Can Cyber Security Be Outsourced? | Nordic Defender

Why is cybersecurity important? The answer is as simple as ABC, but we are going to outline all the facts and reasons why organisations and startup companies need to plan a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy. Not having a thorough strategy can lead to business failure, as most companies impacted by cyber attacks in recent years have lost a large number of their customers and broken down within a few months.

Most concerning cyber threats include the following list that a comprehensive strategy designed by an experienced team can prevent your business from falling behind:

Ransomware attack
Identity theft
Data breaches
Phishing attacks
SQL injection attacks
DDoS and DoS attacks
Man in the middle attacks

Statistics Explain Everything: Why is Cybersecurity Important?

According to reports, the information security market size can reach a notable amount of $170.4bn in 2022. This is translated to a five-year CAGR of 8.5% as organisations are more likely to spend on cybersecurity to protect their sensitive data and help their business grow without any problem.

Statista says the average cost of a data breach can be up to 10 million dollars and healthcare, financial, pharma, and technology companies are the most critical industry sectors in this case.

The share of breaches caused by ransomware attacks surged in recent years, especially in the healthcare, technology, and financial industries.

Spending on cybersecurity becomes more important in the European Union as there are strict regulations, such as GDPR, which force organisations and companies to comply with data protection rules. Note that fines issued for GDPR are noteworthy as there were large fines for violations and non-compliance, for example, E746M for Amazon Europe in 2021.

The Most Crucial Facts to Consider

So much has been written about the reasons why organisations or newly-founded startups should spend on cybersecurity. All emphasise that cybersecurity is important for 2 main reasons.

Identity: We are all vulnerable to cybercrime when surfing the internet. Protecting our identities is one of the priorities for cybersecurity experts, as attackers always seek to steal users’ personal information. Usernames, passwords, bank account information, and social security numbers are examples of essential information that should be protected.
Business security: Cyber attacks are a concern for large organisations or small businesses. When a cyber attack impacts a business, it can result in significant losses and customer dissatisfaction.

Whether you are just an internet user or you are a company owner, cybersecurity matters. It should be a part of your development plan, as a minor cyber threat can hinder your business and cause long-term consequences.

Differences Between Outsourced & In-house Cybersecurity Solutions

You already know the importance of cybersecurity, and it is time to learn more about how you can bring security and safety into your company.

Clearly speaking, you have a one-choice question: Surviving an attack or losing your business?

Later if you choose the first one, you need to think about hiring a professional third-party team or establishing your own in-house cybersecurity team. Outsourcing means you will trust a third-party company that is qualified and experienced in securing a wide range of businesses against cyber threats, providing a wealth of experience for you to protect your company. For a startup, per se, hiring a vCISO instead of an in-house CISO is by far the better option; financial-wise especially.

Both options, including outsourcing and in-house cybersecurity, are great for organisations or small companies that want to keep their systems safe and protected. However, it would be better to clear up the differences between outsourced and in-house cybersecurity solutions:

In-house cybersecurity teams consist of limited cybersecurity experts led by a Chief Information Security Officer. Outsourced cybersecurity solutions are managed by established teams outside a company in which a large number of cybersecurity professionals will work on your project and help you design the best strategy.
In-house cybersecurity is not cheap, and this is why more than 77 per cent of small and medium-sized businesses would like to outsource their cybersecurity processes. Outsourcing can be a cheaper option for startup companies, offering a full cybersecurity service package.
The cost of training employees and cybersecurity team members is considerably more when you want to create an in-house cybersecurity team. Outsourcing means fewer costs as in-house teams are responsible for training their team members.
Having an in-house cybersecurity team allows you to better control processes and supervise everything. Simply put, you can manage things effectively.
Outsourcing provides immediate security solutions in case of problems since they benefit from experienced team members and advanced tools and equipment.

Most Important Outsourced Cybersecurity Functions

Businesses that opt for an outsourced cybersecurity service can take advantage of a wide range of professional practices and industry-leading cyber security talent. A qualified team offers you a comprehensive range of services, processes, and procedures for dealing with cyber threats that can be difficult to handle by organisations and startup companies.

