As cyber threats evolve and grow, MSPs and MSSPs also must adapt their services. To better prepare for the future, service providers must watch security trends, including using AI and collaborating with partners, to ensure robust protection for their clients — and sustainable growth for themselves.
MSPs are trusted advisors in cybersecurity for their clients, navigating new threats almost daily. Here are seven trends to watch this year and how MSPs can use them to provide better services to customers.
1. How AI Helps MSPs Stay Ahead of Threats
One of the biggest trends is prioritizing the growing use of AI and machine learning tools to be more proactive in the fight against cyberattacks.
The ability to predict an occurrence has been notably lacking in the security field, according to Stanley Louissaint, principal and founder of Fluid Designs. “With AI in play, one of the greatest things happening is more of a threat pattern understanding to another level versus what we’ve been doing with human intervention,” Louissant said. “These systems [will] forecast some emerging threats before they come out.”
With MSPs increasingly targeted, offering a comprehensive security suite is essential for both their clients’ protection and their own.
“SMBs expect their MSPs to leverage AI-powered tools to improve productivity, detect and remediate security issues, and provide faster issue resolution,’’ Amy Babinchak, president of the National Society of IT Service Providers, wrote in a LinkedIn article. “MSPs that can effectively integrate and manage AI-based solutions will be better positioned to meet the needs of their SMB clients.”
2. The MSP-Hacker Arms Race
Stanley Louissaint
Even with AI in their arsenal, Louissaint doesn’t see any end in sight for MSPs in the battle against adversaries. “There’s going to be an ongoing battle,” he shared. “It’s no different than physical warfare; those with the biggest guns will win in the long haul.”
However, there’s a note of optimism for the future in the overall security landscape, which will have “more saves than gotchas,” he pointed out. Security wins often go unnoticed while breaches make headlines, he admitted. However, MSPs are stopping more threats than they realize.
3. MFA Adoption is a Struggle for MSPs
eMazzanti Technologies CEO Carl Mazzanti said the majority of MSPs are “failing miserably” at deploying multifactor authentication (MFA) for clients, let alone in their own offices. They are still mainly focused on providing help desk services, so they cannot fight the battle alone.
It would be in MSPs’ best interest to choose a partner that will augment their help desk service with a security-first mindset, he advised. “My own firm is security focused, and we have a third party that audits things not only for my SOC 2 compliance but also to review what we do for our own systems. I don’t believe the doer should ever be the checker.”
4. Cloud Growth Brings New Security Challenges
Amy Babinchak
As business workloads keep shifting to the cloud, MSPs will need the skills and resources to manage cloud infrastructure and services for their SMB clients — including securing these workloads, Babinchak said.
To effectively protect clients, MSPs should have incident response plans to address security incidents. MSPs should implement cloud-native security measures like security information and event management (SIEM) to actively monitor threats, rather than assuming cloud providers handle all security needs.
5. Why MSPs Must Focus on Threat Hunting and Endpoint Response
Beyond cloud security, MSPs must also step up their threat-hunting efforts to stay ahead of attackers.
Savvy MSPs will use bots to sift through data to find anomalous behaviors, Mazzanti said. Humans need to stay in the mix because they must review all incidents to take a holistic view of the organization, he said.
“While individual actions may not alone be worthy of attention, the trend for the aggregate of the behavior is,” Mazzanti explained. Since hackers also have “playbooks on how to attack someone,” and use bots to harvest data, MSPs without a security team need to partner with a provider, he insisted.
Additionally, more MSPs will need to focus on the response component of endpoint detection and response (EDR), Mazzanti said. “Almost everyone lacks response in any sort of endpoint … the reality is unless you have a team scripting responses or paying someone to do that, you’re missing the boat.”
Carl Mazzanti
6. Vendor Consolidation and Accountability: What MSPs Need to Know
MSPs should also engage better with their vendors, Mazzanti said. Focusing on “the easy goal of a properly configured good product will beat out a poorly configured best of bread any day,” he said.
Vendor consolidation is likely to continue, added Louissaint. This is part of the industry maturing, he added. However, with fewer players in the mix, it’s important to hold them accountable. “We have to hold vendors’ feet to the fire if a product is trending in the wrong direction,” Louissaint cautioned. “Our job is to make noise and speak up and let these folks know.”
7. Education and Adaptation: Keys to Security Success
While security has always been a concern, today’s threats are far more sophisticated, with ransomware becoming an increasingly lucrative business.
To stay competitive, MSPs will have to emphasize learning and evolving when it comes to security, as new methods and techniques become available, Louissaint said. “Security and education go hand in hand; it’s a constant cycle. It’s something you will have to do.”
A key to the future of security is a willingness to change, he added. “You have to educate yourself on what’s going on to future-proof yourself.” It can be through peer groups, trade shows, and industry events, he noted.
“Sometimes I feel like folks are on their own island and can’t see what’s in front of them,’’ Louissaint said. “You have to force yourself into a position where you’re thinking ahead about a problem to solve in front of you.”
Futureproofing MSP Security
As cyber threats evolve, MSPs must also adapt. Staying ahead means using AI-driven tools, strengthening vendor partnerships, and prioritizing ongoing education. MSPs that take a proactive approach will safeguard their clients and strengthen their own resilience in an ever-evolving security landscape.
See more articles on this topic in ChannelPro’s Cybersecurity MSP Answer Center>>>
Featured image: DALL-E
