From Understaffed Firefighters to Value-Adders: The Changing Role of SMB Cybersecurity Teams
Most small and medium-sized companies could get a lot more impact out of their cybersecurity function — if the people handling security could get ahead of the daily grind of alerts and post-incident firefighting.
Most small teams work like firefighters: reacting to alerts as they happen instead of engaging in strategic activities that could enhance their organization's security posture. It’s not their fault; responding to immediate problems has to take priority when a team (or single person!) has limited bandwidth.
When the attack surface keeps growing and threat actors inventing endlessly inventive ways of stealing data and holding systems hostage, it’s becoming increasingly untenable for small teams to go it alone.
But what if there were a way for security teams to turn reactivity into proactivity without the expensive proposition of increasing headcount?
Let's dive into how cybersecurity professionals can transition from reactive roles to proactive, strategic value-adders within their organizations.
Progressing from firefighters to strategic roles
Alert fatigue is a familiar story for cybersecurity teams with EDR and SIEM systems. The volume of alerts makes it hard to understand which ones matter. The more alerts you have, the harder it is to spend time analyzing patterns and tuning your systems to receive meaningful alerts.
And single-person security teams — or ones led by an IT leader wearing too many hats — usually lack the technology to get alert about threats (never mind the resources to pursue the threats). They’re forever stuck in cleanup mode or just waiting for a breach to come from an unknown direction.
Services like MDR are letting SMBs hand off the 24/7 expert threat monitoring that’s needed to meet new demands, analyzing threats and communicating which ones are likely priorities you need to address.
Both scenarios can prevent a cybersecurity team from acting as a strategic business partner.
Services like managed detection and response (MDR) are letting SMBs hand off the 24/7 expert threat monitoring that’s needed to meet new demands, analyzing threats and communicating which ones are likely priorities you need to address.
This shift allows internal teams to focus on more strategic tasks (not to mention, reduces burnout and turnover). But what exactly does this shift to a more strategic role look like — and how can you measure and prove it’s adding value within the company?
Reimagining the role of cybersecurity professionals
Proactive threat management
With services like MDR assisting with the bulk of alert management, cybersecurity teams can focus on proactive threat management. This includes regular security audits, security play books, penetration testing, risk assessments, tabletop exercises and developing comprehensive security strategies.
For single-person teams, implementing an EDR system is an important step. While this can generate many alerts, MDR services can handle the workload, allowing you to focus on more strategic initiatives.
Communication is key
Let’s face it: Most attacks aren’t that sophisticated. You’re more likely to experience a breach when an employee clicks a link in a phishing email, or have company data stolen when a line of business implements new software without telling IT, than get breached by a sophisticated hacking attempt.
Preventing security incidents is often more about better communication than having sophisticated tooling. Educating the rest of the organization ensures you are more security-savvy as a whole, and can adopt a security-first culture.
For cyber or IT teams of one, effective communication is even more critical. They must educate the rest of the organization to build a security-first culture all by themselves.
Metrics to track could include the frequency of playbook updates and the number of interdepartmental meetings focused on security.
Career development and team morale
If you’re running a SOC, you’re probably seeing a lot of turnover with junior analysts. Just chasing alerts can make the job a grind; these folks want to feel like they’re learning new things and there’s a real career path.
Having time to make sure this development path is clear not only helps reduce employee turnover, but also trains a more stable team to be better at planning and executing proactive and strategic initiatives.
Preventing security incidents is often more about better communication than having sophisticated tooling.
For the single-person team, career development might just mean staying current with the latest certifications and training, ensuring they can manage the strategic aspects of their role effectively.
How to add business value through strategic cybersecurity initiatives
In these elevated roles as strategic value-adders, let’s look at some examples of strategic steps cybersecurity teams can take.
1. Enhance security awareness training
Regular security awareness training educates employees about the latest threats and best practices. This helps reduce human error, a significant vulnerability in cybersecurity.
