According to latest data, more than 80% of CIOs and IT professionals have admitted that the current downturn has induced cost-cutting and tightened the expenditure on security measures. Therefore, many firms are adopting the practice of offloading their anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-phishing and web filtering to Managed Security Service Providers (MSSP).
Managed security services (MSS)
Managed services are the practice of transferring daily responsibilities as a strategic method for improved effective and efficient operations and MSS is the systematic approach for supervising an organization's security requirements.
A MSSP can offer different types of security tools to firms, which are probably difficult for individual organizations to purchase and implement on their own. The security tools may be conducted in house or outsourced to a service provider that supervises other companies' network and information system security.
The MSSP works round the clock and offers any of the following services:
• It regularly assesses vulnerabilities in the client’s system.
• It manages client's network firewall, which comprises surveillance of all the firewall's traffic and evolving regular reports
• It detects all the efforts of intrusion, both at network or individual levels
• It will also provide mitigation support for any intrusion that has occurred, which include emergency response and forensic analysis
• They also provide content filtering services, for email filtering and data archival
Few concerns with MSSPs
Today, various organizations are opting for such services to save money, space and better ROI. But, there are also concerns that what will happen when security provider’s network fails. Therefore, many organizations use multiple vendors for the security services.
Another point of discussion for these organizations is the MSSPs themselves, due to trust and privacy concerns. However, the good way to solve the problem is by third party certification, which can rate the quality and services of a particular MSSP.
Various MSSPs
Symantec: The company is one of the last independent security-software vendors that provide MSSP business. Its main rivals ISS and Cybertrust had been acquired by IBM and Verizon, respectively.
Symantec had started its MSSP business back in 2002, when it acquired Riptech for $145 million. The company offers various services, which are CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) – based or in-the-cloud messaging services. Also, the company provides security-related professional services.
IBM Corp. : Besides BT, IBM Corp, one of the world's largest IT giant had also started its own managed security-services business after the acquisition of security technology vendor Internet Security Systems (ISS) for $1.3 billion in 2006. Now, the Big Blue offers various managed security services that are available in combination with customer premises equipment or in the cloud.
Recently, the technology giant has signed a five year deal with Qwest for IBM managed services. The services of IBM’s Internet Security System are designed to keep small and medium-sized businesses protected from viruses, spam and DDoS attacks.
Verizon: In 2007, the company had acquired Cybertrust, a privately held provider of global information security services. Now, the company offers services in combination with CPE-based or in the cloud. Further, its professional services include managed network access control.
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