Managed service providers unknowingly put their customers at risk every day from sophisticated malware that gets smarter every minute. As one threat is stopped in its tracks, another, more dangerous one is on its way from proficient hackers launching automated attacks that can take a business down for days. You can keep your customers safe by avoiding these four common mistakes: 

1. Forgetting how vulnerable the endpoints are—even when the network has layers of protection. Firewalls, intrusion detection and data encryption are part of every security strategy. What’s often overlooked is the sophisticated malware that comes in directly from the end users’ laptops, mobile phones, tablets and desktops. These moving targets are extremely vulnerable because they move outside the network and are open to dozens of potential threats.
    
2. Assuming that no one is interested in attacking your clients’ small, relatively unknown businesses. The media is quick to report attacks and breaches on big name companies like Target and Home Depot. While those damages are real, hackers are making more money attacking small and medium-sized businesses that no one ever heard of. Approximately 81% of breaches happen in SMBs, and six in 10 SMBs that have been breached went out of business.
    
3. Believing a low cost or freemium security product is a smart cost-cutting strategy. Everyone likes cheap or even free, but MSPs quickly realize that costs climb much higher when a bargain security solution does not detect a new malware variant that was attached to spam. Can you put a price on damage control, reputation impact or the lost time scrambling to restore a customer’s network? Whether hard-to-quantify or easy-to-quantify, the costs of losing confidential or critical files can add up fast.
    
4. Not recognizing and shining a bright light on the time and money that companies waste chasing false-positive security alerts. Your customers may have a gut feeling that they are spending too much time trying to contain malware, and they are right. Based on a new report from Ponemon Institute, companies spend 600 hour per week on malware containment. A big portion of that time, $1.27 million annually, or $25,000 per week, is time wasted responding to false-positive attacks. That’s a strong argument for moving those responsibilities to an MSP and letting the IT team focus their energy elsewhere.  

Wondering how managed service providers are making security solutions work for them? Read how Webhosting.net is avoiding malware risks and protecting its customers with Bitdefender.