Cyberattacks are expected to rise in 2020, even as channel partners continue to face significant barriers within the market, according to new research.
Untangle’s “Voice of the Channel” report surveyed channel partners from around the world. The results look at current trends and barriers that partners face when protecting clients against emerging threats.
According to the research, in 2019, cybercriminals began targetting weaknesses within business supply chains in an effort to gain entry into networks. MSPs were largely able to mitigate risks and recover from these attacks, according to the study’s authors. Still, many channel partners said they continue to face three barriers within the cybersecurity market: budget constraints, limited client solution knowledge, and limited time to research and understand new threats. These findings echo results from the previous year.
Key findings from the survey include:
- Nearly a quarter (23%) of channel partners surveyed believe that lack of customer knowledge is the number one barrier in the cybersecurity market, followed by budget constraints (22%), and limited time to research and understand new threats (13%).
- Over a quarter (27%) of Channel Partners believe that moving customer and client data to the cloud offers better security than on-premises solutions.
- In 2019, respondents stated that providing cybersecurity solutions was over 50% of their overall business, in comparison to 2018, where 77% of respondents stated cybersecurity was less than 30% of their overall business.
- Channel Partners identified their clients were specifically targeted by phishing (84%), malware (84%), and ransomware (63%) attacks.
- The largest threats the channel expects to encounter in 2020 are ransomware (46%) and phishing (25%).
- Future product offerings will include Compliance-as-a-Service (CaaS) for clients who require additional reporting and regulations, such as schools, libraries, financial institutions and government offices.
Steve Young, channel marketing manager at Untangle, commented on the findings:
“For many organizations, MSPs are the first and sometimes the only line of defense against a cyberattack. Channel Partners, by nature of their role in helping source solutions, inherit the barriers that SMB’s face in the cybersecurity market and need to work within the budgets allocated.”
