Unlocking Cyber Resilience: A Deep Dive into Risk Assessments

Contributed by James Lee, Director, Services Business Development at TD SYNNEX.

In today’s digital landscape, where opportunities and vulnerabilities often collide, cybersecurity is more than just a buzzword. It’s a market that introduces significant opportunities.

Photo by Avi Richards on Unsplash

McKinsey & Company’s Cyber Market Map Survey revealed that cybersecurity boasts a $2 trillion market opportunity for cybersecurity technology and service providers. Furthermore, in the 2023 TD SYNNEX Direction of Technology Report, security was the top technology sold (59% of partners selling), the top skill set that partners are hiring for (38% of partners) and the top ranked issue of importance in two years’ time.

What does this entail for our cybersecurity technology and service providers? While cyberattacks are proliferating the channel, it’s imperative that organizations, regardless of size or industry, seek cybersecurity insurance and continually assess their security posture to fill in any gaps that point toward potential vulnerabilities.

This concentrated effort invites cybersecurity technology and service providers to help their customers with every step of the process, including cybersecurity vulnerability and risk assessments, which are a vital component of any security strategy.

In a recent article, we provided insights to our cybersecurity service provider partners on how best to support cyber insurance seeking customers. Now, we are taking a deeper dive to explore the various types of cybersecurity risk assessments organizations most frequently leverage. We’ll also share tips from our ServiceSolv experts that will help our partners maximize the value they deliver when providing cybersecurity assessments to their customers.

Exploring Cybersecurity Risk Assessments in Today’s Industry

Oftentimes, there is an abrupt business challenge such as a ransomware attack, which leads an organization to determine that they do not have the internal capabilities to maintain their security posture and follow recommended practices on their own. They are looking for a trusted independent security party to provide this support, and that’s where our partners come in.

Regularly taking cybersecurity risk assessments is much like frequently checking the locks and security system in place for your home. Just as you want to ensure your home is safe from intruders, it’s important to routinely verify your digital assets are secure. Additionally, assessing your cybersecurity posture ensures you are effectively inspecting and upgrading the “locks and alarms” on your digital “property” to protect it from potential threats and vulnerabilities.

Outlined below are common types of cybersecurity risk assessments applied in today’s market:

• Vulnerability Assessment — essentially acts as your compass through the digital landscape. It uncovers vulnerabilities, carefully prioritizes them, and offers concrete recommendations for solidifying your defenses. This proactive approach empowers you to preemptively address security concerns, ensuring your organization’s digital assets are fortified against potential threats.
• Penetration Test — conducts a thorough evaluation of your IT infrastructure’s resilience. It’s like a simulated cyber battlefield, conducted by ethical hackers. This active cyberattack process analyzes your IT infrastructure and application systems to uncover exploitable security vulnerabilities, and provides recommendations for mitigating those specific vulnerabilities.
• Risk Assessment — a methodical evaluation that scrutinizes your organization’s cybersecurity capabilities and controls. It’s all about identifying and analyzing potential cybersecurity threats and determining the right security measures and resources to protect your IT infrastructure and data. By embracing this assessment, you’re better equipped to prevent threats and maintain a robust defense.
• Compliance Assessment — ensures you stay on the right side of the law. It delves into applicable industry regulations, whether it’s the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), or others, and highlights any gaps between your organization’s industry certification baseline and the required industry standards. These insights help you maintain or achieve the necessary industry certifications to keep your cybersecurity practices up-to-date and in line with legal requirements.
• Incident Response Assessments — examines both technical and non-technical aspects of your organization’s response capabilities. It establishes a baseline, identifies security response gaps, and formulates an incident response plan. By doing so, you’re not just reacting to incidents; you’re proactively mitigating gaps and enhancing your organization’s security protection and response capabilities.
• Zero Trust Assessment — dissects your organization’s security maturity level using Zero Trust principles and architectures. It’s all about surveying your current cybersecurity strategy and ensuring that trust is never assumed but continually verified. By embracing this assessment, you’re well on your way to building a security strategy that keeps pace with today’s evolving digital threats.

Cybersecurity technology and service providers ensure you not only identify gaps and issues during the assessment but also develop a well-defined plan to rectify them within a practical timeframe. Assessments, by their nature, offer a snapshot of your cybersecurity status, but to maintain an unassailable defense, it’s advisable to complement these periodic assessments with ongoing, scheduled evaluations.

Leverage Industry-Leading Cybersecurity Assessments

TD SYNNEX’s ServiceSolv team based in North America offers a comprehensive suite of both complimentary and billable cybersecurity assessments. These invaluable resources are designed to empower our partners to seamlessly deliver top-tier security assessments to their customers. With these tools at your disposal, you can ensure your clients receive the highest level of protection and confidence in the face of today’s evolving cybersecurity challenges.

Our suite of complimentary and billable cybersecurity assessments includes the following:

Complimentary assessments:

• Infrastructure Security Maturity Assessment
• Cloud Governance Security Maturity Assessment
• General Security Assessment
• Cloud Security Assessment
• Healthcare Security Assessment
• Education Security Assessment
• Vulnerability Assessment

Billable Assessments:

• Vulnerability Assessments
• Penetration Testing
• Security Risk Assessments
• Compliance Assessments
• Incident Response Assessments
• Zero Trust Assessments

We advise our reseller partners to get started by incorporating one of our complimentary security assessments into their initial client interactions. Assessments are the catalyst responsible for opening the door to new opportunities, such as the upselling of new products or services and providing customers with relevant insights. The consultative approach enables partners to establish themselves as trusted advisors in the cybersecurity space, ultimately setting them apart from the competition.

For instance, the General Security Assessment is designed to evaluate an organization’s security environment, pinpoint vulnerabilities, assess adherence to security best practices, and provide targeted solutions and services recommendations to bolster security. This serves as a great starting point and is often the first complimentary security assessment we recommend implementing for customers.

Imperative to any organization’s cybersecurity strategy, cybersecurity assessments serve as “business drivers” and shape their ability to achieve and maintain regulatory obligations and compliance standards. Cybersecurity assessments are not just about evaluating your current state, but highlight the importance of forging a path to a more secure, resilient, and compliant future.

Discover more and take the first steps today with TD SYNNEX’s ServiceSolv team to pinpoint the cybersecurity risk assessments that best align with your customers’ requirements.