The Next Cyber Skills Gap May Be Hidden in Your Encryption

INTRODUCTION Cyber threats no longer wait for companies to let their guard down. Attacks occur at any time, across sectors, and are increasingly difficult to detect without an integrated monitoring system. According to Gartner, 90% of non-executive board members have no confidence in the value their organizations receive from cybersecurity investments, a gap that continues to widen between leadership expectations and internal team capacity. This is where Managed Security Services (MSS) plays a role. However, not all service providers offer equal protection. Many companies only realize the weaknesses of their vendors when an incident has already occurred. This article discusses seven criteria that should serve as an evaluation reference before you sign a contract with a Managed Security Services provider. Source: gartner.com [http://gartner.com], issglobal.com [https://issglobal.com/perspectives/what-are-managed-security-services/] WHY CHOOSING THE RIGHT MSS IS CRITICALLY IMPORTANT? Throughout 2024 to 2025, companies in the healthcare, automotive, financial, defense, and technology sectors experienced major breaches that cost billions of dollars in losses, exposed millions of data records, and paralyzed operations for months. The pattern found is quite alarming: these

Most employees have seen a phishing warning. They know to look for unusual links, unexpected attachments and messages that create urgency. Yet when a convincing message arrives during a busy workday, remembering the advice and acting on it are two different things. A message may look routine, appear to come from a senior colleague or arrive just as someone is rushing to meet a deadline. That gap between awareness and action is worth addressing. In its 30 September 2026 release, the European Commission reported that 74% of EU employees had encountered suspicious emails, messages or links at work in the previous six months. Phishing was the most commonly reported threat, affecting 39% of respondents. The survey also found that only 48% felt able to recognize an AI-generated fake video. ENISA's summary of the findings adds another important detail: only 45% of employees said their organization provided regular cybersecurity awareness updates, while 85% expressed interest in improving their skills. Lack of time was the most frequently reported barrier to training, cited

CSOC stands for Cyber Security Operation Center, but it can be a bit confusing because CSOC teams can also be referred to as Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRT), Computer Incident Response Centers (CIRC), Security Operations Centers (SOC), or Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERT). For the purpose of this article, we will stick to the term CSOC. CSOC works in defense to combat unauthorized activities occurring in strategic networks. Its activities include monitoring, detection, analysis, response, and restoration. CSOC is a team of network security analysts organized to detect, analyze, respond to, report, and prevent network security incidents 24/7, 365 days a year. There are various types of CSOCs categorized based on their organizational and operational models, so let's delve deeper and take a closer look at the different types of CSOCs. Virtual CSOC: As the name suggests, this type of operation often lacks dedicated facilities, and team members work periodically using a reactive approach to cyber threats. I believe that the reactive capabilities of virtual CSOCs cannot be sustained