Networking & Cyber Security
What are the five pillars
supporting MSP cybersecurity?
Lewis Pope, Head Security Nerd at N-able, uses primary research to discuss how MSPs can bolster their efforts to truly create a strong cybersecurity program.
If your wall is high enough and can keep out undesirables, what more is there that needs to be done? Experts, however, know there are actually five pillars to cybersecurity - in addition to detecting and protecting against threats, it’s vital to identify everything that needs to be protected, respond when something goes wrong, and recover if necessary. It’s not just about building a wall but making sure the wall is in the right place and there are plans for when - not if - the wall is breached. With businesses looking to MSPs to support them, it’s vital that MSP security is supported by all five pillars. Te backbone of a cybersecurity program is to
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plan for what happens if something goes wrong. Tere must be nothing on the network that is undiscovered or neglected. Stringent reporting must be in place to make sure mistakes are not endlessly repeated. MSPs, however, must shoulder the burden of not only their own security, but the security of their customers. Te NIST framework is a set of guidelines and
principles a business can use to ensure they are following best cybersecurity practice. Developed by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to audit critical infrastructure,
24 | July 2022
ybersecurity generally is thought of as having two parts: detecting threats and protecting against those threats.
the framework is used worldwide to judge if proper cybersecurity controls are in place. Te NIST framework covers five core functions; Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover.
Identify Identity is concerned with how much businesses know about the assets they need to protect. Are parts of the network simply unknown? Can a business tell where the biggest risks are, and what should be considered the “crown jewels?” Tere are numerous reasons why a business can
lose sight of its IT estate. For example, mergers and acquisitions can leave IT teams dealing with hardware and soſtware they cannot track down. Also, new departments and changing hierarchies can lead to confusion. Identity is possibly the hardest category for businesses to reflect on. If a business is suffering too many intrusions, it knows there are problems that need to be fixed. However, if parts of the business are unidentified and unprotected, then they are, by definition, unknown.
Protect Te protect section of the NIST framework immediately comes to mind when one thinks of cybersecurity. Are networks protected from attack? Is multi-factor authentication in use? Are
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