Many businesses are finding themselves faced with an ever-expanding range of responsibilities to take care of. In many cases, the question will revolve around whether or not to take care of those responsibilities in house, or whether it’s better to outsource instead. Here, we take a look at whether cyber security is something you need to hire in-house for, exploring some of the key considerations.
The nature of your business
If your business deals with particularly sensitive data, or if it’s in a niche that has some very specific cyber security concerns, then it might be appropriate to hire an in-house security expert. They’ll be on-hand 24/7, and can work on fully understanding your current approach to cyber security, optimising it as they see fit.
If, however, your business has more general cyber-security issues, it might be better to outsource to a company such as Mitigate Cyber. You may not really need a full-time employee, and this way, you’ll get all the professional help you need without wasting money.
The size of your company
Another thing to consider is how big your company is. If you have hundreds of employees, and a vast digital network, then at a certain point, it might make sense to start developing your own team of cybersecurity experts. As things scale, it can become more efficient to take care of problems yourself, rather than looking for help from an external service provider.
If, however, your business is a little smaller, it might not make sense to invest in a whole department that’s just dedicated to cyber security. If you’re unsure, it’s worth looking at the structure of other successful businesses of a similar size to yours, and seeing how they do things.
Your cyber security budget
You’ll also want to think about your budget for cyber security concerns. Taking care of these things in-house can be expensive; while you benefit from having someone who’s totally dedicated to your system, on hand whenever you need them, you will likely need to pay them a substantial full-time salary. For many businesses, this might not be a viable solution, and it will often be possible to achieve pretty much the same results at a fraction of the price by outsourcing.
The range of your requirements
For businesses with quite broad cyber-security requirements, it can often actually be better to outsource. This is because you get access to a whole team of professionals; even if you hired to most capable security adviser you could find full time, they would still struggle to have the breadth of experience of a whole team offering their services to multiple different companies.
This might not be the ‘yes/no’ answer you were looking for, but clearly, cyber security is a little too complicated for that. Whether it’s appropriate to hire in-house for your cyber security needs will depend on multiple factors, including the size of your business, the niche you’re in, and your budget. Once you’re clear on these factors, it should be a lot easier to make a decision.