Lack cybersecurity skills in your team?

The digital landscape has witnessed an exponential rise in connectivity, with businesses relying heavily on new technology for their operations and growth. As companies continue to invest in digital transformation, IT environments have also become more complex — which makes it harder for cybersecurity teams to monitor online activity across the entire network.

Unfortunately, hyperconnectivity and technological complexity have made organisations more vulnerable to new cyber threats. To quote Hoda Al Khzaimi, Director at the Center for Cybersecurity of New York University, “The speed at which emerging technologies are implemented often outpaces our ability to build security measures around them.”¹

It’s not just technology adoption that’s affecting organisational cybersecurity. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), 86% of business leaders believe global geopolitical instability is likely to lead to a catastrophic cyber event in the next two years.¹ Against this backdrop, maintaining in-house IT security has become more challenging than ever. 

Cyber threats have been increasing in number and impact, posing greater risks to businesses worldwide. On average, there were 270 cyberattacks per company in 2021, up 31% compared with 2020.² The cost of these attacks is also significant; the total cost of a data breach is USD 4.35M on average.³ But beyond the financial impact, what worries most business leaders are the impact on business continuity and reputational damage, with 67% and 65% of executives citing these as top concerns, respectively.¹

Many organisations address these risks through in-house IT security. But with new threats coming out almost daily, it is becoming humanly impossible to stay on top of all the known security issues — much less those that are to come.

While it may seem best to maintain IT security in-house, this often requires substantial investments. Organisations must allocate significant budgets for acquiring and maintaining advanced security technologies and conducting regular security audits. Moreover, establishing an in-house Security Operations Center capable of continuous monitoring, threat hunting, and incident response can be resource-intensive and demanding. Businesses may find it challenging to allocate sufficient funds to build a robust security team.

Skills shortage and the difficulty of attracting and retaining cybersecurity talent is another growing challenge. Cybersecurity specialists have become one of the most sought-after talents in the job market, and they are hard to come by. According to the (ISC)² Cybersecurity Workforce Study, there is a global cybersecurity workforce gap of 3.4 million people as of 2022.⁴

While more and more people are getting upskilled in this area, it looks like demand will continue to outpace supply in the coming years. Finding qualified personnel with the expertise to handle complex security challenges, such as threat detection, incident response, and vulnerability management, can be a significant hurdle. And once you have staffed your cybersecurity team, intense competition for such talent makes retaining them difficult. This reality does not go unnoticed; 59% of business leaders ranked talent recruitment and retention as one of the top challenges in maintaining cyber resilience.¹

Then there is the need to continue keeping pace with rising threats. The WEF found that many organisations have shortened their monitoring and assessment cycles from annually to quarterly.¹  This puts extra strain on their cybersecurity resources and can potentially shift the organisation’s position from proactive threat protection to purely reactive attack resolution and disaster recovery. In short, businesses will be on the back foot when it comes to cyber threat management–something everyone is keen to avoid.

Overcoming these challenges and effectively addressing evolving online threats requires organisations to consider alternative solutions.

Outsourcing is not a new concept in business operations, and yet when it comes to network security, few organisations consider it. Much of the hesitation may stem from the highly sensitive nature of the work. Outsourcing network security involves providing broad, external access to business and consumer data, key infrastructure, and even physical premises. And if relinquishing control isn’t an issue, some business leaders may not know that options like Singtel’s managed security services even exist.

Given that security breaches often costs a company millions of dollars, using a Managed Detection and Response partner may be more cost-effective in the long run. Preventing cyber incidents and data breaches helps organisations avoid additional costs associated with the threat, including infrastructure and data restoration, legal fees, regulatory penalties, reputational damage, and customer churn.

And when an attack does occur — which it most likely will — you need to mitigate the damage by resolving breaches in less time.

It takes, on average, 277 days for a cyberattack to be detected and contained.⁵

You can reduce this time dramatically with intelligent detection and automation from end-to-end network security solutions like Singtel’s cybersecurity services. Advanced threat detection powered by artificial intelligence can bring that nearly 40-week window of detection and containment down to 29 weeks. This, in turn, can result in almost USD 3 million in savings.³

Preventing or taking down a cyber attack early also minimises disruption to business operations. Managed security services can provide more proactive threat hunting, incident response, and business continuity than in-house teams can. Businesses can maintain operational resilience thanks to round-the-clock monitoring and timely incident response, mitigating threats and ensuring uninterrupted operations. With security threats being managed by experts, businesses can focus on core business activities, profitability, and growth.

Taking a proactive stance against evolving cyber threats ultimately means protecting the financial sustainability of your organisation.

Help find the best security response for your business. Talk to one of our cybersecurity experts today.