For most businesses, identifying IT security incidents in a timely manner requires 24/7 coverage of the network environment. This can be costly; IT security professionals are scarce, and require regular training to keep abreast of continually evolving technologies.
Campbell points out another drawback to the insourcing model: ‘To become truly proactive about incident response, you need visibility of other networks, so you’re aware of attacks that are occurring elsewhere. That’s why it makes sense to engage the services of a managed security services provider, as only they have this depth and breadth of insight.’
Gyde agrees: ‘In recent years, security management and monitoring have become more complex and time-consuming. Today, you need to prevent what you can, and manage the inevitable compromises. This means optimising your detection, and response capabilities. Many businesses lack the skills required to detect and effectively respond to threats in this manner. Managed security services providers such as Dimension Data have teams of security professionals focused exclusively on identifying potential malware and monitoring thousands of clients’ networks for precursors to denial-of-service attacks. Such incidents don’t happen out of the blue; usually there's a lot of “chatter” on the popular “dark Web” channels beforehand. We monitor these channels closely and can therefore increase the likelihood that our clients are forewarned of impending attacks.’