Understanding Your SMB Clients' Cybersecurity Needs

When it comes to managed security services, there’s a belief that the only difference between protecting enterprise organizations and small to midsize businesses (SMBs) is simply the breadth of the EDR solution. Unfortunately, the truth is a little more complicated than that.

In recent years, cybersecurity trends have found hackers and other cybercriminals working together to scale up their operations against SMBs. Why? Because SMBs typically lack three key resources enterprises have in abundance: the time, money and expertise to fight back.

SMB Security Needs vs. Enterprise Security Needs

SMBs typically can’t afford to hire full-time IT teams, nor can they afford to shift their focus away from their daily operations to track cyber threats down, so they usually don’t invest much in their data security operations. While the effects of a cyberattack are just as devastating for an SMB as an enterprise, an SMB’s ability to respond quickly and efficiently is dramatically lower.

Enterprise organizations tend to lean toward solutions that have a lot of bells, whistles, data and telemetry. With an IT team dedicated solely to cybersecurity, they have the resources to get real value out of that type of all-encompassing managed detection and response tool.

When an enterprise announces a data breach, it makes the news and cybersecurity firms come out of the woodwork to offer help and assistance. When an SMB is the victim, it doesn’t make headlines. These data breaches happen quietly with the owners left to handle everything on their own.

What SMBs Need in a Cybersecurity Solution

Gone are the days when SMBs could fly under the radar of cybercriminals. Because of their inability to protect themselves, small businesses are viewed as easy targets and are squarely in hackers’ crosshairs. And as a managed service provider (MSP), it's your job to protect your customers.

What SMBs viewed as sufficient security three to five years ago—like AV and firewalls—are not enough for today’s cybersecurity landscape. Spending some time to educate your potential clients on cybersecurity tactics like EDR, threat hunting and layered security is pivotal.

More often than not, SMBs simply adopt a cybersecurity solution via their MSP and turn it on. They don’t necessarily care how it works, as long as it does work. They just want to make sure they’re covered... but cybersecurity is not plug-and-play.

While each SMB is different—as are their needs—some of the common “asks” from your clients may include...

• A “set-it-and-forget-it” cybersecurity solution
• An offering that covers all the bases
• A cybersecurity solution at a price they can afford

However, your clients need more than just a solution they can turn on. They need to gain cybersecurity knowledge and expertise from you so that, together, you can protect their business from any vulnerabilities.

Is your stack missing pieces that your clients need? Watch this webinar to learn about the keys to redefining your cybersecurity stack.

In order to offer the best cybersecurity solution to your clients, you need to understand how a data breach would affect your client’s business and their customers. By asking the following questions, you are helping to create a vested interest in security and how it relates to their overall success:

• What do you consider your biggest cyber threats to be?
• What would happen if you came in tomorrow and everything was encrypted/ransomed?
• Do you have an updated list of every software and system you are using?
• If an employee were to suspect a cyberattack, would they know what to do next or who to contact?

Cybersecurity is ever-evolving, and you’ll want to stay ahead of the curve by integrating ongoing training and education to ensure the security of your customers and their customers.

Fortunately, SMBs are more nimble than enterprise organizations when it comes to making decisions. They have smaller networks to review and protect, and less bureaucracy when approving or implementing a managed detection and response solution.

This makes it easier for your MSP to provide clients with a unique cybersecurity solution that’s affordable, easy to use and scalable.

Why Do SMBs Need Managed Detection and Response?

Small and midsize businesses make up 99% of organizations in the US; this leaves a lot of opportunities for cybercriminals. As technology advances, so must our understanding of where our vulnerabilities lie.

Regardless of the need, an SMB may not have the following required for a strong cybersecurity posture:

• Budget
• Staff
• Resources

This is where your MSP comes in. You have a unique opportunity to educate your clients on cybersecurity best practices so they can stay one step ahead of the threats that are targeting them.

Not only are clients trusting you to be their security expert, but they’re also trusting you to keep their business fully protected—so your offering needs to stack up.

Managed Detection and Response Built for the 99%

At Huntress, we provide a fully staffed SOC team of security experts and researchers that handle hunting for threats and malware analysis, so you don’t have to.

We know just how easily hackers can bypass antivirus and other automation-dependant solutions, which is why we have real humans who are trained to hunt, investigate, research and discover persistence mechanisms and other indicators of compromise. And when we do find something, we provide a report with step-by-step remediation recommendations, empowering even the most junior-level IT person to resolve the issue. 

Each Huntress product is designed with very specific features and functionality so they make the greatest impact for you and your clients. It's our mission to give you a focused and personalized EDR solution that brings enormous value, cost-efficiency and offense to your protected environments.

If you’re ready to see how Huntress can help protect your clients, start your free trial.