Collectively, this means that these traditional approaches to improving the cybersecurity posture are more challenging. Mid-sized businesses will have to rethink how they go about tooling to tackle the issue. Financial and resource constraints will force them to rationalise their current provision to reduce overheads and the demand for in-house personnel.<\/p>\n

At the same time, they need to increase their defence capabilities to meet compliance demands and keep pace with evolving threats. The danger is that many will not see the writing on the wall and will attempt to continue operating in a reduced capacity.<\/p>\n

This will then heighten exposure, as the same ISC2 study demonstrates that 57% of workers say shortages at their organisation have put them at moderate or extreme risk of a cybersecurity attack.<\/p>\n

Some radical thinking is required, which is why this year, we can expect to see mid-sized businesses embrace Managed Detection and Response (MDR). MDR is a hugely versatile model that applies to all organisations, irrespective of size.<\/p>\n

It can supplement in-house provision by working in concert with the security team to manage threat response or by providing alerts and remediation advice, or it can be used for the complete outsourced management of threat response.<\/p>\n

MDR sees the remote provision of SOC-like threat detection services, with the MDR team monitoring activity and threat hunting as well as providing alerts, remediation and recovery in the event of an attack. It is distinct from the usual services of an MSSP, who will tend to offer day-to-day security management and maintenance via a portal, although some MSSPs do offer MDR as part of their portfolio.<\/p>\n

Those offering Managed Detection and Response benefit from utilising technology such as a next-generation Security Incident and Event Management (SIEM) to collect and analyse logs and event data. This data is then analysed and used to demonstrate compliance and provide the material evidence needed to investigate security breaches.<\/p>\n