Here is a list of security functions that you can assign to the Nordic Defender Cyber Security Team.

Security Operations

A security operation centre is a centralised place in an organisation where experts employ the best practices and tools to monitor and level up security and safety. This requires a foolproof strategy to prevent, detect, analyse, and resolve cyber threats at the right time.

Outsourcing security operations is a good choice, while third-party security teams can use all available resources and workforce to respond to security issues.

When hiring a third-party security team, ensure they are well-prepared and equipped to respond to cyber attacks.

Vulnerability Management

Outsourced cybersecurity teams have much time to work and detect vulnerabilities that can impact your company. Security vulnerabilities can lead to significant problems, and they must be fixed before any negative consequences hit the company. Vulnerability management is one of the resultful practices and cybersecurity services that results in identifying, evaluating, treating, and reporting security holes in software and hardware systems.

As a consequence, security team members will be able to provide instant solutions and get rid of security vulnerabilities. Vulnerability management is one of the notable advantages you can receive by using outsourced cybersecurity procedures, providing peace of mind and convenience when it comes to increasing security levels in organisations.

Note that there is a 5-step vulnerability management process designed to completely vaccinate networks in terms of vulnerabilities and security weaknesses.

Assessment
Prioritising
Action
Reassessment
Improvement

Vulnerability assessment is a technical review of security weaknesses in which team members can get full insight into what problems exist in the network and systems. Then, the next 4 steps give an opportunity to thoroughly treat security weaknesses and fix issues.

Employee Education and Training

Employee education and training are beneficial in preventing disastrous security issues. When you choose to outsource security operations, you don’t have to worry about educating and training employees as your partner company performs all these activities.

Cybersecurity awareness training helps employees understand the nature of cyber threats so they can address any threat when occurring in the real world.

Unfortunately, awareness training about the latest penetration techniques is costly for organisations, and it can take much time to organise regular events during the year. The thing is that you will need professional and experienced cyber security experts and consultants to educate employees and teach them how they can confront the problems.

Your cyber security team ensures your employees are well-educated about the following security concerns:

Device loss or theft
Social engineering techniques
Phishing
Malware and ransomware
Zero-day exploits
Script attacks and XSS vulnerabilities
Botnet attacks
Antivirus issues

Additional Operations You Can Easily Outsource

If you doubt that outsourcing is a good idea for your organisation, we will help you understand the facts and choose the right pathway. According to surveys, more than 50% of organisations and new startups have already outsourced all of their cyber security operations or a part of their processes.

The most notable benefit of outsourcing is that you have a wide range of services in your hand, and there is an option to hire a cyber security company to do all the security operations for you or perform some of the security operations selectively.

Here are some other outsourced security functions that you can trust a professional team to do for you:

Service Desk Capabilities

A service desk is a help desk that works to resolve service requests and clients’ problems. Service desk security should be a priority for any organisation as it is the first line of response for issues related to your services.

The first consideration to prevent security threats can be securing and protecting an organisation’s IT help desk. It’s because IT desk staff get a large number of phone calls, face-to-face meetings, and emails daily, and the IT desk sector in companies must be equipped and reinforced by reliable cyber security techniques and practices.

By outsourcing service desk capabilities, you are sure an experienced team is ready to help you when there is a problem with your company’s help desk. Remember your SOC team members and security analysts understand potential issues, and they know what to do when there is a problem.

Data Center Outsourcing

Data centre security outsourcing refers to the practice of leaving the management and provisioning storage resources to a professional cyber security team. Professional data centre outsourcing services ensure organisations will get a range of advanced services, including but are not limited to the following:

Systems management
Application performance monitoring
Managed storage
Database administration

Maintenance and management are the most critical points if you want to purchase external data storage for your organisational data. An in-house data centre’s downside is the notable maintenance and management costs, and outsourcing has excellent solutions for this problem.

