Choosing the right cybersecurity solution for your small to mid-sized business isn’t an easy task. Cybersecurity is one of the most crucial areas of business operation today, especially since 61% of SMBs experienced a cyber attack over the past year (especially those in the construction industry).
There are thousands of solutions in the market and it can feel incredibly overwhelming to know which to choose. Whether you choose to outsource security management to a managed security service provider (MSSP) or find a product to use in-house, there are pros and cons to be considered.
Our team at ContraForce has been in the cybersecurity industry for years. We understand the nuance and complexities of cybersecurity in the SMB space. Our business is deeply rooted in Dallas, Texas— and if us Texans are anything, we’re confident. Because of this, we want Dallas SMBs to have confidence in the cybersecurity solution they choose.
Let's walk through the best cybersecurity companies in Dallas, Texas:
According to UpCity, IT Goat is the highest-rated MSP in the Dallas area. An MSP, or managed service provider, is perfect for businesses that need to outsource all areas of IT (especially for companies that don’t have internal IT teams). While MSPs are a great resource if you need a broad scope of support, they don’t specialize in cybersecurity.
Black Belt Secure is an MSSP (Managed Security Service Provider) in the Dallas Ft. Worth area, serving North Texas. Similar to an MSP, MSSPs provide outsourced support for companies that don’t have internal IT teams, but unlike MSPs, they do specialize in cybersecurity. One of the downsides of an MSSP is that they require contracts that are often expensive and binding. Another downside of using an MSSP is that they don’t have an intimate understanding of your business— at least not as intimately as your internal team does. If and when a breach occurs, understanding the service level agreement you have with your MSSP is crucial, and you should always understand the testing, training, and exercise your MSSP has in place.
TLDR; using an MSSP can be expensive, challenging to manage, and doesn’t holistically align with your business strategy.
While McAfee isn’t Dallas, Texas-based, they’re one of the most recognizable names in the cybersecurity space. McAfee is most known for its antivirus software, which protects endpoints (like devices and servers). Antivirus is low cost and is a great first step in protecting your business against threats. However, installing antivirus with no other cybersecurity protection is like locking the front door, but leaving the back door wide open.
RocketCyber, located in Dallas, Texas, is a managed security operations center (or SOC). Similar to both MSP and MSSPs, a managed SOC is an outsourced offering. One of the positive attributes of a managed SOC is the ability to pass off threat detection and response (which is tedious and time-consuming, especially for lean IT teams). RocketCyber and other managed SOCs will monitor your logs, devices, cloud environments, and network for known and evolving advanced threats— a huge benefit for SMBs. On the other hand, though, SOCs often require contracts that are expensive and hard to maintain. Using one also requires you to store data outside of your organization’s perimeter (a huge risk). Similar to MSSPs, you don’t get a dedicated IT team and must share their time and bandwidth with other clients.
With any MSSP or Managed SOC, customization of the services is rare (since offerings are shared among multiple customers). According to Data Shield, the limited customization options can result in reduced efficiency across the organization’s departments and an inability to properly protect certain endpoints, networks, and communication channels.
ContraForce is a cybersecurity platform that’s designed specifically for in-house use by SysAdmins, IT Managers, IT Directors, or CTOs of all skillsets, even if they don’t have cybersecurity expertise. Rather than outsourcing, ContraForce empowers internal teams to take ownership of their cybersecurity operations by simplifying traditionally complex processes.
The platform is riddled with in-app guidance so users know exactly what steps to take, when to take them, and why it’s important. With automated security monitoring, one-click incident response, security assessments to measure risk, and more, users can manage the security of the entire IT environment out of one dashboard.
Unlike MS(S)Ps or managed SOCs, ContraForce is specific to your business and integrates with the tools you already have in place, like Microsoft 365, Azure Active Directory, FortiGate NGFW, AWS CloudTrail, and more. Onboarding takes about an hour (unlike the industry average of about 30 days).
With its subscription model, ContraForce supports businesses of all sizes and scales alongside the business. Plus, securing Microsoft 365 apps is free, forever.
Interested in using ContraForce to make your Dallas-Based company more secure? Click here to get started.
