Does Insourcing Increase Your Cyber Risk?

There are lots of reasons why you might be advising leadership to bring IT decisions and management in-house. Maybe you're concerned with the level of participation from an outsourced IT provider and you feel the need to protect you team. Maybe you see cheaper resources with less effort if you do it yourself. Or maybe you just don't see their partnership value - a lot of wasted time, money, and control for them to just sit back on their heels. While this could all be true, the reality is, your risk goes up the moment you insource your IT. Check out how. 

When disaster strikes, you're the one at risk. As your company's point of contact for all things IT, if anyone in the business can't access their accounts, their data, or worse, encounters a phishing attack, you're the one who leadership will turn to if there's a problem. We get it, it's a lot of pressure and if you don't have the right resources in place, you're sunk. It's scary, but in this day and age of constant threats and a rise in Business Email Compromise attacks, you're feeling the weight of deciding how the business's IT will be structured. 

So, you're asking yourself, why would you take that exact same risk with a 3rd part IT provider? You're the one on the line, is it even worth it to outsource? Or should you let your own team manage everything? That way when something bad does happen, you're in control. You're not wasting the company's time. But in the rising age of cyber-crime, are you going to have the bandwidth to sustain an in-house IT department without exposing yourself or wasting money and resources? The answer is probably no. Consider these 3 prominent effects of insourcing your IT. 

Insourcing is a Cybersecurity Risk

Cyber attacks have gone up by 28% since last year (Crowd Strike Threat Report). Whether this is due to Business Email Compromise (BEC), phishing, employee errors, or malware - the result is the same: data loss and business vulnerability. And at the end of the day...as the IT leadership, you're responsible when oversight (even if it's not yours) occurs. 

The problem is this is a "when" problem and not an "if." You already knew this. And when it does happen, the cost and repercussions will be your responsibility to answer for. So before you decide to bring your IT in-house, you need to consider the bandwidth required to provide the appropriate measures in the event of an attack.

How many extra people do you need? Can those people manage your backup and disaster recovery plan? Is the cost to certify them worth it? Are your employees experienced enough to handle a ransomware attack? 

Consider these questions, especially since your cybersecurity insurance providers will ask the same things. And if you don't have the right people and processes in place, they won't give you your payout in the event of an attack. Furthermore, the premiums required to implement solutions start to rack up line line item costs pretty quickly.  These are the discrepancies an outsourced IT provider takes care of for you. 

Lack of Efficient Resources

Because bandwidth may be impacted, the reality is, so does accountability. Maybe not at first, but eventually you'll see updates overlooked and patches not implemented. It's not a problem the first or second time, but by the time you're 2-3 years down the road, you're looking at multiple holes in your security infrastructure. 

Too often we see companies with old hardware and software to protect current data. Not only is this easily hackable, but it causes an impending issue with your infrastructure. If you're operating on an old system, speeds are slow, data is vulnerable, and ultimately, the business is not running at its full potential. 

Additionally, the scalability of the resources required to keep a company running at its best is a big ticket spend. We've beat the horse dead on the point of bandwidth, but it truly is the biggest issue when transition from outsourcing to in-house. Without the right amount of people dedicated to your infrastructure (we have 150+, 6 dedicated to each customer), it will falter and your resources will fall behind - and therefore so does the business. 

Impacts on your team

Experience is not always the best teacher, but it does help. Once you decide to bring your IT team in-house, you have the impending need to continue to certify and keep their knowledge up to date (once again, without those certifications, insurance won't issue payouts). You have to consider the cost to send your employees to conferences, certify them to meet requirements, and provide them the appropriate experience in order to protect the business's data. Without those things in place, your team is not going to grow and you'll end up outsourcing with time, resources, and cost wasted. 

Additionally, churn is high in this generation.  You're probably hiring entry-level positions, ensuring the cost is low. Sure, they're inexperienced (also a risk), so you can pay them less, but these types of employees tend to churn and burn at a much higher rate. You become a stepping stool for their future growth. Studies show that the generation entering the work force (Gen Z and younger Millennials) stay in a company for roughly 2 years. In the age where young adults have never known a time without  technology and therefore have shorter attention spans, the reliability and brand loyalty seems to be going down. Unfortunately, the future work forces will only get worse. 

The long term effects of this one won't be seen until 3-5 years into your tenure as an in-house IT team, but the consequences are long lasting. Wasted money, time, and resources. Don't be that guy. Consider below for the cost impacts on your team. 

We Can Help Decrease Your Risk

We want you to protect your team. We want your team to succeed. Ultimately, when you choose Centre as your IT department, we value the relationship aspect as much as we do your data protection, infrastructure backups, and business efficiency. We consider ourselves the ones contributing to your success, not leading it. We think you can do that just fine. 

If you have more questions or concerns, feel free to call or email us about the ways we can help you be successful. We want to be an extension of your IT department or your go to for all things IT. In the end, it's whatever your business needs. That's what we're most passionate about. Contact us today to find out more.