What is an MSSP and what are its advantages

The IT world continues to evolve and the same goes for industry acronyms. One of these is the term MSSP which, in a sense, is the evolution of MSP. The two abbreviations mean: Managed Service Provider (MSP) and Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP). The latter, in general, could be considered as an organization that provides outsourced security services to other organizations. This definition is very vague and somewhat obvious. So what is an MSSP?

Definition: what is an MSSP?

An MSSP offers Security-as-a-Service, ensuring that organizations, end users and systems have the security, protection and compliance with the necessary compliance requirements. In reality, MSSPs have been around for a while, but have recently gained more attention and focus as the cybersecurity landscape continues to evolve rapidly. End users are more aware of the threats and consequences they face if they are not proactive.

MSP

Let’s take a step back, let’s examine what an MSP is, to better distinguish it from an MSSP. In simple terms, a managed service provider (MSP) is an organization commissioned by a customer to perform various IT services. MSPs typically partner with their clients for annual or multi-year periods, receiving recurring income for ongoing services.

An MSP can help a client at any stage of their IT cycle, including:

– the creation of policies and programs

– discover potential solutions

– implementation of solutions

– performance monitoring

MSPs can also manage ongoing IT services, such as updating systems and making configuration changes to suit business needs. These line-of-service elements can include help desk support, network and application management and monitoring, hardware repair, and more. These services are generally outlined and agreed upon in a Service Level Agreement (SLA).

MSSP

What is it that distinguishes MSSPs from MSPs? The extra “S” in MSSP indicates that these are more security focused than a typical MSP. While MSPs often offer other IT services and something related to security, MSSPs focus solely on security. However, even in this case, they could include a fairly large set of services in addition to security.

For example, the MSSP technology offering may include the implementation, configuration and / or management of the following technologies:

– Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS)

– Filtering of web content

– Anti-virus, anti-spam, firewall

– VPN

– Vulnerability scanning

– Patch management

– Data loss prevention

– Information on threats

In addition, MSSP services may include:

– Risk assessment and gap analysis

– Policy development and risk management

– Search for the solution

– Search and requisition of solutions and tools

– Implementation of the solution

– Management of security systems

– Configuration management

– Security updates

– Reporting, review and compliance

– Training and education

An MSSP may offer a broad and generalized range of security capabilities and services, or it may specialize in one or a few areas of interest. Another thing that differentiates between MSP and MSSP are the NOCs and SOCs.

MSPs often establish their own network operational network (NOC) from which they monitor and administer customer operations, MSSPs instead establish a security operations center (SOC), which is responsible for protecting the infrastructure (networks, applications, database, server, etc.).

Why choose an MSSP?

Now that we know what an MSSP is, we need to understand why such a service should be chosen.

The reason is to be found in the digitalization of the business, which is the biggest driver of company growth in recent years. As companies become more and more interconnected through technology, the opportunities grow, but with them so do the security threats. In this case, executives and boards of directors are looking to transform their companies into power centers of the digital age and are taking a closer look at their position on security.

But this is where things get real: the solutions are complicated, and building your own cybersecurity department 24/7 takes time, money and people. On the other hand, a single data breach can seriously damage the value of your company and cost you a considerable economic loss.

This is why outsourcing your company’s entire IT security solution to a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) is an increasingly common decision. This cybersecurity-as-a-service model is popular with businesses, regardless of size. This is because cyber defense is becoming so complex and takes so long that companies have no choice but to outsource security services to follow best practices.

We at SOD provide exactly this type of security services, through various modalities. In addition to the typical services of an MSP, such as VPS, Super Cloud, etc., we are able to cover every need for corporate security through our SOCaaS which implements various solutions including UEBA, SIEM, Vulnerability Assessment & Penetration Test, Active Protection, Log Management, IT Monitoring Service, Management Services, GDPR and Privacy.

If you are interested in knowing how SOD can help your company in improving applied cybersecurity, you can get in touch with us, we will be happy to answer questions and propose a solution suitable for the situation.

Useful links:

Managed Service Provider

Next Generation SIEM: where are we?

 

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