As regulators tighten regulations in response to rising cyber-attacks on Managed Services Providers, owners face immediate pressure to ensure that their business and clients are secure and compliant.
As regulators tighten regulations in response to rising cyber-attacks on Managed Services Providers, owners face immediate pressure to ensure that their business and clients are secure and compliant.
What is compliance for MSPs?
For MSPs, compliance includes all the things that they do to ensure that their business and clients adhere to their industry, legal, and regulatory requirements.
It includes policies, standards, controls, and other aspects that they must ensure for data security, privacy, and cybersecurity overall. Compliance is no longer a checkbox to tick for MSPs. It plays a critical role in building trust, assurance of operational continuity, and sealing long-term partnerships.
Therefore, the role of MSPs has evolved from being just facilitators and enablers of technology who ensure routine maintenance and IT support to ensuring that their clients are secured through the implementation of security controls, access management, and security privacy, and availability of restricted and confidential data.
So, by improving their clients’ compliance, MSPs also help them prevent costs, secure them from fines, and improve their reputation and brand trust.
What are some common certifications, regulations, and standards applicable to MSPs?
The following are some common regulations, certifications, and standards applicable to MSPs:
GDPR | HIPAA | PCI DSS | CMMC | NIST | SOC2 | CIS controls | ISO27001
Some common regulations/standards/certifications per Industry
Some common regulations/standards/certifications per region
🌐North & South America
🌐Middle East Africa
🌐Asia
- DPDPA
- IT Amendment Act
- PDPC
- Cybersecurity Law (CSL)
- AI Utilization Guidelines
🌐Europe
What are some common challenges faced by MSPs?
Balancing compliance with core operations
MSPs, especially small-sized MSPs, can struggle with balancing day-to-day operations with compliance, as it can consume the bandwidth of teams, time, and resources.
Changing regulatory landscape
As regulations, frameworks, and standards get updated from time to time, it can be challenging for MSPs to keep up with them. For example, they can struggle to manage changing documentation requirements.
Awareness
Most regulations and standards require organizations to train employees on cybersecurity, data security, and privacy best practices. However, MSPs can struggle to ensure the requirement with teams don’t see it as priority or perceive it as a time consuming.
Limited Expertise
MSPs with limited or no cybersecurity and compliance expertise can struggle to timely identify and address security and compliance gaps. Sudden non-compliance issues right before audits can be a nightmare many MSPs fear facing.
Client alignment
Each client can be different, with specific needs, belonging to another industry. For example, the compliance needs of a client from the finance industry can be different from those of a client from the manufacturing industry. It can be challenging to customize services and manage all the separate needs with a limited team and resources.
How can MSPs address compliance needs?
Assessing gaps in existing controls and policies against regulations
MSPs must proactively assess gaps in existing controls, security policies, and assess their infrastructure for risks to get a clear picture of risks they have to address.
Create tailored compliance plans
Since each client can be different with specific needs, MSPs can tailor a compliance plan that take all their specific industry and regulatory aspects into consideration.
Develop training and awareness programs
MSPs can develop and implement a detailed training and awareness program based on an organization-wide assessment of awareness gaps.
Continuously monitor and improve
They must continuously monitor for deviations from the desired compliance state and must improve compliance based on regular assessment.
Take the assistance of experts
MSPs must take assistance from cybersecurity and compliance experts who can help them proactively manage security and compliance risks and address gaps in compliance.
