For the modern business, security costs are expensive. Most of the companies now want to cut their costs while increasing returns. Obviously, outsourcing various services is seen as the best possible way to do that. We can easily outsource security but that can be quite risky in the event that you do not know what to do.
The firms that will offer a service like this are known as managed security service providers, MSSP for short. Services offered usually include PCI compliance and IT security. Whether or not you should consider them depends on the advantages and disadvantages associated with security outsourcing.
Security Outsourcing Advantages
The most important advantage for many is the associated cost. When you run a security team that is in-house, you have to pay benefits, salaries, create an office space and deal with operational costs. Outsource security and you just pay for the service. The needs of the employers are taken care of by the MSSP.
The second advantage you have to understand is that you gain access to a superior expertise and technology. The company that you hire only handles security related tasks so their expertise is obviously going to be higher. When you want to incorporate everything in-house, you end up paying a lot and you are faced with the necessity to pay high salaries to get really skilled staff.
The last thing we should consider is related to support. Support is offered at any point of the day for the valid contract. Businesses are always going to be secured and you can be sure that the security issues that do appear will be taken care of as soon as possible.
Security Outsourcing Disadvantages
The biggest disadvantage is risk. As an example, let us say that you are securing something that is particularly sensitive. You are faced with trusting another company with the intellectual property that you own. For many firms this would be inacceptable. It is important that you conduct a suitable research before you decide to hire any outsourcing company.
Make sure that you sign a suitable SLA (Service legal agreement) so that confidentiality can be respected and even backed up by both insurance and law. Many of the security service providers are going to offer insurance though so this should not be a problem when you work with serious providers.
Control loss is another thing you have to worry about. As an example, it is the IT security outsourcing provider that will decide what hardware and software to use. In some cases you may end up with contract breaches as you install something that would not be suitable based on the indications of the provider.
Finding A Good MSSP
Many things can be said about this but the truth is that you can find a good provider if you are a little patient and you think about the following:
- Never hire an MSSP if you do not look at reviews written about the company. Consider as many resources as possible for the reviews as some are going to be fake.
- Discuss everything with the service provider. Ask for details about everything, including insurance and service level agreements.
- In the event that the service is really cheap, you want to consider working with someone else.