In the ever-changing landscape of cybersecurity threats, it's vital that executives understand how to safeguard their digital assets. Unfortunately, there’s often a culture and language gap between executives and in-house IT professionals — a gap that’s detrimental to both. However, many cybersecurity companies have stepped up to help bridge that gap. 

In particular, Crowdstrike’s annual threat reports are a tremendous resource for business owners and IT professionals alike. This year’s report provides invaluable insights into three critical areas: identity access management, managed detection and response, and cloud security. If you own a business, here’s what you need to know…

3 Takeaways From CrowdStrike's 2024 Global Threat Report

CrowdStrike's annual report is thorough, and I’d always recommend reading it in its entirety. However, below I’ve summarized my top three takeaways for those pressed for time.

1. Proper Identity Access Management Is Now Non-Negotiable

Identity access management (IAM) is a set of policies, processes, and tools to help organizations manage user access to valuable resources. In a perfect world, IAM would maintain impeccable data integrity, ensure secure access to company resources, and comply with any regulatory requirements. 

IAM has always been important, but there’s a reason it’s featured so prominently in the report. 

The Mounting Risks of Credential Compromise

As more valuable resources and data become digitized, cybercriminals are focusing on stealing user credentials, which can lead to unauthorized access and massive potential data breaches. 

CrowdStrike’s Recommendations 

It’s critical that businesses adopt multiple identity access management strategies to mitigate these risks, including multi-factor authentication and robust identity verification processes. CrowdStrike’s report also recommends adopting zero trust principles and constant monitoring, so any unauthorized activity can be detected and removed immediately — like a digital bouncer for your business. 

2. A Proactive Defense Requires Managed Detection and Response 

Managed Detection and Response (MDR) is a cybersecurity service provided by a third party to provide organizations with advanced threat detection, investigation, and response capabilities and augment their in-house security operations. 

Years ago, most in-house IT teams would have been perfectly capable of providing what was then sufficient protection for their organizations’ systems and data. But times have changed, and cybersecurity is now a specialized skill.

Navigating Increasingly Sophisticated Threats

As cyber threats become more sophisticated and more complex, traditional security measures are often falling short. And as cybercriminals gain experience, the less time they need to do a shocking amount of damage. Unfortunately, the average time it takes in-house teams to identify and contain a breach is still hovering at 280 days.

CrowdStrike’s Recommendations 

CrowdStrike's report highlights MDR as an affordable, responsive solution, offering real-time threat detection and mitigation. The report also stresses the importance of integrating MDR into your overall cybersecurity strategy. This isn’t a standalone solution; it's more like having a vigilant security guard that communicates seamlessly with other security measures to keep your digital environment safe.

3. It’s Time To Embrace Cloud Security

Years ago, businesses regarded the cloud with too much suspicion, and now they have too little. No solution is 100% safe — and the cloud can be very secure — but CrowdStrike’s report highlights the danger of misconfigurations and human error. However, productivity and cloud security don’t have to be at odds. 

CrowdStrike’s Recommendations 

CrowdStrike outlines a straightforward framework for securing cloud environments. From robust access controls to regular security assessments, these recommendations act as your blueprint for ensuring the safety of your data in the cloud.

The Advantages of Using a Managed Service Provider To Combat Cyber Threats

Cybersecurity is rapidly becoming a specialized skill, and it takes time and resources to stay on top of evolving cyber threats. It’s also becoming harder for companies to attract and retain this in-demand talent. Because cybersecurity skills are directly tied to revenue, a managed service provider (MSP) simply won’t face the same resource allocation and talent retention issues. 

However, even if that were to change, achieving a unified defense requires coordination across various cybersecurity measures. MSPs act as orchestrators, ensuring that IAM, MDR, and cloud security are seamlessly integrated. They provide a holistic approach, offering a comprehensive security umbrella that shields organizations from a multitude of threats.

In CrowdStrike’s report, it also cited a few unique advantages MSPs have when it comes to IAM, MDR, and cloud security: 

• MSPs are highly skilled at integrating IAM solutions seamlessly into existing infrastructure, minimizing disruption for end-users
• MSPs specialize in MDR deployment and are capable of mounting an effective incident response quickly
• Organizations that leverage MSPs experience a 53% faster response to security incidents
• MSPs are well-versed in cloud migrations for a variety of different businesses and can ensure that data is secure, compliance requirements are met, and potential risks are identified and addressed promptly

Getting More From a Cybersecurity Partner

The decision to outsource some or all of your IT needs is an individual one. At Marco, we provide fully managed IT, but some of our clients who prefer to maintain an in-house team will still call on us to supply advanced cybersecurity or CISO capabilities. While that’s exactly what they’re getting on paper, the relationship between an excellent MSP and their client can — and should — bring so much more. 

At Marco, we don’t apply cookie-cutter solutions to anything, let alone cybersecurity. Every organization’s risk is different, and what might be tolerable to one organization would be unthinkable for another. Yes, we’re a technology provider. But we find we’re of more value when we help executives and IT teams get on the same page, help businesses align their technology with their goals, and can make the path forward simpler and clearer. 

In my experience, most large technology providers can talk a good game, but they are not all equally capable of delivering the results they claim so confidently in their marketing material. Having a trusted advisor and cybersecurity professional working alongside your company can really help sift out valuable options quickly, and ultimately save the company from making expensive mistakes while it increases its security posture. That’s why Marco offers Virtual Chief Information Security Officer (vCISO) services.

Want to get a better sense of what steps your company can take to be prepared, but aren’t quite ready to bring on a vCISO?  We also offer our Cybersecurity Risk Assessment - which reviews critical cybersecurity safeguards that when in place are shown again and again to prevent a majority of common attack vectors.  

Click the link to learn what makes our assessments so different!