The MIM Expo (Major Incident Management) always delivers, and this year’s recent gathering was no exception. At this annual event, we always get a unique opportunity to hear about what’s top of mind with major incidents and SRE professionals from all the world.

World-class incident responders are a strategic asset in today’s world where the frequency and sophistication of cyber security attacks continue to increase every year, as do the associated financial damages: As such, more and more organizations are looking to grow their cyber incident response expertise, both with inhouse staff as well as by engaging with third-party experts.

With 2021 seeing 5.1 billion records breached and an annual increase in attacks at 11%, the risk of security incidents is only getting greater every year. And when an attack hits, the cost to recover, which includes fines, penalties, legal fees, and much more, are also great. To help minimize the scope of financial damage, many organizations turn to cyber insurance. Albeit a relatively new branch of insurance, demand is already huge and ever increasing.

The importance of well-managed communications when handling IT and security incidents cannot be overstated. If updates are not communicated in a timely and accurate manner, misunderstandings, misalignment, and costly errors will occur. Not to mention, resolution will be prolonged. And if highly sensitive information is communicated to those who should not be privy to such, then the risk of legal ramifications is high, as would be the damage.

When a cyber incident hits, there are certain questions that are asked right away almost every time...

The managed security services market is booming. Coming in at $22.8 billion in 2021, it is projected to nearly double in just five years and grow to $43.7 billion by 2026. Moreover, cloud-based managed security services are poised to be the major growth driver for the broader MSP market, coming in at $219.59 billion in 2021, and expected to reach $557.10 billion by 2028. As we can see, providing robust security services is a key competitive differentiator for the lucrative MSP market.

When considering the fact that 2020 was a record breaker in the number of cyberattacks that occurred and the resulting cost to organizations that was incurred, it is clear that the state of cybersecurity readiness is not very encouraging, to say the least.

Much of the fuel for today’s business organizations is comprised of cloud computing and digital and SaaS applications. So, if something goes wrong with them, there will be a grave impact on productivity, customer satisfaction and even loyalty, as well as on the costs required for resolving the incident, remediating damage, and getting back to business.

Organizations today are more vulnerable than ever to cyberattacks and data breaches. Whether the attack is executed by an external actor or an insider, the unauthorized intrusion comes at a great cost. This cost may differ, depending on several factors. These include the cause of the breach, the actions taken to remediate the incident, whether there is a history of data infringements, what data was compromised, and how the organization aligned with the authorities and regulators.

Keeping up with customer demand and staying ahead of the competition requires fast releases and efficient code. This is where DevOps comes into play. Where DevOps is the practice, mindset, and culture of combining software development (i.e. Dev) and IT operations (i.e. Ops) to accelerate the development lifecycle and provide continuous delivery without compromising quality.