An outsourced cybersecurity service provides you with significant savings in costs, and it gives you a chance to take advantage of professional team members to maintain and manage your data storage. Data centre security outsourcing brings the following benefits to your organisation:

Lower capital or operational costs
High levels of physical and digital security
The ability to access IT security experts with less spending
High availability, system uptime, and network reliability
Security integrated with advanced technologies and cyber security practices

Network Services

In most Scandinavian countries, outsourcing network services and benefiting from a third-party cyber security team is a new trend. The outsourcing methodology has been designed to give you extensive opportunities to reduce unnecessary costs and improve your company’s network operations.

A cyber security team delivers network services after performing several audits and scrutinising and fixing the network’s weaknesses and vulnerabilities. So, your customers will get the best possible network services and support, provided by experienced cyber security experts.

Outsourced network services and network security comes to effectively mitigate the burden of administration and operation in any organisation that doesn’t have additional time to waste on routine processes. Network security outsourcing delivered by a third-party cyber security company provides you with more talent, more capacity, and more value by spending fewer costs.

Here are the most important benefits of network services and security outsourcing:

Cost savings
Data backup and disaster recovery
Instant solutions for any network issue
More time to focus on core business
Less effort to do processes
Cutting-edge industry knowledge, technologies, and practices

Managed Security Operations or Overall Infrastructure Management

Managed security operations are an intrinsic capability of outsourced cybersecurity services. A managed security service provider offers a large number of data protection and data safety services at managed costs with defined plans.

Managed security services may include the following list provided 24/7:

Endpoint security
Network security
Cloud security
Breach detection
Managed firewall
Intrusion detection
Virtual private network
Vulnerability scanning and detection
Seamless log monitoring
Threat intelligence and hunting

Some of the best advantages offered by a managed security service are as follows:

Ensuring Regulatory compliance
Minimised SOC team turnover
Pay-as-you-go idea

When you use managed security operations, you will pay a monthly or yearly fee to ensure that your company is free from cyber threats and protected against security weaknesses.

New Application Development

The need to comply with regulations when creating a new application or software forces organisations to check their applications regarding security vulnerabilities and cyber threats. Application security is the process of developing, testing, and modifying features in order to make sure a mobile or web application is secure enough to be released publicly.

Outsourcing also provides you with secure application development methodologies by integrating security into every stage of application development. This process includes 5 essential steps that every development team must consider when starting to develop a new application:

Implementing a DevSecOps approach
Assessing risks
Managing passwords and credentials
Managing third-parties and open-source vulnerabilities
Encrypting data and transferring information

Web apps are one of the most frequent methodologies attackers use to execute malicious activities. According to reports, vulnerable web apps that suffer from security weaknesses can be a cause of data breaches which cybercriminals would like to use to penetrate systems and steal sensitive information. Outsourced security services monitor, identify, and block these security holes and help your company develop new applications at maximum efficiency.

System Maintenance

Most companies today choose to outsource parts of their system maintenance as this is the cheaper option and more reliable procedure for industrial organisations. Many industrial companies lack the necessary skills and talent to perform in-house system maintenance to do it all on their own.

A reliable cyber security team is required to help companies mitigate the risks of cyber threats and maximise efficiency by providing a good level of system maintenance. This can empower industrial companies to focus on their core business, rely on business continuity, and better manage risks.

Today maintenance outsourcing provided by outside actors offers more and more advantages compared to in-house system maintenance procedures. Outside vendors give you flexibility and reliability, and you can simply manage system maintenance budgets. To sum it up, outsourcing maintenance allows you to pay for only the services you need and call the services when your company needs them.

Packaged Software Implementation & Management

Implementing a packaged software approach along with outsourced security can transform your organisation in a significant way. Even though packaged software implementation and management has proved beneficial in recent years, it has some challenges, including high costs of the procedure and software development security. Packaged software implementation creates a better standardisation approach and helps companies develop software packages rapidly.

However, some challenges restrict these benefits that originate from security concerns. Outsourcing services can solve these challenges and simplify the complexity of software development with highly-advanced security solutions.

Packaged software is the best choice in terms of rapid development and deployment. But, there should be a highly-reliable security plan to develop at the maximum security level and offer customers the best services and products.

