After 30 years in cybersecurity, I’ve seen one pattern repeat across every industry: organizations spend heavily, but not always strategically. Midyear is when those misalignments surface—and if you know where to look, the red flags are unmistakable.
- You're Still Feeding Legacy Tech
If 20% of your budget goes to tools built a decade ago, you’re likely paying for familiarity, not effectiveness. Aging platforms can’t adapt to modern threats—and they’re often the biggest drag on innovation and integration.
- Identity and Access Are Under-Prioritized
Attackers don’t need to breach your firewall—they just need one compromised user. If your IAM investments lag behind, you’re exposing your crown jewels every single day. Zero Trust isn’t a product—it’s a discipline, and it needs budget.
- Detection and Response Are Afterthoughts
Too many budgets lean on prevention, assuming it’ll be enough. But every mature security strategy accepts breach as inevitable. If you’re underinvesting in detection engineering, 24/7 monitoring, or incident readiness, you’re leaving the backdoor wide open.
- Your Controls Don’t Move With Your Environment
If your security tooling was designed for a static, on-prem world, it won’t keep up with hybrid work, SaaS sprawl, and cloud-native architecture. Controls need to be as flexible and dynamic as the business they protect.
- There’s No Clear ROI
Security shouldn’t be immune from measurement. If you can’t point to coverage metrics, control efficacy, or incident response time improvements, your board won’t see the value—because you’re not showing it.
The MSSP Fix: Better Value Without Bigger Spend
The right MSSP helps you:
- Identify budget leaks in underperforming tech
- Reallocate spend toward high-impact, risk-aligned initiatives
- Fill gaps with co-managed solutions instead of more headcount
This isn’t about spending more—it’s about spending smarter. And if you’re seeing these red flags, it’s time for a reset.