MSP 1337 | Cybersecurity Education and Security Guidance

MSPs have always provided to their clients' products and services that fall into the domains of Detection and Protection as well as Identification.  That said, there are two categories in the NIST domain that have often been given little to no attention... Respond and Recover.  Join me this week with Steve Alexander of MSP Ignite to discuss the finer points of Response and Recover. 

The past decade and beyond the MSP has always been about managing the technology infrastructure of their clients.  As the evolution of an MSP has gone from a business model that was largely break-fix has become over time a per-user model.  Our products and services have largely been tied to enabling our clients to do what they do best.  In more recent years it has become increasingly tied to adding protective layers for our client's employees through products and services ranging from VPNs and 2FA all the way out to policies and procedures. What used to be about protecting the employees from themselves, from bad hardware, bad software, etc. Is now about monitoring what they do, where they go, when they do it, and yes how.  Join me this week with Jim Lippie of SaaS Alerts as we look at the past to better understand the future of MSPs providing security services to their clients.

A brief trip down memory lane to simpler times... Looking back 3-5 years we took on the likes of ransomware and malware with additional tools and products that made us look, dare I say, pretty good to our clients in keeping them safe as we avoided paying ransoms by recovering from backups or preventing the spread to the rest of the client's network or even warding off would-be attackers. Fast forward and 2020 seemed to take many MSPs and their clients by surprise.  Join me this week with Bryan Sullo of Clock Tower Technology as we discuss how our clients and prospects are bringing the questions and concerns to us rather than us taking our concerns and security plans to them.  

When drinking from the same cup or bowl doesn't make sense.  Adding redundancy and capacity in the event there is an outage, not so much for your client but for you, the MSP.  This week we welcome back Eric Hanson of Inland Productivity as we discuss different options for redundancy.

I recently had an opportunity to sit down with a long-time friend and colleague, Jason LeDuc of AccessIT Group, and discuss CIS Top 20 and a walk-through of the critical 6.  We spend a few minutes on each control, and that while there is no "easy button," it doesn't mean this has to be difficult. Stay tuned through the end to hear about which control is as important, if not more important, than all the other controls!

This week I had an opportunity to sit down with Corey Muson of PC Matic and talk about Cybersecurity in the K12 space.  MSPs have a huge opportunity to come into the K12 space and help the Tech Directors and other K12 staff navigate a space that is uncharted territory for many.  Join us as we share insights and opportunities to help K12 staff defend against the threat actors who are now targeting this demographic.

It is 2021 and we are jumping right in with a conversation focused on co-managed IT and an idea that says we have to educate the unwilling. We aren't as important as we would like to think we are and our clients and prospective clients hate it when we use fear to sell anything, let alone cybersecurity. I am joined again by Eric Hanson of Inland Productivity as well as a new guest Bob Coppedge of Co-Managed IT.

Each Week we talk about a different area of Cybersecurity and how it pertains to an MSP.  This week I discuss with Eric Hansen of Inland Productivity what it means to position and sell security services, The number of dashboards or panes of glass we find ourselves trying to consolidate, and whether or not that is a good idea.  Last, we talk about how each of these areas put an MSP in a position of asking one simple question... do I stay an MSP or become an MSSP?  I think we have come to the conclusion that all MSPs need to add a lower case "s" as all need to be focused on Security Services as a part of your stack but that doesn't mean you have to change who you are!