

MSPs who serve small and mid-market enterprises are struggling to offer a streamline and complete solution that is in line with their client’s budget. This guide will address how to maintain profitable while offering an easy to manage, comprehensive solution that actually mitigates cybersecurity threats 24/7.