Playing defense is tough. You need to anticipate every move, both known and unknown, and have a response plan you can execute without hesitation. I’ve learned this the hard way during my undistinguished, short-lived career as a high school soccer player.
The cybersecurity landscape is getting more complex and the problems that have made playing defense difficult have only exacerbated:
- There are more users in the cloud than ever
- There are more endpoints connected than ever
- The shortage of security professionals persist
While a lot of the attention in the media is often focused on breaches in large enterprises, we cannot forget that 99.9% of businesses in the US are small businesses (less than 500 employees) and employ 47.3% of the workforce per the SBA. In a world where a lot of businesses are embracing BYOD policies, cloud-based applications, and now remote work, the attack surface area for small and mid-sized businesses is massive.
“Unfortunately, small and mid-sized organizations are also likely to be the least prepared to defend against and respond to breaches.”
Unfortunately, small and mid-sized organizations are also likely to be the least prepared to defend against and respond to breaches. Per Verizon’s 2020 DBIR report, 28% of breaches involved small business victims, while Datto’s “Global State of the Channel Ransomware Report” found that 92% of MSPs surveyed predicted that ransomware attacks will continue at current or worse rates.
Given the increase and sophistication of attacks, it is no longer enough to deploy solutions to help stop and prevent attacks. The ability to detect and respond is becoming just as important. While companies like Securonix (Volition portfolio company) do a tremendous job enabling Security Operation Centers (SOC) of large organizations to cut through the noise and detect and respond to threats, the reality is that most SMBs cannot afford to do build and maintain a SOC in house.
Partnering with a SOC-as-a-service provider to tackle this gap is an effective and crucial way to make sure an SMB’s data, customers, and business are protected. We believe the SOCaaS market will continue to grow and eventually become a must-have for businesses of all sizes. If you are an owner of an SMB, I urge you to strongly consider this option. If you are a provider of SOC services to SMBs, I’d love to connect. We are looking forward to partnering with the next generation of security providers helping protect SMBs and enterprises alike.
