{"id":39698,"date":"2020-04-10T15:01:24","date_gmt":"2020-04-10T11:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/?p=39698"},"modified":"2024-10-02T16:13:16","modified_gmt":"2024-10-02T12:13:16","slug":"5-cybersecurity-misconceptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/5-cybersecurity-misconceptions\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Common Misconceptions MSPs Have About Data Security"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 id=\"video\"> Introduction to Data Security<\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/czO9seLhnz0?si=3YFfARJo7B16hmqu\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nSometimes, it can feel as if half the job of running an MSP is working as an unpaid cybersecurity consultant to clients. Speak to anyone in the industry, and they can tell you scary stories about clients who wanted passwords disabled, encryption \u201cturned off\u201d, or backups \u201cmade invisible\u201d.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Whilst such requests are good for a laugh, perhaps MSPs should not be so smug about their own cybersecurity. Despite lecturing clients on the need to keep their systems secure, almost 50% of MSPs admit to investing in cybersecurity measures only after experiencing an attack.<\/p>\n<p>Yep, that\u2019s right. MSPs are getting much better at understanding business processes, leveraging the power of MSP business insights, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/msp-helpdesk-structure\/\">building customer support systems<\/a>. They are less good at securing their own systems.<\/p>\n<p>In large part, this is due to a number of misconceptions about data security. Some of these concern threat hunting. Others are simply a reticence to recognize the scale of the cybersecurity threat that MSPs face. In this article, we'll take a look at these misconceptions, and explore the ways that your awareness of them can be used to prepare your business against cyberattacks.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"further-reading \">Further reading<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/data-security-in-the-cloud\/\">Data Security in the Cloud: Best Practices for MSPs and Their Clients<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>1. A Firewall Is Enough<\/h2>\n<p>Ten years ago, there was a widespread assumption that internal networks could be protected by a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/email-firewall-comparison\/\">firewall<\/a>. Despite ample evidence to the contrary, that idea is still common. The truth is that the vast majority of malware is delivered via email and the Web, and standard firewalls are incredibly bad at spotting malicious traffic in these mediums.<\/p>\n<p>To make matters worse, clients who are given control of their own firewall will quickly attempt to undermine its effectiveness. They won\u2019t mean to, of course, but after being blocked from downloading a \u201creally useful\u201d app, most users will simply whitelist the relevant site.<\/p>\n<h2>2. Cybersecurity Is Cheap<\/h2>\n<p>This is a particularly widespread myth among MSPs. We\u2019ve got loads of smart, well-educated computer engineers in-house, goes the thinking. Why do we need to buy expensive cybersecurity software?<\/p>\n<p>Well, here\u2019s an analogy. You probably haven\u2019t let your dev team design their own home-brewed payment processing software, right? Why not? Because you don't trust them to make it secure against theft and hacking. Instead, you rely on professionals who are specialized in that field. Cybersecurity is no different.<\/p>\n<p>It's true, of course, that some cybersecurity solutions aren't cheap. But that doesn't mean they aren't good value, especially when you factor in the cost of a successful hack.<\/p>\n<h2>3. I Won\u2019t Get Attacked<\/h2>\n<p id=\"last\">This is another commonly held belief among MSPs, albeit one that is slightly more explicable. If you provide services to a bank, for instance, you might think that hackers would go after the bank rather than their MSP. But you would be wrong.<\/p>\n<div id=\"slidebox\"><a class=\"close\">\u00a0<\/a><!--HubSpot Call-to-Action Code --><span class=\"hs-cta-wrapper hs-cta-deferred\" id=\"hs-cta-wrapper-eb8a7046-2e03-421f-8d52-d19a9a82d447\" data-portal=\"5442029\" data-id=\"eb8a7046-2e03-421f-8d52-d19a9a82d447\"><span class=\"hs-cta-node hs-cta-eb8a7046-2e03-421f-8d52-d19a9a82d447\" id=\"hs-cta-eb8a7046-2e03-421f-8d52-d19a9a82d447\"><!--[if lte IE 8]><div id=\"hs-cta-ie-element\"><\/div><![endif]--><a href=\"https:\/\/cta-redirect.hubspot.com\/cta\/redirect\/5442029\/eb8a7046-2e03-421f-8d52-d19a9a82d447\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"hs-cta-img\" id=\"hs-cta-img-eb8a7046-2e03-421f-8d52-d19a9a82d447\" style=\"border-width:0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/no-cache.hubspot.com\/cta\/default\/5442029\/eb8a7046-2e03-421f-8d52-d19a9a82d447.png\" alt=\"CTA\"><\/a><\/span><\/span><!-- end HubSpot Call-to-Action Code --><\/div>\n<p>In reality, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/are-your-clients-more-secure-than-you-do-something-about-it\/\">MSPs are a huge target for hackers<\/a>. That\u2019s for a couple of reasons. The first is that they hold data on a whole array of clients, so an attacker gets two (or three, or a dozen) hacks for the price of one. The second, as we hope is becoming clear, is that the data held by MSPs is often poorly secured in comparison to the security in place on their clients\u2019 systems.