The way cyber threats are handled could be the undoing of any business. Therefore, cyber security should be something every business invests in. Some companies often choose to outsource this service as having a cyber security team working full-time in the office can make quite the cost.
However, a business outsourcing this service may be quite tricky. Still, so many businesses aren’t even the least cautious when they hire these services. Hiring the wrong cyber security service can spell doom for any company. You can visit here to learn how cyber attacks can affect a business. Therefore, before hiring one, certain factors should be considered and certain questions should be asked.
In this article, we will be discussing some basic questions that you have to ask when you want to hire a company that offers cyber security services.
1. What Services Do You Offer?
This is the first and most important question to ask because the field in question is large and one company often does not offer all the services. You need to be as clear as possible concerning your requirements and what you hope to receive from the potential service provider.
Some of the common offers you will get include penetration testing, vulnerability scanning, monitoring threats, firewall protection management, and consultation. They may also offer encryption solutions and monitoring applications.
Your need may simply be to get advice about certain issues like security strategies or solutions for secure hosting. Regardless of what it is you want, you need to be certain that what the service you hire offers matches your special needs. If you want a full-time service, you do not want to employ a service that will merely sell a virus protection solution to you.
2. How Qualified are Your Staff or Team Members?
The business of cyber security can be quite complicated. It often involves a team that comprises multidisciplinary members. Therefore, every member of the service team must be adequately qualified to take care of the job given.
That is why, when hiring cyber security services, the team member’s qualification is an important factor to consider. A good foundational qualification to look out for is one on general IT.
Vendor qualifications like those obtained from CISCO, HP, and Microsoft, are equally great. As for those handling specialist roles, specialist qualifications like Certified Ethical Hacker are required.
You need to not just take their words for it, but also ensure all qualifications presented are valid.
3. How Do You Intend to Conduct Risk Assessment?
Some companies may simply sell out off-the-shelf solutions. If this is what is being offered, will it suit your needs? You need to know how your needs will be identified and addressed.
Oftentimes, a custom solution is what is needed. If this is your need, you have to be sure that what will be provided will be flexible so that it can accommodate the changes like new technology or growth in your company.
Any service that is unable or unwilling to access and work with your business’ specific need has a flawed risk assessment. You can save yourself future trouble by simply avoiding them. But if they are willing to consider your business’ needs, continue the conversation to see if they fit the remaining bill.
4. How Will We Communicate?
This service provider has to have excellent communication skills, if not, how else will you know what is or isn’t going on. Sometimes, the situation where the conversation will be done could be stressful. In any case like that, will they be able to still communicate effectively and clearly?
Click https://www.helpguide.org/articles/relationships-communication/effective-communication.htm# to learn more about effective communication. Ask them how they intend to properly communicate information to you even in a heated atmosphere.
Ensure you will have a dedicated contact assigned to you; the dedicated contact should be readily available so you can talk to them at any time you have to contact the company. You also need to be sure that you will be getting regular updates about the issues and progress. The communication’s frequency and means should be agreed on.
5. Is Your Experience Relevant to my Needs?
With cyber security, there are several common factors, but there are still some issues that are sector-specific. So also, the issues your business is facing or will face will be different from that a much smaller or much larger business will face.
Therefore, you need to find out the kind of experience the service you are looking to hire has. Ask them about their past clients. This will help you decide whether or not the experience they have is related to your needs.
They may be reserved when it comes to sharing their past clients’ information. The justification for this is that they are in the business of security. Yet, they should give you some references that can help you determine the standard of their services.
They should allow you to talk to both their current and previous clients about their project management, communication effectiveness, service levels, and so on.
When communicating with these clients, find out if the business they run is similar to yours. Also, find out if the client has any reservations about the service and if they intend to keep the provider.
Another way to find out more about the company’s reputation is to check its ratings and customers reviews online. You can check sites not affiliated with the company like Google and Yelp. You can read this article to learn how to use Yelp. A few bad reviews do not mean the service is bad. But, if the negative reviews greatly outweigh the good ones, avoiding the service would save you a lot of trouble.
Conclusion
Once you have asked all these questions and other relevant ones you come up with, you can now use the answers you got to determine whether or not to hire the service. If you aren’t satisfied with the answers you get, politely bring the interview to a close and then find another potential company.
Remember, your business could be brought to ruins just because you do not have adequate cyber security. Therefore, the process of selecting a company to provide this service should not be rushed.