Tailoring training to highlight specific threats relevant to different departments can be significantly useful. Track the completion rates of training programs, the reduction in phishing incidents, and the improvement in employee awareness scores.
2. Improve risk assessment and management
Conducting comprehensive risk assessments to identify vulnerabilities and implement appropriate mitigation strategies is a proactive approach that enhances the organization's security posture.
It also demonstrates to stakeholders a commitment to protecting assets and data. Key metrics might include the number of risk assessments completed, the vulnerabilities identified and mitigated, and the overall risk score reduction over time.
3. Get ahead of incident response and business continuity planning
Developing and regularly updating incident response and business continuity plans ensures the organization can quickly and effectively respond to security incidents, minimizing downtime and financial loss.
That means developing a cybersecurity playbook — a formal incident response plan — if you don’t have one. And if you do, it needs routine updating as your attack surface and cyber threats evolve.
IT and security leaders should also be planning for business continuity: what happens after you respond to an incident or a natural disaster. Security incidents aren’t just about shutting down the threat but getting systems online and communicating any changes to your team and customers.
Robust incident response and business continuity plans boost customer and stakeholder confidence. Metrics to monitor include the time taken to respond to incidents, the recovery time objective (RTO), and the recovery point objective (RPO).
4. Perform regular security audits and penetration testing
Regular security audits and penetration tests help identify and address vulnerabilities before they can be exploited.
This proactive approach maintains a strong security posture and can prevent costly data breaches. Key metrics include the number of audits and tests conducted, the vulnerabilities identified, and the time taken to remediate these vulnerabilities.
5. Conduct tabletop exercises
Tabletop exercises are attack simulations that give you a way to test your security posture in the real world — without the real-world consequences.
The benefits are huge:
It’s a dress rehearsal that helps everyone involved get a clear sense of their role and what they need to do when an emergency occurs
You can use the exercise to develop your incident response plan
You get to see where the gaps are in your planning and plug them — before you’re on an emergency timeline
Don’t know where to start? The Center for Internet Security published a free guide of six tabletop exercises you can use.
6. Develop a Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (COE)
You probably don’t have the bandwidth for a full COE, but embedding cybersecurity experts within key project teams can give you better access to influence decisions that impact security.
This model ensures that security considerations are integrated from the start, enhancing overall security practices across the organization.
Measure the impact by tracking the number of projects supported by the CoE and the security improvements made in these projects.
Building a cybersecurity team involves not just hiring the right talent but also establishing clear roles and responsibilities to ensure everyone knows their part in the overall strategy.
By defining a robust cybersecurity team structure, organizations can better manage their resources and improve efficiency.
Managed detection and response services elevates the role of SMB cybersecurity functions
MDR services enhance detection by proactively hunting for threats with expert analysts who can address sophisticated attacks sometimes missed by automated systems.
MDR assists with real-time incident response, reducing detection and response times, minimizing damage. It provides continuous 24/7/365 monitoring and unlimited remediation support, ensuring threats are detected in real-time and quickly resolved by experts. Combining advanced technology with human expertise, MDR reduces alert fatigue by prioritizing alerts, easing the burden on internal teams.
Building a cybersecurity team involves not just hiring the right talent but also establishing clear roles and responsibilities to ensure everyone knows their part in the overall strategy.
For small and mid-sized businesses, MDR offers scalable solutions that extend beyond endpoint monitoring, incorporating data from various sources for a holistic security view. This approach enhances risk management with active threat mitigation and expert responses, building a robust defense against cyber threats.
The transition from reactive firefighting to proactive strategic roles can redefine a cybersecurity team’s organizational structure and place in a business. Improved communication, career development, and strategic initiatives add significant business value while potentially reducing security employee turnover.
Adopting MDR services can be a critical step in this evolution, unlocking the full potential of cybersecurity teams and individuals and helping to make them recognized contributors to the business.
If you’d like to find out more about how you turn your cybersecurity team into a strategic powerhouse, explore Coalition MDR services or schedule time to chat with us.