<\/p>\n<p>And if you need further convincing, just think: tiny businesses and even private individuals get hacked all the time. It\u2019s estimated that 20 percent of cyberattacks that result in a data breach affect small businesses with fewer than 250 employees, and the financial impact of these hacks on everyday consumers is huge.<\/p>\n<h2>4. We\u2019ll Be Able to Handle It<\/h2>\n<p>This one is not a problem just for MSPs but is rife across many industries. If you have in place a breach mitigation plan, and all your systems are backed up, it can be tempting to think that you\u2019ll be able to recover from even the largest hack.<\/p>\n<p>But are you sure you would even spot an attack if it occurred? Research shows that 81% of reported intrusions are spotted not by internal security processes or systems, but by external sources such as news reports and external fraud monitoring agencies.<\/p>\n<div class=\"call-to-action\">\n<div class=\"call-to-action__left\">\n<div class=\"call-to-action__tag\">FREE WHITEPAPER<\/div>\n<div class=\"call-to-action__title\">The Value of Backup in Ransomware Protection Strategy<\/div>\n<div class=\"call-to-action__text\">What your ransomware protection strategy should look like? Learn in this whitepaper:<\/div>\n<!--HubSpot Call-to-Action Code --><span class=\"hs-cta-wrapper hs-cta-deferred\" id=\"hs-cta-wrapper-27d7d748-35ec-439a-be76-37ca4f01f7bf\" data-portal=\"5442029\" data-id=\"27d7d748-35ec-439a-be76-37ca4f01f7bf\"><span class=\"hs-cta-node hs-cta-27d7d748-35ec-439a-be76-37ca4f01f7bf\" id=\"hs-cta-27d7d748-35ec-439a-be76-37ca4f01f7bf\"><!--[if lte IE 8]><div id=\"hs-cta-ie-element\"><\/div><![endif]--><a href=\"https:\/\/cta-redirect.hubspot.com\/cta\/redirect\/5442029\/27d7d748-35ec-439a-be76-37ca4f01f7bf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"hs-cta-img\" id=\"hs-cta-img-27d7d748-35ec-439a-be76-37ca4f01f7bf\" style=\"border-width:0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/no-cache.hubspot.com\/cta\/default\/5442029\/27d7d748-35ec-439a-be76-37ca4f01f7bf.png\" alt=\"CTA\"><\/a><\/span><\/span><!-- end HubSpot Call-to-Action Code -->\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"call-to-action__right\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Value-of-backup-in-ransomware-protection.png\" alt=\"Ransomware WP icon\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2>5. Passwords Are Enough<\/h2>\n<p>This one is less of a myth and more of a reminder. It\u2019s true that a well-designed password-protected system is pretty secure. But only if it is used correctly. As an MSP, you have a responsibility to remind your clients that the security protections you\u2019ve put in place in your software \u2013 including the requirements for unique, strong passwords \u2013 are there to protect your clients, and not annoy them.<\/p>\n<p>Which brings us back to where we started, in fact. Because, whilst you are checking that your clients are using your systems in the way they were designed to be used, take the opportunity to put extra protection in place for them (and you). Recommend that they use a <a href=\"https:\/\/privacycanada.net\/best-vpn\/\">secure VPN<\/a> and invest in their own threat detection and mitigation software, and you\u2019re also protecting your own systems into the bargain.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"further-reading \">Further reading<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/zero-trust-security-model\/\">Zero Trust Security Model: The Biggest Advantages and Obstacles<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>The Bottom Line<\/h2>\n<p>Ultimately, allowing yourself to believe any of the myths above has a financial cost. This can come in the form of lost revenue caused by a hack, damage to your reputation, or even fines for not protecting data enough.<\/p>\n<p>For that reason, the best approach for most MSPs will be to look at the cost of cybersecurity alongside the rest of their financial KPIs. By balancing the costs of good cybersecurity against the possible costs of a hack, you will be able to see this investment for what it is: a way of ensuring the sustainability of your business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Introduction to Data Security Sometimes, it can feel as if half the job of running an MSP is working as an unpaid cybersecurity consultant to clients. Speak to anyone in the industry, and they can tell you scary stories about clients who wanted passwords disabled, encryption \u201cturned off\u201d, or backups \u201cmade invisible\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":39700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[877,884],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-articles","category-msp-business-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39698"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58678,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39698\/revisions\/58678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}