Who Needs Cybersecurity Outsourcing

All small and large organisations need to have a highly-reliable internet security strategy if they care about their customers’ and employees’ sensitive data. This is also true about individuals, governments, for-profit companies, and educational institutions.

Thus, outsourcing can be a good solution in case you choose to work with a certified and experienced team that helps your company grow and evolve.

How Will Outsourced Cybersecurity Operations Affect?

At first sight, we can say that your company will be able to pass regulatory compliance requirements and feel free to enter the target market.

Then, a good strategy can help you understand the risk environment and protect assets from unauthorised access or data leaks.

Outsourcing will directly result in reducing cyber security costs and provide you with a protected business environment to improve and develop your company.

Benefits of Outsourcing the Cybersecurity Processes

For companies batting cyber security threats, outsourced services can offer various benefits. Due to this, outsourced cybersecurity has recently become a necessity for organisations that don’t need any increase in security risks.

Outsourcing the cybersecurity processes provides these benefits and puts your mind at ease:

An Opportunity to Benefit from Skilled Professionals

One of the considerable challenges of having an in-house cybersecurity team is the inability to access rich expertise and talent. In other words, there is a need for constant training and continuous learning that takes time and requires money.

In-house security teams must keep their members up-to-date with the most recent threats and figure out practical solutions for these challenges. This is somehow complex in some conditions, and in-house cyber security teams can not always benefit from skilled professionals and up-to-date team members.

In case your organisation contacts a third-party service provider, you can gain a clear advantage. Third-party cyber security teams are working on different projects, and they can provide a wealth of experience for you. You don’t have to organise training events for third-party security teams since they are responsible for training their members over time.

Fast Setup and Implementation

Cyber attacks can occur at any time of the day. So, your security vendor must remain on alert always to respond to security threats if needed. It costs an arm and a leg if a cyber security team can not respond instantly to an abnormal activity since it can lead to a significant cyber attack or a large data breach.

Fast setup, implementation, and round-the-clock protection are 3 primary benefits of outsourcing cybersecurity operations. By hiring a highly-skilled team, they can respond promptly to any rising problem and hinder issues before any malicious process is executed.

Employing Experienced Cybersecurity Teams

Experience is a must-have requirement for any team member who wants to join a cyber security team. If an educated person doesn’t have practical work experience, problems may arise. Obtaining hands-on experience is crucial because hackers always use new techniques to penetrate target systems and exploit networks’ vulnerabilities.

So, cybersecurity team members must have complete knowledge of the latest techniques to respond to them quickly. Almost all employers want at least 5 years of experience to enter a cyber security job position. But, it couldn’t be weird since not having satisfactory work experience to protect against cyber threats results in significant damage to an organisation.

Team members in third-party security teams are qualified and must go through several tests and certifications to be able to enter the team.

Cost Efficient Cybersecurity Processes

Costs are a major concern when deciding which cyber security strategy you should use. Outsourcing isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, but it gives you unique options to save significant amounts of money when implementing data security approaches.

A third-party company can offer you different plans that include the exact services and requirements necessary for your company. This will help you deploy an efficient data security strategy and standardise every spending in the data security sector.

Even large organisations need to pay attention to improving efficiency when spending budgets, so outsourcing could be the most effective choice to achieve such objectives. Outsourcing cybersecurity processes allows you to assign most of the data security workload to a third-party team that aims at reducing overhead costs. Working with a third-party service provider makes it possible to save costs and allocate money to more important tasks.

Reporting Practices

Note that most fines and penalties incurred to organisations are due to a lack of a good reporting practice after incidents occur. Local and national authorities can assist your company if you have been impacted by a cyber attack or data security issue. So, reporting at the right time with complete information is key to preventing negative impacts and reducing fines. It couldn’t be hard to report cyber attacks, and it doesn’t take much effort for responsible team members.

