A cybersecurity service provider sells a bundle, and the bundle is named differently by every one of them: cybersecurity service providers, a cybersecurity services provider, a cybersecurity provider and cybersecurity solution providers are the same trade, and cybersecurity offerings is the menu. For the owner or office manager who has been handed security, choosing among them is five questions, and none of them is about the menu: what will you watch, what will you patch and how fast, who answers at night, what does the report show, and what happens to our data and our access when we leave. This page is those questions, and the free policy sheet on this site sizes the programme the provider will be asked to work to, from the organisation's own facts with no account.
The five questions
Watched: which systems, at what interval. Patched: operating systems and which applications, within how many days of a fix. On call: a named route to a person, with a response time. Reported: what the monthly report counts. Exit: the export of logs and configurations and the removal of the provider's own access. A provider that answers all five in writing is a candidate; one that answers with a tier name is not yet.
Reading the offerings
Cybersecurity offerings are sold as bronze, silver and gold; the honest comparison is each tier against the organisation's own policy set. The policy sheet on this site sizes that set: 12 people, 8 systems with their own login, remote work, card payments and personal devices is a set of nine policies, 27 hours to draft, 13.5 hours a year to keep reviewed and $1,822.50 in the first year at $45 an hour. A tier that covers fewer policies than the set needs is a gap the organisation will own, whatever the tier is called.
The record the provider works to
Devices allowed, remote work rules, card-data handling, health information handling, leaver procedure: the policies are the organisation's, and Hardenvo Pro generates and keeps them current from the organisation's own facts at one flat price. NIST's framework is the shape most providers map their offerings to; the programme says which of its functions the organisation needs covered.
Questions people ask about cybersecurity service provider
What should I ask a cybersecurity service provider?
What they watch, what they patch and how fast, who answers at night, what the report shows, and what happens to logs and access when you leave; all five in writing.
Are cybersecurity solution providers different from service providers?
Same trade, different menu names; the five questions apply to all of them.
What is the provider working to?
The organisation's written programme; the free policy sheet sizes it and Hardenvo Pro keeps it current.