How MSSPs Provide Better Value with Exposure Management and Security Validation

According to the November 2021 Neustar International Security Council (NISC)’s survey, 71% of respondents had plans to increase their reliance on third-party vendors. As cyberattacks are increasing and the threat landscape continues to evolve, we are seeing a growing trend with organizations choosing to use MSSPs to help quickly scale their security. Though this is great news for MSSPs, it comes with ties attached. With the surge of interest in outsourcing security, there has been a drastic shift in how executive leadership views its involvement in a company’s security.  

Economic Uncertainty = Increased Executive Scrutiny  

Organizations are focusing on prioritizing security as they see the disastrous effects a cyberattack can have. However, because of the current economic climate, many companies are being forced to find ways to optimize their current budget instead of increasing it. The board and C-suite are becoming more involved and want to know the true value of their existing investments and the impact on their security posture.  

Because MSSPs are trusted with managing large portions of organizations’ security infrastructures, they are also experiencing increased scrutiny. Companies wish to know if they are protected from the next attack before it occurs, but it can be challenging for MSSPs to aggregate the necessary data in real time to prove the value of the investments.  

Methods to Demonstrate Your Security Program is Effective

There are various tools and methods available for MSSPs to demonstrate that their security programs are indeed effective. 

Pen tests and vulnerability scans can be helpful, but they are point-in-time assessments. An organization’s security posture is affected by many different variables—both known and unknown—that are constantly changing and causing perpetual drift, so continuous re-evaluation is necessary for conclusive data. 

Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) tools are valuable for continuously validating security controls, but they don’t provide information about a company’s breach feasibility. Maintaining a robust security posture and keeping risk low requires the continuous assessment of a security program’s performance, end-to-end.   

A new approach based on the Gartner recommended Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) can be implemented on the Cymulate Exposure Management and Security Validation platform that goes beyond BAS to provide a continuous, holistic, and proactive approach to cybersecurity. XSPM combines outside-in reconnaissance, security awareness, infrastructure resilience, and security control validation in one platform to provide complete visibility of an organization’s security posture. With a continuous security assurance program, MSSPs can maximize their clients’ operational efficiency while minimizing risk. 

Extremely valuable features of the Cymulate platform tools are their reports and dashboards. Following every assessment, the platform automatically aggregates and analyzes all the data collected from the assessments. MSSPs can create customizable dashboards and reports for each of their clients by selecting the relevant data, filtering it, and presenting it in graphs, charts, or metrics in a few clicks. MSSPs that are responsible for managing their clients’ entire security operations and infrastructure can immediately remediate and close any gaps, utilizing future reports and dashboards to show the impact of their actions. Those clients that are co-managing their security operations can use the data to remediate and close the gaps for themselves.  

Additionally, MSSPs can use the same customizable reports and dashboards to get a general overview of all their clients in one place. The reports and dashboards are dynamic to ensure up-to-date analytics and information for fast decision-making. The ability to communicate value while preventing downtime, disruption, and the high costs associated with a breach, builds client confidence and trust.  

Three Key Benefits of Exposure Management and Security Validation for MSSPs 

As outlined above, the Cymulate platform can first and foremost help MSSPs communicate the true value of their security activities, but these platforms can also be used to expand the types of services they offer, as well as improve the quality of services they offer. Here are a few ways that MSSPs can use the Cymulate platform to optimize their services.  

1. Generate Additional Recurring Revenue 

XSPM gives full visibility into a client’s tech stack so MSSPs can expand their portfolio and deliver security validation as a service, attracting additional clients and creating a more comprehensive offering. MSSPs can help detect and remediate misconfigured technologies, zone in on ineffective processes, and diagnose where there might be a lack of control coverage. With knowledge of gaps as well as product overlap, they also can provide consultations for selecting additional technologies or replacing current ones with options better suited for a particular security stack.  

2. Improve Customer Satisfaction

Instead of working overtime to deliver SLAs within deadlines, MSSPs can adopt a continuous security validation strategy and improve the effectiveness of detections and alerts while reducing mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to remediate (MTTR). Additionally, by launching real, immediate emerging threats and novel tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), MSSPs can demonstrate protection before any of their clients are attacked.  

3. Minimize Operational Costs

Managing multiple clients is expensive, labor-intensive, and time-consuming. The Cymulate platform's multi-tenancy enables MSSPs to launch an assessment (out-of-the-box or customized) from one dashboard for multiple clients simultaneously. Additionally, easy-to-use dashboards and analytics allow them to become more efficient and confident in their services, resulting in a reduced number of analysts per client, directly affecting the bottom line and making the MSSP more profitable. 

Furthermore, MSSPs can launch cost-effective automated red teaming campaigns and practice purple teaming all in one platform to reduce manual tasks. The Cymulate platform provides continuously updated assessments and an open customizable framework. Furthermore, MSSPs can improve detections and alerts, which results in fewer false positives requiring investigation.  

Conclusion 

With new boardroom demands and increased interest in the value that MSSPs provide organizations, the Cymulate Exposure Management and Security Validation platform can deliver the visibility that everyone is looking for. Both MSSPs and their clients can benefit from a continuous security assurance process; MSSPs can expand their services portfolio, and clients can get better security services, so they are less likely to be impacted by a cyberattack.