A report should be prepared if the incident affects the following:

Sensitive data and information of employees, customers, and clients
Computer systems, devices, and software tools

Reporting a cyber incident consists of different parts that your third-party cyber security partner can do the complete process for you:

Organisation’s details and contact information
Incident basics and impacts
Attack identifiers
Offered solutions

Forward Thinking

The forward-thinking mindset is a great practice aiming to invest in the future. CISOs have a critical role in integrating the forward-thinking mindset into the team, leading the team members to provide solutions to potential problems that may occur in the future. The idea is a part of strategic thinking that your data security team will be able to see challenges ahead and predict what cyber attacks may target your organisation.

Every organisation is fallible and can be targeted by a cyber attack. But anticipating the future and thinking about possible solutions can stop cybercriminals from attacking your systems and network. Third-party cyber security companies that provide outsourced services have sufficient time to work on future plans and spend time on controlling cybercriminals by predicting their next activities.

Now, AI, machine learning, and cyber security intelligence techniques are practical, which provide unique opportunities to businesses and teach them how they can foresee future incidents days before they occur.

Proactive Mitigation

Outsourcing cyber security operations allows you to proactively monitor conditions and mitigate risks. Proactive risk mitigation should be a priority for any organisation as it helps eliminate a large number of cyber attacks. However, many organisations and startups are still reluctant to use a proactive risk mitigation strategy to avoid threats before they strike.

Outsourcing lends a hand by embedding proactive risk mitigation into cyber security procedures. With more prevalent cyber threats targeting users’ and organisations’ sensitive data, it is vital to use a never-stopping monitoring, detection, and response strategy.

Companies that offer outsourcing cyber security services have proactive plans for defending against cyber threats, and they can instantly take action when an incident occurs.

The main measures and components of proactive strategy are as follows:

Performing regular penetration tests
Monitoring 24/7
Prioritising risks
Ensuring employees always have good cyber security knowledge
Keeping all software tools up to date

How Can We Fix Challenges Related to Outsourcing Cybersecurity Processes?

Outsourcing solves a wide range of cyber security challenges, but there are some considerations to take into account. The company you choose to hire is a key factor in success. By searching for a minute or so, you will notice that there are a wide variety of small and large companies that offer cyber security outsourcing services.

Without any doubt, not all companies are alike and certified by authorities. Some have years of professional experience with successful projects specialising in providing fast and working cyber security solutions. Choosing the right cyber security partner company is the stepping stone to securing your systems and bringing convenience into your company.

In addition, service quality levels may differ in cyber security service providers, and you need to scrutinise them before choosing the best.

There are some tips that will help you choose the right cyber security partner:

Happy customers and customer recommendations
Compliance expertise
Managed and customised data security services
Cyber security training
24/7 technical support
Ability to scale solutions

It would be best to consider the following 3 topics when searching for a professional team:

Regulatory Laws When Outsourcing Cybersecurity Operations

Regulatory compliance standards have become an inseparable requirement if you want to enter the European Union as a business or service provider. The European Union puts GDPR into force by outlining essential data security considerations for those companies that seek success in the region.

So, you need to work with a certified security partner that ensures your company will have no problem with such regulations. All organisations need an up-to-date regulatory compliance plan, and only some cyber security service providers guarantee these requirements.

Contact Nordic Defender if you want to rapidly integrate the General Data Protection Regulation requirements into your company. We help you establish a thorough data security strategy that covers all the considerations and requirements.

The Best Practices to Control Hidden Costs of Outsourced Cybersecurity

Typically, outsourcing offers cost-effective approaches to deploying highly-reliable data security strategies. However, it would be better to check if there are managed security plans that provide the right service according to your future goals.

When you choose managed cyber security services, they include many services in their list. The costs are rooted in the types and duration of those services. So, check your desired services first and then contact our experts to help you with complete recommendations.

When using the traditional approach, the organisation is responsible for handling and managing all cyber security needs. This could increase peripheral costs, which will be spent on hardware tools, software, staff, etc. The hidden fees may exist when outsourcing cyber security operations, but they can be managed by creating efficient policies and practices and using new technologies to automate a part of data security operations.

What Is Biased Decision-making When Outsourcing Cybersecurity Functions?

