Press Center

ESET’s managed service provider (MSP) program now offers ESET Inspect. For those unfamiliar with this technology, ESET Inspect enhances an organization’s security defenses with robust detection and response capabilities.

Reaching this milestone of enabling extended detection and response (XDR) via ESET Inspect is part of a multiyear effort at ESET to continuously improve and invest in its MSP program. The reason behind this pursuit is straightforward: if most small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) – indeed 71% of them in 2022 according to our data – prefer to outsource their cybersecurity to MSPs, then we need to provide these security service providers with the best tools, including detection and response, and a strong program that will help them protect their clients.

Current market figures support this approach. Canalys, for instance, recorded a 13.4% growth in revenue worldwide for managed IT services in 2021. This growth is expected to continue into the near future, with Channelnomics estimating a compound annual growth rate of 11.5% in the managed services market from 2021 to 2025 – no small rise indeed.

As the threat landscape becomes an increasingly harrowing place for MSPs and their clients, building a strong security capability is critical. By partnering with ESET, MSPs can offer their clients a comprehensive package of security technologies spanning prevention, detection, and response.

Mitigating third-party risks

Perhaps the greatest threat to the reputation of MSPs is a malicious actor that manages to compromise an MSP’s network in order to pivot to customers’ networks. This is a concern held by the majority of SMBs who see a lack of investment in cybersecurity as potentially leading to compromise elsewhere in the supply chain.

But MSPs can mitigate this threat and assuage clients’ concerns by deploying ESET Inspect to gain visibility into what is happening in their network and be alerted to suspicious activities. From the viewpoint of customers, this has the further benefit of building trust in your MSP offering, demonstrating that you practice what you preach.

SMBs turning to detection and response

According to our data, thirty-two percent of SMBs are currently using a detection and response solution and another 44% are considering doing so within the next two years. What might be driving this interest? While the potential entry points for threats to breach an organization’s defenses are various, web-based attacks may be among the foremost concerns for SMBs.

This is corroborated by ESET telemetry, which recorded 18 million unique scam sites and almost 4.7 million unique phishing URLs from May to August 2022. Compared to the first four months of 2022, the number of unique phishing URL detections increased by 28%.

In the face of threats like these, however, we believe that many SMBs have slight to no confidence in their resilience against cyberattacks. Since ESET Inspect can speed up the time to identify, determine the root cause of, and respond to threats, the SMBs investing or looking for a traditionally enterprise-oriented solution like XDR begins to make sense.

Interested in partnering via ESET’s MSP program? Read more here.

ESET’s revamped MSP program

ESET’s MSP program is built on a platform called ESET PROTECT. The security approach we took when designing this platform was to balance prevention with detection and response. Now, the full ESET PROTECT platform, including the XDR-enabling module ESET Inspect, has been opened to MSPs.

To make sure that ESET PROTECT addresses the needs of businesses of all sizes, we made it modular and adaptable. This allows businesses to access well-configured slices of ESET’s prevention, detection, and response technologies to bolster their defenses. Businesses can also choose between cloud and on-premises deployments.

Based on our continued investment into the ESET PROTECT platform, I believe ESET is a leader in supporting MSPs with their challenging task of making SMBs more secure, and thus freeing them up to focus on their core business. This belief is further supported by the high level of satisfaction among MSPs partnering with ESET – in a recent survey we discovered that almost 98% of surveyed MSPs had not seen any major issues and have been happy in general with the quality of the partnership.

Whatever level MSPs are at in their security practice, ESET has their needs covered. However the threats of today evolve, ESET continues to innovate its security technologies to counter them. We are here to enable MSPs to deliver more by continuously bringing them added value – this is a commitment that will remain steadfast in the long term.