Is your business having a difficult time finding qualified cybersecurity help? If so, you are not alone.

In one recent study, 45 percent of organizations reported having a problematic cybersecurity skills shortage in 2017. 54 percent of organizations claimed that they lack the appropriate cybersecurity operations skills for a company of their size. And 57 percent of companies claim they lack appropriate security operations staffing for a company of their size.

In another study, 93 percent of security professionals claimed they are concerned about the cybersecurity skills gap. And 72 percent claimed it’s more difficult to hire security staff today than it was two years ago.

This is very troubling, as it’s impossible to protect your business from cybercrime without a team of trained experts to hunt down threats, assess and investigate them. There are too many threats today, coming from too many places. These threats are becoming more dangerous by the day, and by our estimate 2018 is going to be an absolute nightmare from a cybersecurity standpoint.

Here’s some good news, though:

If you are having trouble finding reliable cybersecurity help, you can simply outsource operations to a managed services provider (MSP) like Apex Technology Services. Apex will provide access to highly-qualified experts and cutting edge threat detection services at a small fraction of what you would pay for them on your own. It’s a cost-effective and trusted way to acquire the protection you need.

Apex Technology Services can also help your business create a strong cybersecurity culture.

Here are some of the areas all organizations looking to promote a cybersecurity culture need to focus on.

1.    Cybersecurity training must be done regularly.

2.    Auditing and documentation must be performed regularly to ensure systems are secure.

3.    Anomaly detection should be running constantly to detect threats as they emerge.

4.    Penetration testing shows if systems can easily be reached from the outside. Here is a case where this test might have saved two company’s’ reputations from being destroyed.

5.    Network forensics for when a breach eventually occurs. The bad guys always seem to get in eventually.

6.    An action plan to follow when a breach does occur. Once it happens, few will have the clear heads needed to “wing it” correctly. Equifax botched it’s response in what is being called a PR catastrophe.

To ensure your organization is safe – even if you have internal IT, hire an experienced MSP or MSSP like Apex Technology Services.