Whether there are so many benefits to outsourcing in cyber security, it can do wonders for a company. The decision-making process can be challenging as you work with an external team, and decision-makers are working independently in most cases.

Organisations can consider many solutions to reduce these types of risks. Setting up contractual agreements allows your company to have defined rules that both sides should comply with.

If you outsource your data security procedures be careful about which company you choose. As a result, there will be the minimum risk related to biased decision-making.

How to Deal with Challenges of In-house Cybersecurity?

Even though there are many advantages to in-house cyber security, organisations need to consider the downsides of this methodology. Keeping your data security in-house will help your company have full control over processes and monitor everything clearly.

You will also directly manage and supervise the workforce and build a customised data security strategy.

But, creating an in-house data security team can be costly for many companies, especially startups and newly-founded companies. Finding appropriate personnel and hiring experienced team members are other challenges that you should find solutions to them. Acquiring new multiple data security technologies and practices can incur additional costs, and outsourcing cyber security can help you deal with these problems in your company.

Building an In-house data security team has the following issues, but you can solve all of these by taking a few steps.

Professionals Will be Hard to Find

Finding people who have the right skills and training is no longer an easy process. It needs much time and effort since there is a shortage in the cyber security industry in terms of experienced and skilled persons.

In addition, you may need to train your data security team and provide them with training events after you choose an in-house methodology. According to many experts, building an in-house team can be time-consuming and expensive for organisations and startups.

Outsourcing services are the best of both worlds. You will access a managed security service provider (MSSP) and achieve security and safety in the case of data and cyber threat protection.

An MSSP could provide a list of valuable services, and you will be able to hire trained and certified team members by contacting a third-party data security company.

Team Retention is not an Easy Procedure

The cyber security industry has been struggling with limitations, such as the shortage of talented people. In this situation, employee retention is a necessary process as companies can not find the personnel they need for cyber security job positions.

This is even more critical when organisations want to have an in-house data security team and may encounter overworked employees that cause several issues. In general, security analysts and specialists are often on call all days in a week, and this can lead to workers’ fatigue which means they have less time to stay at home and recover.

Remember that spending time with family is required for relaxation. The lack of free time given to cyber security team members is one of the main concerns in case organisations decide to create an in-house data security team. An outsourcing service provider is well-organised and has an improved work/life balance. So, security analysts and data security specialists have enough time to recover from heavy workloads. As a result, organisations will experience better performance and they can benefit from happier employees.

Limited Resources Could be a Problem

Outsourcing data security service providers can handle security budgets and manage limited resources in the best way. Building an in-house data security team can be expensive, turning out to be a challenging condition. In-house teams need regular training, and they must increase their knowledge, translating to more costs and more spending of resources.

Third-party security service providers understand your company’s limitations, and they offer the most efficient approach to providing security along with spending the minimum costs. Resources have always been a problem, but outsourcing comes with practical solutions to fill all the gaps with managed cyber security budgets.

With the outsourcing approach, you will only pay for what you use through an MSSP procedure. This will provide you with various data security plans executed by certified specialists.

What About Key Persons

Cybersecurity key persons in every team play a crucial role in managing and handling the workload. These key players are able to proactively implement security measures and control processes to lead the processes to success.

Some key persons in every cyber security team are good strategists who help the team design or modify the roadmap with unique solutions. Some team members are skilled professionals and communicators who can coordinate effectively with other teams and clients.

Generally, key persons have significant work experience and can employ their skills in training other team members, helping improve standards and assisting the team in solving complex security issues. When speaking about an in-house cyber security team, retention of key players is so crucial, and it can cause many problems as highly-skilled security professionals are in high demand, and you may need to make much effort to set up your desired cyber security team.

How to Find a Trusted Cybersecurity Team or Company?

Want to choose a trusted cybersecurity team? Read the following notes that help you with this.

It can be concerning that cybercrime has been recognised as the greatest threat to every company worldwide. Cyber attacks cost millions of dollars yearly for large organisations and startups, which makes it crucial to work with a trusted team or establish the best possible in-house security team.

