Should You Outsource Your Cybersecurity or Keep It In-House?
Written by Ronda Payne
As the IT industry will tell anyone who listens, it isn’t if your organization will be hit with a cyber-attack, but when. Thousands of blogs and articles about cybersecurity have noted this fact. Yet, it never gets old. Why? Because preparation for the inevitable cybersecurity breach is a continual and changing necessity and there are still some who think their organization can dodge the proverbial bullet.
But, what does that preparation look like? Should a company prepare by having expertise in-house or should outsourcing be the option? There are pros and cons for both and perhaps in considering them, organizations that sit on the fence about their cybersecurity defences can find a solution worthy of embracing.
Pros of Relying on In-house Cybersecurity Solutions
If an organization has clever IT team members who want to take on new responsibilities, there may be an opportunity for bringing cybersecurity solutions in-house. This option is beneficial because the team members will be generating skills specific to the organization’s unique needs. There is the ability to steer the education to be a precise fit based on the situation of the company, rather than on employee interest or previous cybersecurity training.
As IT departments grow, roles inherently become more specialized, allowing for some individuals to branch off and become cybersecurity experts rather than doing it off the side of their desk under another job title. As members of an overall IT team, but with specifically defined duties, they are responsible to the organization to complete the needed cybersecurity work.
Additionally, with an employee, the organization can steer the cybersecurity training, information and skills to internal needs, it can also reward the employee with incentives that go beyond money. Flexibility in work hours, extra days off, better office space are all earnable perks based on performance that only apply to in-house employees.
Cons of Relying on In-House Solutions
All the ambition and excitement in the world isn’t going to necessarily make for the right solutions. For example, if securing the network and assessing potential breach points is the primary issue, someone may need specialized credentials, like CompTIA Security+ certification or Network+ certification. Without it, a well-meaning employee may cause more harm than good, leaving the organization feeling safe but truly vulnerable.
There are always expenses to upgrading an employee’s skills and while this is usually a good thing, the lag time between learning and bringing those skills to bear fruit can leave potentially dangerous gaps in the organization. In this case, executives may choose to cross their fingers and hope nothing happens in the gap period, or they may create an overlap of skills to ensure the network is supported by bringing on an outsourced professional in the interim.
Pros of Using Outsourced Cybersecurity Professionals
Perhaps the biggest upside of making use of outsourced professionals for cybersecurity is that you can always hire the skills and training you need without waiting for knowledge to be acquired and applied. For example, if you need someone who has CompTIA A+ certification, you bring someone in who already has that training and expertise.
Because these people have already taken a number of cybersecurity courses, there is no additional expense for training. This means outsourcing can often be cheaper than using in-house resources that aren’t up to speed with their cybersecurity training. Additionally, outsourced solution providers have the benefit of seeing a range of cyber issues and can appreciate the differences between organizations while applying past learning to new problems.
Cons of Outsources Solutions
While you hire what you need with outsourcing, unfortunately so do other clients. You’ll never know if you’re the client the cybersecurity firm will run to when there are multiple client issues. You want to be the priority, but you can’t necessarily know for sure if you are, or fall somewhere further down the line.
The other negative is that, at least in the initial stages of the business arrangement, the outsourced firm doesn’t know much about your business, how it runs, the processes or the tools that will be the best fit for the unique business operation. This means in order to get an outsourced cybersecurity firm up to speed to get the right solutions in place, it’s going to take time and resources, which may be what you were hoping to avoid by outsourcing in the first place.
Looking at cybersecurity requires an understanding of the best fit for an organization in terms of who is best at delivering solutions. Take some time to assess organizational needs, resources and team member availability to make the right decision for your current environment.
Disclaimer
The information contained in this post is considered true and accurate as of the publication date. However, the accuracy of this information may be impacted by changes in circumstances that occur after the time of publication. TechnoEdge Learning assumes no liability for any error or omissions in the information contained in this post or any other post in our blog.