Why MSSPs Are Short on Good External Risk Management Tools

If you’ve worked in the Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) industry for a while, you might remember the era when the MSSP tool set consisted only of internal risk management solutions – like software that scanned client endpoints and application source code.

Those days are gone. Today, external risk management has become just as critical a part of an MSSP’s job. As a result, modern MSSPs must deploy not only tools that can manage internal risk, but also external exposure management solutions that monitor for threats like supply chain risks or abuse of a client’s brand on social media channels.

As the SANS Institute puts it, external exposure management and threat intelligence have become “essential for modern cybersecurity, offering crucial insights to anticipate, identify, and mitigate advanced threats.“

Unfortunately, adding external risk management solutions to the MSSP environment is not always easy. Most of the software designed for external risk management tends doesn’t cater to the unique needs of MSSPs. It focuses instead on use cases where businesses deploy the solution themselves, rather than working with an external provider.

Here’s why that’s a challenge, along with tips on how MSSPs can find an external exposure management solution that actually fits their needs.

Why MSSPs often struggle with external exposure management tools

There are a fair number of external exposure management solutions on the market. Most, however, fall short of aligning well with the special needs of MSSPs.

There are several reasons why.

1. Lack of multi-tenancy support

Because external risk management tool vendors have typically built solutions for deployment by enterprises instead of MSSPs, most such solutions lack multi-tenancy support – meaning the ability of a cybersecurity solution to work with multiple IT estates at once.

This is deeply challenging for MSSPs because virtually all MSSPs have multiple clients, and you can’t defend multiple clients from external risks very effectively if you lack an external exposure management tool that can work with all of your clients simultaneously, through a unified platform.

Without a multi-tenant solution, MSSPs are stuck having to deploy and configure multiple instances of a single-tenant tool in each client’s environment. Then, they have to toggle between each instance to support their clients, increasing operational complexity and adding to the cognitive strain placed on MSSP technicians.

2. Limited self-service capabilities

Unlike businesses that deploy security tools themselves, MSSPs sometimes don’t want a lot of handholding on the part of software vendors. They just want flexible, adaptive MSSP tools that they can use to defend their clients.

“What MSSPs far prefer are solutions that offer out-of-the-box integrations and flexible feature sets, saving them time and effort,” Matthew Rhodes writes on ComputerWeekly.

Unfortunately, most existing external risk management solutions don’t jive well with this approach. They tend to be high-touch tools that require a lot of administration and interaction with vendors, even for simple tasks like resetting passwords. As a result, it can be challenging for MSSPs to integrate the solutions seamlessly into their workflows, or to resolve problems quickly, without having to wait on the vendor to do things for them.

3. Lack of onboarding

External risk management is a complex discipline because it involves understanding new types of threats and risks, and mastering a new category of cybersecurity tool capable of addressing those threats and risks. Too often, however, external exposure management solutions offer little or nothing in the way of enablement programs or training.

As a result, MSSPs are often forced to learn the products and begin operating them quickly in live-fire scenarios or even trying to persuade their customers to use them. This is deeply challenging and can leave their clients exposed to external risks.

A different approach to external cybersecurity risk management for MSSPs

There are some exceptions to the typical external risk management solutions we just described, and Cyberint is chief among them. In MSSP environments, Cyberint stands apart in two key ways.

Full-scale multi-tenant support

First, we offer full support for multi-tenancy  – whether they’re an MSSP or an organization that wants to deploy Cyberint itself across multiple sites or subsidiaries.

The Cyberint multi-tenant architecture uses a single software instance to support multiple clients. As a result, each tenant receives a dedicated environment, and MSSPs can apply different configurations for different clients. But at the same time, because there is just one underlying instance, there is no need for MSSPs to “switch gears” constantly by logging in and out of different instances or toggling between multiple tools to support all of their clients.

The result is the ability for MSSPs to detect and mitigate external risks faster and more efficiently for their clients. In addition, multi-tenancy makes it easy to add new clients quickly, and it can help MSSPs to do more with limited personnel resources.

Flexible vendor support

At Cyberint, we offer customers as much or as little handholding as they want. If you’re an MSSP whose goal is to move quickly, we let you do so by launching new tenant environments without requiring permission or support from Cyberint – so if you want to sell external risk management services to a new client, you can simply launch a Proof of Concept (POC) environment to do so, test it out for the client and then keep the environment live if the client decides to stick with the service.

At the same time, though, we offer plenty of support and guidance to customers who want or need it. When you add Cyberint to your MSSP environment, you’ll get a dedicated Customer Success Manager (CSM), as well as 24/7 access to our technical support and a full suite of MSSP training resources – not to mention sales materials you can use to help market external risk management to your own clients.

In short, we’re there when you need us, but we won’t get in your way when you don’t.

Bringing external exposure management to MSSP environments

There’s no denying that external exposure management has become a key requirement for modern MSSPs. Indeed, a majority of the service providers included on MSSP Alert’s list of top 250 MSSPs offer external risk management solutions. MSSPs seeking to attract and retain clients must be able to demonstrate the ability to defend against external risk just as much as internal risks.

Doing so hasn’t always been easy due to the scarcity of external risk management tools that address the special requirements of MSSPs. But Cyberint is the exception. Learn more about how Cyberint creates unique value for medium to large MSSPs by checking out our MSSP FAQ, or by speaking to one of our ERMM experts.