ConnectWise has announced the launch of the first global cyber security framework for managed service providers (MSPs), in an attempt to educate the market and make it easier for MSPs to deliver security solutions.
Announced at ConnectWise’s virtual IT Nation Explore event today (24 June), the framework brings together existing security guidance produced by some of the world’s foremost security standards organisations, including the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre and the US’s National Institute of Standards and Technology. It incorporates NCSC’s Cyber Essentials programme and NIST’s Cyber Security Framework.
Alongside the framework, ConnectWise is launching two new security products: ConnectWise Fortify for SaaS Security, a detection and response solution that monitors Microsoft accounts for unusual user behaviour, and ConnectWise Fortify for Assessment, a tool helping MSPs sell solutions to small and medium-sized businesses.
It is also overhauling the branding of the product lines produced by Continuum, which it acquired last year in a major merger. ConnectWise Fortify used to be a Continuum solution, as did ConnectWise Command, Recover and Assist.
In recent years, MSPs have become a target for savvy cyber criminals and nation state actors seeking to minimise their workload by using the businesses as common entry points to several organisations at once. But despite the increased threat, ConnectWise says “there remains a lack of security awareness in the industry”.
“We talk a lot about how important it is to know ‘what good looks like’ in your business so you can work towards that in all areas,” said ConnectWise chief executive Jason Magee. “But the challenge has been that MSPs haven’t had a specialised and standardised framework to work against for cybersecurity and therefore don’t know what good cybersecurity looks like.”
Magee added: “We’ve designed the MSP+ Cybersecurity Framework to address that issue, and it’s part of a comprehensive new cybersecurity education and certification program called IT Nation Secure that will position MSPs for long-term success. In a world where there are expected to be four million unfilled cybersecurity positions in 2021, the opportunity is now for MSPs.”
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