A trend to shift to a digital ecosystem has proved significantly beneficial to a large number of businesses around the world. However, with this shift comes the terrifying side of the digital ecosystem: cyber threats.
You’re running your business smoothly, the cash flow is handsome, and the customers are happy. But one fine morning, you wake up to a security breach compromising valuable data. The consequence? Operations going into a paralyzed mode, the IT team struggling to pinpoint the problem and tailor solutions, and by the time you realize, there’s been a significant loss.
Cyber threats are significant challenges to modern-day business growth, and like all modern problems, they require a modern solution. MDR cyber security solutions pose a significant and resilient force against growingly complex cybersecurity threats of today’s time.
We have addressed the upsides of having MDR cyber security to back up your growing business. Read to know why your business also needs to consider MDR solutions.
What is MDR in Cyber Security?
MDR cyber security, or managed detection and response, is a modern approach to cybersecurity. It leverages advanced security tools in combination with expert-led for fast threat detection and implements incident response at the earliest.
In short, MDR is not only a post-incident solution; it combines proactive monitoring with incident response. Expert teams maintain 24/7 vigilance over all security parameters-from cloud to network and endpoints-responding to threats as they arise.
This preventive approach from the traditional reactive approach (using firewalls and antiviruses) makes MDR cyber security solutions a must-have for businesses in different sectors. Many leading vendors, including the likes of Sangfor Athena MDR, are coming ahead to provide MDR solutions to growing businesses that need them. But how do you know whether your business needs MDR solutions or not?
Common Cybersecurity Challenges Faced by Growing Businesses
Growing businesses are prime targets in today’s digital threat landscape, in part because they hardly have access to deep in-house cybersecurity expertise. The following are the common challenges most small businesses and growing organizations face against cyber threats:
Skilled IT Experts: There’s a huge struggle to hire and retain expert cybersecurity talents. SMBs often lack the budget to provide the right salary and the work environment for a talented team. Naturally, big enterprises acquire them. Resource gap is a big challenge for SMBs when trying to solve cybersecurity issues.
Alert Fatigue: Alert fatigue compounds the issue. Security teams are increasingly overwhelmed by a barrage of alerts, many of which are false positives. The pressure to differentiate real threats from “noise” can quickly lead to staff burnout and missed incidents.
Difficulty Monitoring and Maintaining 24/7: A 24/7 Security Operations Center (SecOps) is also a major hurdle, especially for businesses operating with limited budgets or small teams. Attackers are known to exploit these coverage gaps, often timing their activity for weekends or after hours when monitoring drops.
Maintaining regulatory Compliance: Changing the regulatory environment for IT infrastructures and practices can typically overwhelm a small business. But an outsourced team of cybersecurity experts from MDR vendors simplifies the hustle.
Lack of an Internal Team: For those lacking internal compliance expertise or up-to-date resources, keeping pace with new regulations can feel like an uphill battle – putting both business continuity and reputation at risk.
Understanding MDR and Its Relevance for SMBs
The impact of cyber threats is significant across all company sizes. While large enterprises often face operational delays and reputational damage that make headlines, SMBs are far from immune.
Most small businesses operate like close-knit communities, where operational disruptions caused by cyber attacks can lead to customer data loss, service interruptions, and a decline in customer trust. This, in turn, may result in financial losses, liability issues, and even risks to employment.
Given that attackers do not discriminate based on company size, SMBs and growing businesses must proactively address cybersecurity risks. Here’s how MDR is a relevant and effective cybersecurity solution for SMBs:
24/7 Threat Monitoring: Even if a small business has a small team of IT experts, it’s not possible to maintain 24-hour vigilance over security perimeters. That’s a challenge, MDR services help overcome.
Expert-led Incident Response: Automated cybersecurity solutions are good until a point. But advanced threats require expert-led solutions. MDR service providers ensure that your business security needs are paid attention to and addressed with a contextual solution.
AI-powered Threat Detection: While having human-led solutions is excellent, SMBs also benefit from the AI-powered solutions MDR brings to the table. However, it’s important to note that not all MDR vendors provide a human-AI approach to MDR cyber security. Vendors like Sangfor Athena MDR are exceptions.
Key Strategies That Work for Growing Businesses
Here are some ideal ways of solving cybersecurity needs for small and growing businesses:
Strategy 1: Outsource MDR Solutions for Cost-Effective Security
The best strategy is to outsource cybersecurity with a managed IT security service vendor. Reliance on specialized solutions like MDR services is highly recommended, given the nature of current world cybersecurity threats.
An in-house SOC will only reduce profitability, especially when the business is in a growth phase. It’s best to take outsourced services for smaller-sized companies. For example, Sangfor Technologies has received managed SOC monitoring license from Singapore’s Cyber Security Agency.
They are now compliant with national cybersecurity standards to provide managed threat detection and response under Singapore’s national standard. This opens up a new opportunity and benefits for businesses in Singapore.
Strategy 2: Prioritize Contextual Threat Intelligence
Partner with a vendor for all your needs, from virtualized infrastructure, cloud, to cybersecurity solutions (MDR, XDR, EDR, and more). Relying on a single vendor for all your needs helps reduce the cost of many third-party solutions. This way, SMBs can focus on their operations, leaving the responsibility of security in the reliable hands of a provider.
Strategy 3: Strengthen Security Posture with Expert Guidance
Aside from implementing MDR solutions, keep a quarterly procedure to detect risks, hunt threats, and solve them with an outsourced advisory service.
Strategy 4: Align MDR with Business Growth
Avoid lock-in periods by partnering with flexible and scalable MDR solution providers. When choosing an MDR solution, ensure that the vendor can scale the services up and down depending on the needs.
Sangfor Athena MDR – A Game Changer for SMBs
The need for MDR services is no longer an exclusive choice. It’s a standardized practice-even for SMBs. Once SMB owners understand the degree of importance cybersecurity has on their growth, and most importantly, day-to-day operations, they’re likely to search for the right vendors.
When talking about vendors, we can’t help but discuss the expert-led and AI-powered solutions Sangfor Athena MDR provides. With their large team of SOCs outsourced from around the world, Sangfor doesn’t just provide cybersecurity solutions-they are the game changers when it comes to SMB growth.
