The importance of exercise and a healthy diet to our wellbeing is unquestionable. With just a little bit of effort, we can reduce the risk of small health issues spiraling into big problems. Apply the same principle to cybersecurity and you get — cyber wellness. This holistic approach to maintaining the digital health of client networks is both your best defense against big-ticket breaches and the ideal starting point for sales conversations.
Let’s take a closer look.
Defining Cyber Wellness: A Comprehensive Approach to Cybersecurity
Unlike reactive strategies that wait for an attack to occur, prevention is the key to cyber wellness. Just as physical wellness requires ongoing care, cyber wellness demands consistent attention to your clients’ cybersecurity posture. An individual invites medical disaster by not taking prescribed medications or going for checkups. So too does a business that does not run regular vulnerability scans, fails to stay on top of the latest software security patches, and leaves multiple compliance gaps unaddressed. For threat actors, a business in bad cyber shape becomes an easy target.
The Role of MSPs as Cyber Wellness Providers
No one is better positioned to take the lead on cyber wellness than managed service providers (MSPs). You have, after all, been hired to help your clients build a forward-looking, resilient IT infrastructure that facilitates ease of operation, growth, and, increasingly, protection against cyber attacks.
In this regard, you’re like a "cyber doctor"— someone who performs regular "checkups" through vulnerability assessments and scans, prescribes "medications" such as patches and updates, and provides "long-term care" with continuous monitoring and compliance management. The more holistic services you provide, the higher your clients will climb on the cyber wellness chart. If a healthy lifestyle leads to happier, stronger, and more satisfied individuals, robust cyber wellness practices result in more secure, satisfied, and loyal clients.
Focusing on Prevention: The Ticket to Lower Costs
It’s a fact — the cost of prevention is lower than the cost of the cure. That’s why cyber wellness and “left of boom” go hand in hand. As you may know, this concept comes from military jargon where “boom” represents the moment of an explosive event, such as a bomb going off. Anything that happens after a disaster is a fact is “right of boom” and it’s inevitably reactive, costly, and resource-intensive. By focusing on prevention and protection, you promote cyber wellness by reducing the risk of having to clean up a costly fallout.
The Staggering Price Tag of Cyber Breaches
The numbers do indeed show the value of staying left of boom.
According to a CISA-OCE study, the cost of large cyber incidents ranges from $4 million to $760 million. On average — and this figure applies to larger organizations — a breach costs approximately $8 million, considerably higher than the $3 million cost that the study cites for prevention.
Smaller organizations are targets as well with incident costs ranging from $100,000 to $30 million. The cost-to-budget ratios for smaller incidents typically remain under 1%, but even these smaller figures can be devastating for SMBs, reports CISA-OCE. Add hidden costs, as highlighted by Palo Alto Networks, and the bill keeps going up:
- Regulatory fines (e.g., GDPR fines up to €20,000,000 or 4% of annual revenue)
- Reputational damage (e.g., Equifax lost $4 billion in stock market value)
- Legal costs (can be substantial, e.g., Home Depot paid $15,300,000 in legal fees)
- Operational downtime (averaging $5,600 per minute or $336,000 per hour)
So, to summarize, anything you do left of boom falls under the umbrella of cyber wellness. Regular assessments, vulnerability management, patching, compliance checks, and continuous monitoring all serve to build resilience. From a cyber wellness perspective, these measures safeguard business continuity and prove your worth as an MSP.
The Cyber Wellness Payoff: Stronger Security, Happier Clients
By embracing cyber wellness, you and your clients win.
- Reduced Risk of Breaches: By adopting a cyber wellness approach, you significantly lower the risk of cyber incidents through regular monitoring, assessments, and updates.
- Cost Savings: Preventive measures are less expensive than incident responses. By catching vulnerabilities early, you help your clients avoid the high costs associated with breaches.
- Client Trust and Retention: Clients who see that you are proactively managing their cybersecurity are more likely to stay loyal, as they appreciate the continuous value you provide.
Diagnose and Boost Your Clients' Cyber Health
Picture the impact of being able to give your clients a Cyber Wellness Score. With ConnectSecure, you can. The score is based on a risk assessment of all IT assets and shows exactly where there’s work to be done to achieve a perfect score. This tangible piece of information is fuel for sales conversations, enabling you to introduce the value of cyber wellness and why it’s so important to your clients’ long-term security and success.
Try ConnectSecure Today
Ready to get started? The ConnectSecure Vulnerability Management and Compliance platform is your complete cyber wellness package. Sign up for a Free 14-Day Trial or schedule a One-on-One Demo to see how our platform can help put your clients on the path to cyber wellness.
Read more:
- Solving Challenges with a Vulnerability Management Platform: Six Success Stories
- Boosting MSP revenue with Vulnerability Management as a Service (VMaaS)
- Top 5 Strategies for Effective Vulnerability Remediation for MSPs