Top Hurdles for MSSPs and One Shining Solution
As a Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP), you know that organizations are increasingly looking to you to help them secure their systems and data. The same goes for MSSPs in general. According to MSSP Alert, the Managed Security Services market is expected to increase from $31.6 billion in 2020 to $46.4 billion by 2025. This forecast represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.0%.
You also know it’s not easier to serve your clients today than it was a few years ago. In fact, you’re aware of certain challenges that make your work difficult.
In this blog post, we’ll go over some of the challenges standing in your way and discuss how you can use accreditation from the Center for Internet Security® (CIS®) to navigate them.
Four Challenges Making Your Life as an MSSP Difficult
If you’re like most other MSSPs, you’re dealing with some if not all the following challenges:
Evolving and Sophisticated Cybersecurity Threats
Cybercriminals continually adapt their tactics, which makes it difficult for you to adapt your clients' cyber defenses accordingly.
Keeping up with Emerging Technology
You must prioritize flexibility so that you can adapt to changing client needs and accommodate new technologies seamlessly.
Talent and Skill Shortage
Cybersecurity professionals with expertise in threat detection, incident response, and vulnerability management are in high demand across many industries, which makes it difficult for you to find and retain talent with these skills.
Compliance and Regulatory Requirements
Your clients need help complying with industry-specific regulations such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0, ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical Commission) 27001:2022, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) v4.0 and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), along with state-specific data privacy laws, some of which incentivize organizations to voluntarily adopt security best practices.
CIS Controls Accreditation: A Step Above for MSSPs in Control Assessments
To overcome the challenges above, you need to be able to adapt to the evolving threat and compliance landscapes in a way that supports your clients’ evolving business needs with industry-leading expertise.
Fortunately, you don’t need to do this alone. You can seek CIS Critical Security Controls® (CIS Controls®) Accreditation. Provided exclusively to CIS SecureSuite® Members, CIS Controls Accreditation attests that your CIS Controls assessments for your clients meet the consistency and rigor of CREST accreditation.
Let's look at how you can use CIS Controls Accreditation to address the challenges discussed above.
Adapt to the Evolving Threat Landscape
CIS Controls Accreditation via CREST helps your clients strengthen their cybersecurity posture by leveraging the CIS Controls, a set of best practices that provide a prioritized path to improve an enterprise’s cybersecurity posture.
Organizations use the CIS Controls around the world to defend against common cyber threats. According to our CIS Community Defense Model, your clients can defend themselves against at least 75% of the ATT&CK (sub-)techniques associated with malware, ransomware, web application hacking, insider and privilege misuse, and targeted intrusions using Implementation Group 1 of the CIS Controls. That goes up to at least 90% with all CIS Controls.
Source: CIS Community Defense Model v2.0
Help Your Clients Meet Their Unique Needs
CIS Accreditation communicates to potential customers that you have passed the CREST accreditation process, certifying you as a reliable service provider in the assessment of their organization against the CIS Controls.
You can build on this trust to help your clients go where they want to go. As the CIS Controls are prioritized and prescriptive by design, you can work with your clients to evaluate their cybersecurity programs against the Controls and CIS Safeguards that will make the most difference for their cybersecurity programs. You can then work with them to scale their cybersecurity efforts to work their way through the Implementation Groups.
Want to learn more about Implementation Groups? Check out our video below.
Fulfill Clients' Compliance and Regulatory Requirements
The CIS Controls map to various standards and frameworks. By evaluating your clients against the Controls, you can help them streamline their compliance obligations and avoid duplicate effort. CIS Controls Accreditation communicates this value upfront to your clients and your prospects.
Leverage Industry-Leading Expertise
The Controls are developed, updated, and maintained by a group of IT professionals around the world. These volunteers share their expertise with the CIS team to ensure the Controls continue to reflect the evolving technology, threat, and regulatory environments. In obtaining CIS Controls Accreditation, you communicate to your clients that your assessments meet this level of expertise.
Maximize Your Value as an MSSP
As the demand for MSSP services continues to grow, you need to stand out from the competition. With CIS Controls Accreditation, you’ll be able to help your clients keep up with today’s evolving threats, meet their compliance obligations without wasting their time, and scale their efforts in a way that works for them — all while supporting them with industry-leading expertise.
Ready to get things started?
