In-house security teams are posed with a plethora of challenges of varying magnitude. The array of potential risks, including phishing, social engineering, cyber extortion, nation-state attacks, and more can often become overwhelming for these teams. In this regard, managed security service providers (MSSPs), with their maturity, progressiveness, and round-the-clock monitoring can assist or even solely shoulder the burden of handling security risks of all kinds. Whether a commodity ransomware attack bought as a kit on the dark web or a uniquely crafted higher-level deliberate attack, MSSPs are embracing modern technologies to protect customers’ critical infrastructure without missing a beat.
Deep learning technologies, synchronised security, and endpoint detection and response (EDR) capabilities are among the innovations enabling MSSPs to minimise the time they spend investigating and remediating attacks. EDR is capable of monitoring process behaviours to help detect and respond to various emerging threats. MSSPs are also focusing on management and orchestration of threats through a single pane of glass along with with developing affordable multi-factor authentication (MFA) capabilities to improve the effectiveness of their service. Since many enterprises cannot cope with an increasingly hostile threat environment, advanced MSSPs are now emphasising the integration of all the key elements—people, methodology, technology, and artificial intelligence (AI)—for the best combination of defences. With regard to AI, MSSPs have started to employ chatbots that help manage orchestration and collaboration as well as provide a natural language interface. Such chatbots can assist security teams in creating smart insights by correlating and enriching log alerts and then turning them into smart contextual alerts. As a result, detection and remediation can happen much more quickly and effectively.
Many advanced MSSPs are also working on implementing playbooks, which represent the workflow and tasks to be initiated for detection, response, recovery, and tuning. These playbooks are not merely intended to be used as a reaction to a crisis, but rather as a proactive workflow that pilots the security operations through the necessary steps based on previous resolutions and machine learning. The flexibility of these MSSPS will allow organisations to customise playbooks are per their IT environment. Furthermore, to provide stronger individualised security rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach, MSSPs are leveraging technology and process innovations that provide them with a deeper understanding of organisations’ processes and procedures along with an inherent knowledge of how operations work.
Across Europe, MSSPs must not only adopt new technologies to provide robust security against both the traditional as well as modern cyberattacks, but they also need to be entirely GDPR-compliant for comprehensive data safety. To help enterprises select managed security services most relevant to their business requirement, our distinguished panel comprising key decision-makers and experts along with Enterprise Security Magazine's editorial board has shortlisted some of the best MSSPs in Europe.
We present to you Enterprise Security Magazine’s “Top 20 Managed Security Service Providers in Europe - 2019.”