The Golden Opportunity For MSSPs To Protect Their Customers From External Risks

By Camille Charaudeau, CybelAngel

It’s well understood that organizations are facing ever-increasing levels of cyber risk. More than five billion individual records are believed to have been breached in cyberattacks during 2021 - the highest number yet.

Adjectives like “highly skilled” and “sophisticated” are often used when discussing these incidents. However, it’s important to remember that whilst some threat actors are indeed equipped with an extensive arsenal of advanced tools and tactics, the reality is that sensitive data is often too easily accessible even for those armed with basic resources.

Unfortunately, businesses may not realize that their infrastructure is rife with open databases, unsecured cloud storage buckets, shadow IT, and internet-connected devices that leave their sensitive data highly exposed.

The good news is that firms can greatly reduce their data exposure, with the right solutions and strategies - and Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) are perfectly placed to help them achieve this.

How Is Sensitive Data Being Exposed?

As organizations pursue digital transformation and expand their IT infrastructure, data exposure through leaky databases is an increasingly pressing matter. Cloud migration is a particular issue, and our investigations have found that cloud storage is the primary factor in data exposure. Indeed, we found that data leaks stemming from external cloud storage increased by 150 percent in 2021 compared to the year before.

The most common issue is cloud storage systems, such as AWS S3 buckets, Azure, and Google databases, being exposed to the public internet. These assets are discoverable online, without proper protection, such as privilege control or data encryption. This is often the result of enterprises migrating to the cloud without properly adjusting their policies and processes. Security and accessibility issues, which were previously minor when limited to on-premises systems, will suddenly become critical exposures when introduced to the cloud.

Without these precautions in place, data theft can be as simple as a threat actor using scanning tools to locate a publicly accessible cloud database and then helping themselves to all available sensitive data. In many cases, they will not even need any admin credentials to do so. Hardly a highly skilled or sophisticated attack.

Worse still, unsecured data is also almost certainly unmonitored, so enterprises will have no idea they have been breached until it’s far too late. In many cases, firms only become aware of an incident when the impact is discovered by a customer or an investigation by law enforcement.

So how can MSSPs step in to help organizations re-secure their data?

Why Data Exposure Offers A Powerful Opportunity For MSSPs

Mitigating the risk of data exposure requires a proactive approach that touches on multiple areas of the business. Firms need to be able to achieve full visibility of their extended external attack surface, accounting for all the data, scattered across multiple systems, and ensuring that the appropriate controls are in place. Further, they need to be able to identify any leaks so that they can get ahead of the issue.

This is where MSSPs come in. Those that can offer their customers the ability to monitor and manage their data are ideally placed to become invaluable strategic partners. Alongside this, the ability to detect vulnerabilities, through the entire extended network, and close potential attack paths, in real-time, will go a long way to ensuring firms stay secure as they continue to grow, and their IT infrastructure expands.

Aside from connecting organizations with specific solutions, MSSPs also have a golden opportunity to demonstrate their value, as trusted advisors, in managing and securing their infrastructure. Digital transformation and cloud migration are critical for business success, and MSSPs can help their customers to freely pursue these opportunities without fear of unnecessarily increasing their risk exposure.

What Are The Best Tools For The Job?

The most valuable tools and services MSSPs can provide are automated digital risk protection platforms that continuously monitor not only internal risks but also external threats.

Monitoring all enterprise systems for hidden vulnerabilities and improperly secured data will enable organizations to immediately identify issues and move to mitigate them before they can be exploited.

Coupled with this, monitoring should also cover external data sources to provide an ‘outside-in’ view. Potential vulnerabilities that can be discovered online, such as stale accounts or data leaked as a result of shadow IT - those applications or devices used without the knowledge of corporate IT - can be identified and then traced back to the company’s network. Added to this, they can proactively seek out existing data leaks by monitoring dark web mentions, giving the business the chance to get ahead of the issue before the breach is discovered by customers or authorities.

More advanced solutions use a combination of AI and human-led analysis to identify data leaks, drawing on the organization’s keywords. This raw data is then given context and turned into actionable intelligence.

Provisioning for extended external attack surface management has strong synergy with tools such as Identity and Access Management (IAM), as well as services like Security Operations Centres (SOCs) and Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs). The approach is also a strong fit for strategies such as Zero Trust, opening the door for MSPs to get involved in more large-scale Zero Trust projects and offer even more value to their customers.

This puts MSSPs in an excellent position to function as a one-stop shop for their clients’ security needs, increasing their value by addressing multiple critical demands with a single package. Further, it means they can be highly competitive when it comes to RFPs.

As businesses continue to invest heavily in developing their IT infrastructure, MSSPs can serve as invaluable partners to facilitate this expansion safely and grow right along with them.

About The Author

Camille Charaudeau is Vice President, Product Strategy at CybelAngel.