Leveraging managed services to address talent gaps and mitigate cyber risks

Outsourcing is a proven strategy for success within many middle market businesses, filling talent gaps with trusted third-party personnel. The need for outsourcing is even more pronounced within the cybersecurity function, where a challenging talent environment has made it difficult for middle market companies to attract and retain security staff with the necessary knowledge and experience.

“The need for outsourcing is probably greater than it’s ever been,” says Kane. “As organizations focus on doing more with less, the cyberthreats are still extremely prevalent and they are not going anywhere.”

“Although I think that the talent shortage is starting to shrink a bit as AI creeps in and starts to automate more functions,” he continues, “it’s still going to take at least 10 years to get to a point where we are not in a talent shortage mindset.”

For now, many middle market companies typically cultivate an ecosystem of outside vendors that can address talent gaps while increasing productivity, efficiency and security. But in an optimal scenario, companies can obtain all outsourced services with a single trusted vendor. With vendor consolidation, services are more consistent, and communication is more efficient with several services under one roof and a single point of contact.

In the MMBI data, the leading cybersecurity function outsourced by respondents is cybersecurity risk and compliance management (51%). Other leading outsourced functions include cyber incident response and forensics (46%), security operations center (24/7/365 monitoring) (46%), security awareness training (44%), and vulnerability management (44%).

“It's hard for middle market companies to keep the necessary talent internally, so they often don't have a choice but to go outside,” says Antalik.

In addition to providing more experienced personnel, outsourcing gives companies direct access to advanced technology that would be out of reach otherwise. “A lot of organizations don’t have the financial backing to buy all of the requisite tools and instruments necessary to address today’s complex threats, on top of managing and maintaining the right staffing levels,” says Kane.

In most cases, the most significant benefit related to outsourcing is the perspective from a qualified external provider that understands emerging issues and can leverage experience gained with other clients.

“Many organizations hire managed services providers like RSM to come in as an independent lens to look at their programs and help them identify actual gaps and make recommendations to make security programs better,” says Antalik. “With internal personnel, human nature can get involved, and people may not want to lift up the rug and look under it.

“Firms like RSM work with hundreds and hundreds of different clients,” he continues. “We see a lot of different things and bring those industry and client leading practices to create effective security solutions. It’s no fault of internal personnel; they just don’t have the perspective of what other organizations are doing and what’s working against current threats.”

The cybersecurity environment is only becoming more challenging, making managed security services a more attractive option for middle market companies. With an effective outsourcing approach, companies can gain direct access to the talent and tools necessary to address evolving and persistent cybersecurity threats.