Thirty nine per cent of MSPs surveyed in the MSP Perspectives 2024 report said that it was the number one hurdle.
MSPs also cited hiring new cybersecurity analysts to keep up with customer growth and the latest cyberthreats as top challenges.
The survey also found that MSPs perceive the shortage of in-house cybersecurity skills to be the single biggest cybersecurity risk to both their own business and their clients' organisations. MSPs also perceive stolen access data and credentials and unpatched vulnerabilities to be among the biggest security risks to their customers. The State of Ransomware 2024 report found that almost one third (29 per cent) of ransomware attacks started with compromised credentials, showing the prevalence of this entry vector.
"The speed of innovation across the cybersecurity battleground means it's harder than ever for MSPs to keep up with threats and the cyber controls designed to stop them," said Scott Barlow, vice president of MSP at Sophos. "When you couple this with a global skills shortage, which has made it infinitely more difficult for many MSPs to attract and retain cybersecurity analyst resources, its unsurprising that MSPs feel unable to keep pace with the changing threat landscape.
"This is all compounded by the need for 24x7 coverage as indicated in our 2023 Active Adversary report for Tech Leaders, which finds that 91 per cent of ransomware attacks now happen out of business hours."
In response to this complex threat landscape, there is growing demand for managed detection and response (MDR) services to provide always-on coverage. Currently 81 per cent of MSPs provide an MDR service and almost all (97 per cent) MSPs that don’t offer MDR at present plan to add it to their portfolio in the coming years.
Reflecting the shortage of in-house cybersecurity skills, 66 per cent of MSPs use a third-party vendor to deliver the MDR service and a further 15 per cent deliver jointly through their own SOC and a third-party vendor. Topping the list of essential capabilities in a third-party MDR provider is the ability to provide a 24/7 incident response service.
MSPs are also streamlining their cybersecurity partnerships, working with a small number of vendors. The study revealed that more than half (53 per cent) of MSPs work with just one or two cybersecurity vendors, rising to 83 per cent that use between one and five. Reflecting the effort and overhead of running multiple platforms, MSPs estimate that they could cut their day-to-day management time by 48 per cent if they could manage all their cybersecurity tools from a single platform.
Other key findings from the report include:
• Ninety nine per cent of MSPs report an increase in demand for cyber insurance-related support, with the most common requests including clients wanting to implement an MDR service to improve their insurability (47 per cent) or to receive help completing their insurance application (45 per cent).
• MSPs want flexibility from their MDR provider, with 71 per cent saying it is "essential or very important" that the vendor can use telemetry from their existing security tools for threat detection and response.
• MSPs in the U.S. lead the way in MDR service provision with almost all (94 per cent) already offering MDR, compared to 62 per cent in the U.K.
Barlow said, "While MSPs have a huge job to do in protecting their customers against fast moving adversaries, there’s tremendous opportunity to grow their business and profitability if they can find the right security set up. The data shows that MSPs are strengthening their proposition and reducing overheads by amalgamating the platforms they use and engaging with third-party MDR vendors to expand their service offerings. As they look to build their security offering of the future, they should prioritise vendors that can offer a complete portfolio of industry-best, fully managed security services and solutions."