Reports show an increased demand for MSPs due to current cybersecurity landscape

The increased cases of cyber-attacks coupled with SMBs' unpreparedness to deal with these attacks has led to an increased demand for MSPs with solid security infrastructure. This is according to the “2022 SMB IT Security Needs Report” prepared by cloud RMM provider, Action1.

The report notes that more than half of the businesses interviewed admitted to lacking the proper infrastructure and skills to defend themselves against modern-day threats. 60% of the respondents acknowledged that their current security setup is “very limited” or “needs improvement.”

Some of the reasons given by organisations for failing to properly secure their business include high cost of security solutions, lack of resources/time, and security solutions interfering with user productivity.

81% of the participants admitted to having been targeted by at least one security incident during the preceding 12 months. Password attacks were the most common accounting for 40% while ransomware and phishing followed with 39% and 34% respectively.

On the bright side, the majority of organizsations are ready to do something about it. 6 out of 10 businesses said they would moderately increase their IT security budget while 1 out of 4 respondents said they were planning a significant increase.

The good news is that this represents an opportunity that MSPs in cybersecurity can pounce on. The bad news is according to the report, SMBs have become more selective in their service providers due to tough economic times. In fact, 1 out of 4 participants said that they were considering dropping their current provider. When prompted for a reason, the most recurring answers were that devices being managed by MSPs had performance issues, a lack of prompt response by MSPs when there was a security incident, and taking too long to resolve IT requests.

What this means is that MSPs with the best chances of success are those that have all the right certifications and can guarantee a fast incident response to customers.

To conclude the report, Action1 had a few recommendations for service providers, “offer cost-effective solutions, work on solving most common problems SMBs are experiencing, improve operational efficiency and service quality, educate customers on the threat landscape and work closely with them to create a solid IT security strategy.”