In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, companies are facing the dual challenges of supporting employees working from home while absorbing the fallout from the associated economic downturn. Although economies are slowly re-opening around the world, it’s unclear just how long it will take to get back to where it was before the shutdown.

If you have not heard about cybersecurity online, in print, or on the news in the last 10 years, exactly how safe are your customers? Cybersecurity has become a serious topic for businesses and consumers. And unfortunately, cyber threats are set aside in favor of other initiatives and become a bigger problem in the long run.

In a COVID-19 world there is a lot to think about and focus on.  The most important thing to always keep in mind is the safety of our family and friends, but for better or worse we still have to think about being business owners.  Clients need to be able to work from home and MSPs need to make sure we can pay the bills and stay on track with processes.  Economic, emotional, and social instability like this is something that nefarious groups can easily exploit.  We have already seen an upshift in hacking, ransomware, and malware attacks on everyone those people can reach, and it is likely to get worse.  What do we do to make sure we are protected?

I worked as a vCIO for an established MSP in my area. I had the traditional vCIO responsibilities: onboarding new clients, detailing service plans, generating proposals, planning meetings, discussing budgets, consulting, and so on. It was about 6 months into the role when I shifted exclusively to a Health Care vCIO and relied on HIPAA as my compliance backbone.

Companies often struggle to create and enforce robust cybersecurity strategies, partly because compliance varies among employees. This inconsistency could be caused by the specifics of job roles within the company that might make policies more or less inconvenient to employees based on their position. In addition, different levels of security awareness and technical skills across an organization can create further security challenges.

As the number of cyberattacks targeting small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) increases, there is more pressure to protect against those attacks. That's why MSPs handling the IT needs of these businesses must place security at the top of their priority list. One way to build a strong security offering is from the ground up, starting with one of the most fundamental tools used by and MSP – their remote monitoring and management (RMM) solution. 

As we head into 2020, it’s clear that cybercriminals will continue using spear-phishing attacks as a go-to tactic for attacking victims. In these breaches, attackers heavily research their targets and craft carefully designed messages, usually impersonating a trusted colleague, website, or business. The attacks are designed to steal login credentials, financial data, and other information that can be used for other crimes.

The TruMethods team produced a lot of informative and relevant blog content in 2019, much of which received very positive feedback. There are a select few — a couple of which are focused on the increasingly complex cybersecurity threat landscape — that you should take some time to read through.

Going into 2020, cybersecurity is top of mind for MSPs. Cyberattacks now more than ever are impacting businesses, hospitals, governments and other entities. For MSPs, there’s money to be made in the space, but to get a piece of the pie, they must understand how to position themselves.  

The National Cyber Security Alliance and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have declared every October National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM). But here’s the thing: When you’re in the cybersecurity space, isn’t every month “cybersecurity awareness” month?