Why you shouldn’t put all your trust in IT consultancies for cybersecurity

Organizations without in-house IT and security teams often choose to work with IT partners to manage their technology and security needs. This makes sense. There’s a general lack of cybersecurity skills and understanding amongst leadership teams. Outsourcing to experienced IT professionals often results in more efficient infrastructure and security, especially for smaller and medium sized businesses.

The problem is that IT consultancies are not always also cybersecurity experts. For those that are, there’s still often an important missing piece of the security puzzle. The piece that provides the company and their consultancy a complete overview of the organization’s digital assets and what could potentially be hacked.

The risk of relying solely on IT partners

Let’s be clear, working with a trusted IT partner is a big part of an organization’s security strategy, but putting complete trust in them without a comprehensive understanding of your own security posture can be dangerous.

With new regulations such as NIS2 and DORA now in effect across Europe, the stakes are even higher. Leaders and boards are now personally accountable for cybersecurity, making it essential to no longer push that responsibility entirely onto IT consultancy services.

The security limitations of IT consultancies 

Depending on their service offerings, IT consultancies typically focus on managing your IT infrastructure including implementing and integrating systems, compliance, and handling internal IT support. Some may offer cybersecurity services, but these often don’t include continuous monitoring for vulnerabilities. If they do, they may lack access to the full scope of an organization’s attack surface. In other words, all digital assets that could be exploited by hackers.

In our experience, many businesses and their IT consultants are often unaware of all the domains, accounts, and shadow IT associated with the company. Not only that, but they lack the tools to identify where employee e-mail accounts might be used online for personal purposes. This leaves organizations exposed to cyber threats that consultancies might not detect. 

Work with partners who are experts in cybersecurity

The first step to achieving security peace of mind is to work with dedicated cybersecurity specialists. This might mean partnering with an IT consultancy that has expertise in cybersecurity or working with separate IT and security providers. A Security Operations Center (SOC) team is a great service to look out for when choosing a security partner. It’s important to keep in mind, however, that a SOC team primarily monitors for irregular and suspicious activities, they don’t automatically uncover unknown vulnerabilities or threats.

We also recommend working with a security partner who performs penetration testing (pentesting). Pentesting is another essential part of a cybersecurity strategy, but it still only provides a snapshot in time of vulnerabilities. Pentests don’t offer ongoing security visibility, and their reports are targeted at IT managers and are too technical for executives to understand and act on them.

To truly be proactive in staying ahead of threats, businesses need to continuously monitor for threats and make security accessible for leadership.

Adding an extra layer of security with Attack Surface Management

Attack Surface Management (ASM) provides organizations with an overview of all their organization’s digital assets, domains, and vulnerabilities. It essentially allows them to see what a hacker can see.

The Aftra platform automates this process by:

• Identifying all domains and assets linked to your organization
• Continuously scanning for vulnerabilities and prioritizing them based on risk level
• Alerting your team when similar domains are created for phishing attacks
• Uncovering where employee emails are exposed online, reducing credential leak risks
• Providing executives with an intuitive dashboard and a security score, helping them set and track security KPIs. 

This level of visibility and control allows businesses to proactively address risks before they become full-blown security incidents.

Why cybersecurity matters for leadership teams

Beyond just being good practice, having full visibility of your cybersecurity posture is now a legal necessity. NIS2 regulations place the responsibility directly on executives and board members, requiring them to:

• Implement effective cybersecurity measures
• Ensure compliance with evolving security regulations
• Provide adequate resources and training for staff
• Develop a comprehensive incident response plan

Failing to meet these requirements doesn’t just expose an organization to cyber threats—it can lead to direct legal consequences for leadership. An understanding of cybersecurity for leadership teams is simply no longer optional. It's a business-critical responsibility that must be integrated into company-wide KPIs and decision-making.

Cybersecurity for leadership is the missing piece of the puzzle

Security is often inaccessible to leadership teams and seems difficult to those who are not experts. With the right tools it can be simple. The problem is that many security tools and reports are too technical for leadership to interpret, which makes it hard to truly understand where the organization stands, let alone set goals and effectively track security progress.

Aftra makes cybersecurity simple and actionable for leadership to understand what’s going on under the roof and making it possible to:

• Understand their company’s security posture at a glance
• Track progress with clear metrics and insights
• Make informed decisions to strengthen company-wide security

The best security strategy is multi-layered

IT consultancies play a crucial role in managing infrastructure and IT operations, but they shouldn’t be your only line of defense. A robust security strategy requires trusted IT partners, cybersecurity specialists or a SOC team, penetration testing to identify vulnerabilities, and attack surface management to uncover what testers don’t and to get continuous visibility and insights.

By taking a multi-faceted approach, organizations can truly build resilience and ensure that both IT teams and leadership have the insights they need to protect their business from evolving threats.

Take the complexity out of cybersecurity

Aftra provides continuous visibility into the potential security threats facing your organization and helps organizations manage their attack surface and become truly proactive.

Get in touch today to learn how we make security simple and actionable.

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