Eighty-three percent of small businesses are worried that their organizations will be targeted in a cybersecurity attack within the next six months, according to managed services platform company ConnectWise. And even though 43% of such attacks are aimed at SMBs, only 14% of these companies are prepared to defend themselves. That gap between 83% and 14% is something that technology service providers need to pay close attention to.
“That gap is our biggest risk. And that gap is our biggest opportunity,” said Peter Melby, who joined ConnectWise CEO Jason Magee onstage for the opening keynote at the 4th annual IT Nation Secure in Orlando, Florida this week. Melby is founder of Greystone Technology and chief revenue officer of New Charter Technologies.
Melby's Challenge to MSPs for 2023
Then Melby set out a challenge to his fellow MSPs and TSPs and MSSPs attending the ConnectWise event: “Our job is to close this gap this year.”
ConnectWise CEO Jason Magee talked about the need for the good guys to gain traction in today’s threat landscape.
"We can't sit idly by or use the same methods of the past," he said. "Threat actors have motives. We need to understand them, prepare for them, and defend against them. Cybersecurity attacks continue to rise and there is a notable lack of confidence among SMBs about capabilities and resources to defend against bad actors. SMBs need a trusted partner to provide expertise, streamline processes and offer solutions in-house.”
How Will ConnectWise Help MSP/TSP Partners Close the Gap?
ConnectWise’s cybersecurity executives took attendees through a number of measures the company is taking to help partners help their clients close the gap.
ConnectWise CISO Patrick Beggs talked about what he calls the cyberfusion model, which he says is the core of ConnectWise’s defense strategy. It focuses on integration across all aspects of security. It incorporates analysis on emerging cyberthreats – the intelligence about the tactics, techniques and protocols. Those are incorporated with other intelligence. The system leverages automation and machine learning. It’s continually being updated for new threats.
ConnectWise GM and EVP of cybersecurity management Raffael Marty provided some details about how the company is putting these principles into practice.
The following are among the announcements:
- The ConnectWise Cyber Research Unit (CRU), which monitors the threat landscape and provides real-time insights and support of seasoned experts, has thwarted millions of attacks, and hundreds of types, in the last 12 months..
- ConnectWise is collaborating with Proofpoint on protection against email-based attacks
- ConnectWise is partnering with Axcient as a strategic backup vendor for ConnectWise Co-Managed Backup.
Marty also provided some product updates around the ASIO platform, such as moving an more of its SEIM into the platform, to make it easier to use. The company will be providing an updated SEIM, too, called SEIM 3.0 that fully monitors Microsoft environments. In addition the company’s EDR will be enriched with longer data retention, allowing MSPs and TSPs to query data going back longer than a month without having to make a special request.
ConnectWise has also created a common dictionary to create a common language for different types of firewall logs.
The goal is to integrate the company’s security products with the rest of the ConnectWise product suite to simplify management for MSPs and TSPs.
