What MDR will look like in 2024

One of the bigger trends in cybersecurity in recent years and one that has had a considerable impact is the managed services sector. As a result of the significant changes in cybersecurity, managed services like MDR, and comparable products have emerged. They include the rapidly changing threat landscape, an environment with higher risks, and the lack of cybersecurity talent. Organizations are now searching for a cybersecurity partner that provides all-inclusive cybersecurity services as a result.

The tasks they do and the services they offer businesses vary across these managed services. In most cases, though, they act as outsourced cybersecurity teams, outsourced SOCs, and cybersecurity partners who may offer real-time detection and response services and perhaps even help with cleanup and investigative operations. By 2025, 50% of enterprises will use MDR services for threat monitoring, detection, and response tasks that provide threat containment and mitigation capabilities, according to a Gartner® prediction1. According to Frost & Sullivan, the MDR sector will generate $1.9B in sales by 2024.

While being relatively young, the MDR sector is developing in a number of important ways, particularly in terms of how it works with other parts of the cybersecurity sector and how it adapts to changes in the market. In this post, we’ll discuss some key forecasts for 2023, point out significant changes in the MDR market, and offer advice to enterprises on how to improve their MDR service search strategy.

Cyber insurance and MDR will edge closer and closer together.

Organizations gain a lot from MDR services and comparable managed service providers. In addition to provide essentially detection and response services around-the-clock, they also offer monitoring, security data analysis, and frequently give extra telemetry or centralize telemetry sources, reducing the chance of a compromise and enhancing recovery and remediation operations.

In fact, Forrester expects that “at least three cyber insurance companies will acquire a managed detection and response (MDR) provider  because the sector has taken notice of the data and analysis that potential MDR partners may offer clients. Many cyber insurance providers also demand policyholders to have an MDR provider if they are unable to achieve important standards internally, in addition to the new procedures and technology they are mandating for businesses.

Also, to improve their underwriting standards, have a clearer understanding of their customers’ environments, and validate attestation, cyber insurance companies will use the telemetry, attacker activity data, and other client-side information made available by MDR providers. This could have an impact on premiums, coverage, and reimbursements for holders of cyber insurance policies.

Your move: If you now use or are considering using an MDR provider, be sure to know whether or not your cyber insurance provider will have access to the data the MDR provider gathers and processes, as well as how it will be used. It may also be useful to know whether you have any say over this. It’s your choice whether or not to share environment-related information with your cyber insurance provider. Be specific in what you are looking for to see if the given information will affect coverage and payout.

More managed services will emerge and expand

We anticipate that more varieties of managed services will emerge as managed services continue to expand and the industry develops. They will probably be services that offer a separate set of technologies, including MFA, data backups, and incident response. They may also be designed for particular sectors and industries, or they may be targeted towards specific consumers, like SMBs or mid-market enterprises.

Extended MDR services may offer more services or even act as fully operational, external cybersecurity departments for a certain firm.

Instead, cybersecurity leaders must decide which managed services they will use depending on their own needs and the limitations of their own firm. They can need to satisfy important cyber insurance or compliance requirements, assist a department that lacks multi-cloud environment security training, or just require assistance with detection and response. To prevent getting stuck with a surplus in tools or supplies, be cautious when choosing your cybersecurity partners and try to avoid picking incomplete managed services.

Despite budget cuts, MDR will still be a priority

Given worries about a recession and the continuance of the market decline, 2024 is guaranteed to bring a great deal of uncertainty, especially with regard to budgets and spending. Leaders in cyber security are frequently already cash-strapped. When budgets come under more scrutiny, they’ll probably look for fresh ways to reduce expenses and maximize spending.

In spite of what could appear to be a trend toward lesser budgets, many IT buyers projected to boost expenditure, according to data by BCG that questioned IT buyers. Strategic spending is expected to rise in infrastructure, analytics, cloud security, and cybersecurity.

As a result, many IT and cybersecurity leaders will be aiming to increase their cybersecurity efforts, especially in the area of cloud security. As a result, MDR services will probably be in high demand, which could change the market’s balance and harm businesses that aren’t investing in them.

Cybersecurity executives base their judgments on the idea that their rivals will be reducing their spending, will ultimately make strategic errors, and may have a less secure business than their peers.

Your move: As we’ve stated, using MDR services will probably become the norm for many businesses, especially if MDR services tailored to certain markets and target audiences appear. Given this probable reality, businesses without these services are more vulnerable to future attacks and are at more risk than those with MDR investments.

How orgs should move forward for 2024

Getting an MDR sooner than later: It is obvious that businesses can gain a lot from MDR services, but as the market develops, businesses could have trouble locating the ideal MDR partners. As more and more cyber leaders pledge to have more cyber resilience, the market will become crowded with them, grabbing hold of successful partners and leaving laggards with few Alternative options.

Talk to your cyber insurance provider: If you have cyber insurance—which you should—be sure to understand exactly how your cyber insurance provider will use the data provided by an MDR and other telemetry sources. Clear communication will help create reasonable expectations.

Don’t fall into a managed services trap: Successful MDR services should offer extensive services and have the flexibility to increase their menu of options in response to your organization’s needs. We advise giving having a single MDR provider priority over having several point solutions that each offer different managed services for more manageable chores or separately packaged solutions. This will probably lead to the same vendor complexity and workload problems that many security teams are presently experiencing.

Organizations stand to benefit greatly from the introduction of MDR and other managed services, which will greatly increase their overall cyber resilience and lessen the harm that cyberattacks can do. Leaders in cybersecurity must still make wise choices regarding how to deal with an MDR provider. Leaders will have a better understanding of the MDR industry’s complexities and how they interact with the changing cybersecurity components as a result of these landscape changes. Cybersecurity leaders may aid their firms in advancing their cybersecurity initiatives by recognizing these environmental trends.