Having an in-house IT team is essential foe keeping your business running smoothly, but is it enough to protect your business from cyber threats? While internal IT professionals handle daily technical issues, cyber security requires constant monitoring, regular updates, and specialised expertise. In this article, we explore five reasons why even businesses with experienced IT staff may need additional cyber security support.
The majority of those in ‘in-house’ IT are very skilled professionals, they’re ready with the new starters’ laptop by 9AM and you can be sure that the boardroom screen will work when the client arrives.
However there is a significant difference between keeping a business running and keeping a business safe, which may explain why most organisations with competent IT staff find themselves stretched to breaking point!
In many small businesses, capable IT staff are simply stretched too thin to do both well. Here is where the gap usually shows up, in plain English.
1. Security Does Not Clock Off at 5PM
We all know how our own businesses operate, we’re used to thinking about things as they are. Most of your internal IT help will be available during business hours, and that’s fine for printers and payroll software alike.
But what if someone tries to break into your systems? Those attempts tend to occur overnight or over the Christmas break, when no one is at their desk, and you’ve got nothing but managed cyber security services watching out for you. ‘Managed’ just means an outside specialist takes care of your security on an ongoing basis for a regular fee. Good providers monitor everything around-the-clock and intervene when necessary, whether 3pm on a Tuesday or 3am on a Sunday!
2. Your IT Person Already Has a Full-Time Job
Talk to your IT manager about what they did last Tuesday, I’ll wager you won’t hear much about security. Generalist IT people are tasked with responding to what’s loudest at any given moment, a broken laptop here, a slow network there, software licences expiring on Friday.
Security can be some pretty quiet stuff by contrast (at least for those working outside the cyber-security silo), relegated until things have calmed down. And if ‘calm’ hasn’t actually kicked in, then security will sit somewhere in the queue. It’s also a workload issue though, which means we’re all kind-of to blame.
3. Important Updates Slip Through
Many software companies issue these fixes, known as ‘patches’, regularly so all they need is an installation program running. These are then simply put into place to cover holes exploited by criminals. This is perhaps the easiest step for businesses to take.
Accordingly, the Australian Signals Directorate’s (ASD) Essential Eight recommendations specify that these sorts of security updates be implemented within 48 hours where possible, given that attackers can already exploit this vulnerability.
In practice, many in-house teams find 48 hours too optimistic, with updates sitting languishing for weeks if not months in their queues. A dedicated security service ensures every patch is tracked and applied accordingly.
4. The Threats Change Faster Than One Person Can Follow
In 2024-25, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) received over 84,700 reports about cybercrime, which averages out at around one every six minutes!
The ASD has calculated an average reported cost of $56,600 for a small business, but up to $97,200 for a medium-sized business.
These figures can be used as a springboard for planning, rather than panicking. As specialists with a good understanding of what’s going on across the hundreds of businesses we work with, we’ll usually pick up on the emergence of a new scam quickly, whereas a single generalist won’t necessarily get this picture.
5. The Jargon Gets in the Way of Good Decisions
Whether you’ve been to meetings where your exec team has nodded through mentions of SIEM, EDR or Zero Trust models or maybe you’re an internal IT professional trying to keep up with the language used by teams that aren’t security-focused but still need to buy them tech for the company’s business, chances are you could do with a simple explanation of what these things actually are.
We’ve found that many people involved in cyber-security spend time asking themselves ‘what exactly am I protecting us against here?’ as they navigate what might seem like a minefield of technologies and jargon when all they really want to know is:
‘If we skip this bit what will happen?’
Where to Start
But you don’t need to invest in that 24/7 monitoring centre immediately either. A good starting point for most businesses is having an independent cyber security consultant review your current position and see if a managed cyber security service could be a good fit.
That’s part of why hiring someone who understands cyber security is such a key factor. Not only does the expert understand all the options available, from what a 24/7 monitoring centre offers through to the value provided by the internal IT person, but they will also be able to help you compare different providers and understand exactly what their proposals involve.
For example, if your business is based in Melbourne then you should ask yourself what steps are being taken regarding cyber security.
At the very least, we suggest asking these 2 simple questions of your organisation’s leadership team during their next meeting:
- Who is watching our systems when no one else is around
- How fast do updates get put on?
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