Outsourced incident management services

Abstract

With increasing use of information and communication technologies (ICT), many organizations are outsourcing information security services to managed security service providers (MSSP). This project reports results on current practice and experiences with outsourced incident management services. The research was conducted as a case study performing a qualitative study of six large MSSPs, one emerging MSSP and an independent expert. The findings reveal multiple challenges that both customers and providers are currently facing, including suggestions for addressing them. This information will be useful for organizations looking to improve their practices. This research seeks to build awareness of the challenges posed by relying on outsourced services for incident management. It describes how these services are benefiting or affecting current incident management teams and some of the future needs of this field. Furthermore, it contributes with a categorization of the services offered by some of the most significant MSSPs in the market.