With third-party research showing that 75% of companies across Africa encounter challenges in recruiting and retaining qualified cybersecurity professionals, there is a need to embrace security outsourcing to mitigate against the risk of attacks. This is according to Kaspersky who believes that South African organisations will increasingly turn to managed security services (MSS) in the coming months to strengthen their defensive stance.
Putting this into perspective is recent Kaspersky research that has shown that 45% of South African organisations surveyed have experienced an incident over the past 24-months (2021-2022). Even though 52% of respondents introduced additional security policies or requirements to combat this, almost a third (29%) have sought external IT security expert advice.
Despite the threat of cyberattack, less than half of companies have a dedicated role or department to manage cybersecurity. This is where an MSSP becomes mission-critical. These partners use tools that enable businesses to quickly deploy and scale protection while reducing the time needed to detect and respond to threats.
“Kaspersky is a partner for MSS providers in South Africa by delivering solutions and cyber intelligence data to their Security Operations Centres (SOCs). Trusted technologies enhanced by well-built processes, a professional team, and the expert qualifications of the partner provide a compelling value add for local businesses looking to adopt round-the-clock security for their operations,” says Brandon Muller, technology expert and consultant for the MEA region at Kaspersky.
Another advantage of going the MSS route is the flexibility that a monthly subscription model provides. This sees the company benefitting from a pay-as-you-go licensing system where it only pays for those resources that are needed to solve a specific business problem, and only for the time when they are needed. At the end of the month, these two factors form the cost of the subscription.
“Of course, a monthly subscription has the added benefit that the security product can be used without requiring the involvement of a partner. When it comes to support, the subscription incorporates these requirements in the fixed monthly fee making forecasting far more accurate,” adds Muller.
The MSS provider model when it comes to security outsourcing has significant growth potential in South Africa and the rest of the continent. As local awareness of the importance of cybersecurity solutions increases, turning to a trusted MSS provider that benefits from the breadth and scale of Kaspersky creates an enabling platform for companies to better safeguard their data, applications, and workloads for a digital environment.
