Cybersecurity Skills Shortage Ranked as Biggest Risk to MSPs

Sophos, a global leader of innovative security solutions that defeat cyberattacks, has released its inaugural ‘MSP Perspectives 2024’ survey report, which found that the biggest day-to-day challenge facing Managed Service Providers (MSP) is keeping up with the latest cybersecurity solutions/technologies, cited by 39 per cent of the MSPs surveyed.

The MSPs report indicated that hiring new cybersecurity analysts to keep up with customer growth and keep pace with the latest cyber threats were also top challenges. 

The survey also reveals 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 amongst the biggest security risks to their customers. 

The latest State of Ransomware 2024 report found that nearly a third (29 per cent) of ransomware attacks started with compromised credentials, showing the prevalence of this entry vector.

Analysing the report, Vice President of MSP at Sophos, Scott Barlow, said: “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. 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.”