CISOs face the unique challenge of helping to grow the business while fending off evolving security threats and managing risks. To help their organizations drive sustainable growth, CISOs agree they must shift their cybersecurity focus from prevention to improving overall operational resilience. Cyber resilience requires the ability to anticipate, withstand, respond, and adapt to cyberattacks, coming out of them with a stronger security posture.
Cyber resilience was added as a functional priority for the first time in the 2025 CISO Leadership Perspectives survey and ranked number one. Security operations ranked fourth, breaking into the top five priorities for the first time since prior to 2023.
As cyber-criminals continuously evolve—now aided by AI—security leaders know that attacks are inevitable. It’s not if, but when. Therefore, security operations teams must improve their ability to anticipate attacks, minimize damage, and downtime. Shifting from prevention to cyber resilience helps CISOs align cybersecurity to business goals by focusing on how to ensure operational continuity, avoidance of financial and reputational damage, and the strategic enablement of growth and innovation.
Most organizations can’t do this alone. The 2025 CISO Outlook report found that only 18% of CISOs totally manage their security operations with in-house teams. The rest outsource some, or a majority, of their cybersecurity needs to niche specialists or managed security services providers (MSSPs).
To get a read on what security leaders expect from their MSSPs and where they experience frustration, we reached out to talk with them. We held conversations with executives from midsize and enterprise companies who had either evaluated or switched MSSPs in the last 12 to 18 months. Industries included Healthcare, Pharma, Retail, Energy, Manufacturing, and Technology.
One of the topics discussed was the security outcomes they wanted from their relationship with an MSSP. Many of them emphasized the shift from a security mindset to one of resilience and tangible business value.
“We shifted from security to cyber resilience because the only time you’re secure is when you’re offline. What resilience means is surviving whatever comes. Cyber resilience is your ability to sustain operations in the face of losses. It’s not about being 100% secure, it’s to have just enough security in place to secure what we’re protecting.” Sr. VP of Cyber Resilience, midsize technology company
“Cyber has really advanced from a technical capability that really wasn't asked all that often for advice to now be a part of strategic conversations. Now it matters from a business perspective to make sure that we're resilient, this concept of anti-fragility. This means getting through a crisis and being stronger as a result—not just getting through it.” CISO, Fortune 500 CPG
“We want an MSSP that can look at our security architecture and has the expertise to make recommendations about how we look at security from a resilience perspective across the organization. That external voice is very useful because they can see our environment with fresh eyes, and they have experience across a range of security operations with clients.” Senior Security Engineering Manager, global energy company
We analyzed these security leadership conversations and compiled a list of seven attributes of an MSSP that indicate they’d be a strategic partner for helping security leaders and teams make the shift from security as prevention to cyber resilience.
1) A “boutique” mindset.
Every company has critical assets to protect that vary based on their size, industry, operational geographies, and business context. You need an MSSP with a flexible and tailored approach that helps you proactively work with your existing tech stack to increase your ability to anticipate, respond quickly, and recover from security incidents with minimal disruption.
2) Broad coverage and expertise.
Around the clock coverage is important, but equally so is the percentage of your tech stack an MSSP is prepared to manage, support and defend. A vendor-agnostic approach and expertise on staff with certifications and vendor relationships that align with your stack is key. As is their level of confidence and willingness to support custom apps and uncommon data structures. Another valuable sign of expertise is their ability to do root cause analysis to ensure incidents are truly remediated.
3) Flexibility and scalability.
The needs you have today won’t be the same in a year or two. An MSSP that’s able to provide the flexibility to adapt as your tech stack and business objectives change brings the continuity and lived experience with your environment to help you transform on the fly without disrupting your security operations. Additionally, a clause that allows for surge time during an incident keeps the focus on minimizing disruption and fast recovery without negotiations that delay response.
4) Custom reporting based on your KPIs and defined critical assets.
Structured on your business context, this type of reporting enables you to prove security is a strategic investment. An MSSP with a customer assurance program built into the engagement assures it meets your expectations and provides proof in terms your business executives and board find clear and valuable to prove the ROI from your security spend.
5) Retain the control you need.
Because you retain liability should a breach occur, an MSSP that offers you the ability to choose the level of control you’d like to retain is an important consideration. This collaborative relationship is based on transparency into the MSSPs processes, staffing, and responsibilities, as well as how their work and expertise overlays that of your team. You decide what role your team plays and what role the MSSP plays in your overall cyber resilience strategy. Assisted reversibility is also a factor to explore so that your security maturity never loses momentum.
6) Deep collaboration that augments and extends your security team capabilities.
Working hand-in-hand with your team enables the MSSP’s security experts to quickly understand your environment and processes to help you enhance your security measures. You should feel like your MSSP is part of your team, bringing capabilities you lacked previously. The knowledge transfer that goes both ways makes both teams smarter and enables them to work collectively.
7) Proactive security services.
In addition to monitoring, detecting, and responding to existing threats, your MSSP should offer ideas and guidance that keep your organization ahead of emerging threats. The ability to decipher threat intelligence so you can use it to make better decisions, vulnerability scanning and management, and other additional services help to strengthen your resilience ongoingly. The MSSP’s security experts should work to continuously improve your security posture. Alert escalations should include guidance and recommendations for remediation that equip your team to act upon receipt. Resilience requires much more than an MSSP that only cares about checking the boxes on the SLA.
For years, companies have treated cybersecurity as an IT responsibility based on preventing security events. With a higher mandate to reduce operational risk, CISOs can now frame cybersecurity as a strategic asset rather than a cost center by showing how security investments support business innovation. Digital transformation initiatives are a prime example. Embedding security into new technologies, across systems, devices, and multi-cloud environments enables transformation projects to proceed securely. This builds internal confidence and reinforces organizational agility.
Rather than a priority focus on prevention, which becomes trickier by the day, resilience puts the focus squarely on minimizing financial losses and disruption. Fast recovery is the outcome of cyber resilience preparedness.
Resilience is also a competitive advantage. A strong security posture assures customers their data is safe, inviting net new customer acquisition and promoting retention.
With the right MSSP as a strategic partner, making the shift from security as prevention to cyber resilience is easier, faster, and justifiably worth the effort.
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