Targeted espionage  — Customers are vulnerable to targeted espionage, despite what some may think. Many businesses have sensitive and personal data saved on their networks, including credit card and social security numbers;

Unintentional or accidental loss of that data — The proliferation of mobile devices among employees, and the reality of employees taking data and access to data beyond the company walls when the leave work at the end of the day has heightened this threat. 

Denial of service attacks (DoS) — There are hackers out there looking to shut networks down and make them unusable, inhibiting user access and business continuity;

Understaffed IT team — While this may pertain to businesses with internal IT departments, it also applies to MSPs. Adequate professional staff to address the needs of your customers is a must ;

Phishing attempts — Cyber criminals are attacking both individuals and businesses with phishing attempts. An organization becomes vulnerable when they gain a false sense of security and rely only on junk mail filters for protection; and

Malware exploiting common vulnerabilities in Java and Flash runtimes — Do not assume that the most recent version of Java and Flash is secure.

Define and establish security policies and rules;

Document your network, policies, and access;

Continuously track and monitor activity and behavior with real-time alerts and reporting;

Automate with software tools where you can;

Regroup after an incident to ensure appropriate actions have been taken to mitigate risk in the future; and

Use operational management tools to gain insight into suspicious behavior.