A good company has a good track record of many successful projects. To choose the best team, you need to start by determining your security requirements and taking some key points into account as follows.

What Do You Want?

A wide range of services is available and offered by qualified MSSPs. Therefore, you will find the best service after doing some research. But, the process of searching for the right data security provider should be started by defining your business’s specific requirements.

Most popular outsourcing security service providers offer the following solutions, and you can keep them in mind when looking for the best cyber security team:

Data loss prevention
Intrusion detection
Access control management
Malware and phishing protection services
Device and data storage protection services
Network security
Cloud security
Anti-ransomware solutions
Cyber security assessments or audits

Which is the Right Type of Cybersecurity Company?

Your Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) will give a complete list of data security services and help you achieve a foolproof level of cyber security. Note that not all companies offer all the services you need, and you must check that.

Nordic Defender offers a United MSSP approach that creates security coverage for your business against all cyber security threats. If you need an urgent reformation in your data security processes to comply with specific regulations, Nordic Defender can help.

Europe’s GDPR
HIPAA
The EU Cybersecurity Act
NIS Directive
, Etc

Response Time and Accessibility

All professional cyber security partners give you 24/7 support through different communication channels. You should be able to contact the company through phone calls, emails, direct messages, etc. Responsive cyber security is one of the primary factors in choosing your cyber security partner.

There might be critical conditions, and success in hindering security threats depends on how your data security team responds and acts against attacks. Good incident response requires a comprehensive plan, and it is a crucial component of a cyber security strategy. A highly-skilled data security company should provide an incident response plan to respond to incidents in the best way.

We can follow the 6-step procedure to design a good incident response plan and minimise the time of addressing cyber threats and providing solutions to them:

Preparation: Team composition
Identification: Listing impacts and required tasks to respond
Containment: Stopping or preventing malicious activities
Eradication: Finding the main problem and removing all signs of malicious activities
Recovery: Testing affected systems before bringing them back and bringing them online after a complete test and recovery have been performed
Review: Performing analysis to find vulnerabilities caused the problems and improving systems

Certifications and Qualifications

Certificates and qualifications show the staff in a team meet the required industry standards. Cyber security certification programs exist in many forms, and they are essential entities for team members to verify and show mastery of professional skills in the cyber security industry.

While most team members in a team have at least a bachelor’s degree, there are additional courses and programs to take to be certified by well-known associations. Certs demonstrate that team members in a third-party firm have job-ready skills and they are well-experienced in putting their knowledge into practice and solving cyber security issues.

Here are some of the most discussed and essential certifications and qualifications:

Certified Information Security Security Professional (CISSP)
Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)
CompTIA Security+
Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)
Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)
GIAC Security Essentials Certification (GSEC)
Systems Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP)

Service Costs and Plans

While keeping data protected is important, the cost of cyber security plans also matters. All MSSPs have a website, and you can simply check service plans and contact them to get information about service costs.

You can list the best service providers and compare the price plans and services. A good MSSP allows you to present a budget and ask their cyber security specialists to give you a complete roadmap according to your preferred budget. Please, ensure the firm is registered and certified by authorities.

You can ask about the return on investment and understand how much of your cyber security spending will be turned into value. They can give you full insight into this and calculate the ROI rate based on the budget and future results.

How Nordic Defender Cybersecurity Services Help You

Nordic Defender offers a comprehensive list of cyber security services to Scandinavian organisations and businesses. Grown-up companies and startups can contact our specialists and trust us to establish an all-inclusive strategy that includes all your needs.

All things considered, we help your company pass compliance requirements to be able to enter the target market and grow. We believe in our expertise as our certified team members specialise in different fields of internet security and data security, providing the following list of services to our clients:

Critical infrastructure security
Application security
Network security
Endpoint security
Cloud security
Internet of things security

Final Thoughts

At Nordic Defender, our mission is to make our clients happy by taking the cyber security responsibility and offering a fresh and inspiring approach to hindering threats. Our solutions safeguard all types of data against cyber attacks and give you great comfort in focusing on the development of your company.