Managing Cyber Risk: Detect & Respond – Because Breaches Are Inevitable.

“You can’t defend. You can’t prevent. The only thing you can do is detect and respond.” – Bruce Schneier

You’ve identified what matters. You’ve put protections in place. But if you think that’s the end of your cybersecurity journey, think again. In today’s digital world, a cyber breach is not a matter of if, but when.

Even the best security tools can’t stop every threat. Attackers are creative, persistent, and often one step ahead. That’s why the next step in managing cyber risk is Detect and Respond—the ability to spot threats early and act fast before they cause serious harm.

Cybersecurity isn’t about building an impenetrable wall. It’s about gaining time and visibility—time to detect suspicious activity, and time to respond before the damage is done.

Imagine running a café. You’ve installed locks on your doors, a CCTV system, and taught your staff to watch for suspicious behaviour. But what if someone still manages to sneak in through a window? What saves your business isn’t just the lock—it’s the camera that catches the intruder and the team that knows what to do when it happens.

That’s what Detect and Respond is about. It’s your alarm system, your night shift, your rapid-response team. For businesses, it means monitoring your digital systems around the clock and having a plan when something goes wrong.

Most business leaders are surprised to learn that it takes companies an average of 204 days to detect a breach. That’s more than six months where someone could be lurking inside your systems, stealing customer data or sabotaging your operations.

No matter how strong your firewalls or how careful your staff, cyber threats often find a way in. And not all of them come from the outside—internal threats, whether intentional or accidental, are just as dangerous. A disgruntled employee, a misconfigured account, or even an innocent mistake can open the door to data loss or system compromise. The difference between a minor scare and a major disaster is how quickly you detect the threat and how well you respond.

This is where things get serious. Real-time detection and response used to be something only big corporations could afford. But today, it’s essential for all businesses—especially in industries that deal with sensitive information like financial services, healthcare, education, and legal sectors.

1. Continuous Monitoring: Your 24/7 Lookout

You wouldn’t close your store and just hope no one breaks in overnight. Similarly, you can’t just shut your laptop at 5 PM and hope your systems stay safe.

That’s why many organisations rely on a Security Operations Centre (SOC)—a team of cybersecurity experts monitoring your systems 24/7, looking for unusual behavior, potential threats, and suspicious activity.

At Managed Services Australia, we provide this service as part of our Managed Detection and Response (MDR) solution. Our SOC uses:

• Machine learning to detect anomalies, like a staff member logging in from another country at 2 AM.
• User & Entity Behaviour Analytics (UEBA) to track what ‘normal’ looks like for each user and flag what’s not.
• Automation and response tools (SOAR) that instantly isolate threats before they spread.

2. Compliance: It’s Not Optional Anymore

Compliance isn’t just for banks or government departments anymore. Many industries now require ongoing detection and response capabilities to meet regulations like:

• APRA CPS 234 (for financial services)
• Australian Privacy Act (for businesses managing personal information)
• ISO 27001 and NIST Cybersecurity Framework (best practices across industries)

In many of these cases, having a 24/7 SOC or MDR service is considered a core requirement, not a luxury. If you’re ever audited, regulators will ask:

• “How do you know if you’ve been breached?”
• “How fast can you respond?”

If you can’t answer those confidently, it’s a red flag.

A recent IBM study showed that the average time to detect a data breach is 204 days. That’s more than six months where attackers may be quietly monitoring systems, harvesting sensitive data, and preparing for larger-scale exploitation.

A perfect example of this is the 2020 FireEye/SolarWinds breach, one of the most high-profile cyberattacks in history. Hackers compromised the Orion IT monitoring platform and inserted malicious code into legitimate software updates. This code created a backdoor that allowed attackers to quietly infiltrate thousands of networks, including U.S. government agencies and global enterprises.

The attack went undetected for months, and by the time it was discovered, the intruders had already exfiltrated sensitive data and had access to critical systems. The breach not only caused reputational and financial damage but also forced organisations to undergo extensive remediation and rebuild trust with their stakeholders.

This incident reinforces the critical importance of having detection systems that can spot anomalies early—and response mechanisms that activate immediately.

When an incident happens, the first few hours are critical. The faster you act, the more damage you prevent. That’s why we help businesses develop Incident Response Playbooks—step-by-step guides for handling different types of incidents, from phishing attacks to ransomware.

Think of it like a fire drill for your data. When everyone knows what to do, panic is replaced with action. And after it’s over, we do a post-incident review to learn what worked, what didn’t, and how to improve next time.

You don’t need to know how to configure a firewall—but you should be asking:

• How would we know if we’ve been breached?
• Do we have round-the-clock monitoring?
• What’s our plan if something goes wrong?
• Are we meeting our industry’s compliance requirements?

These are strategic questions, not technical ones. They affect your finances, reputation, customer trust, and business continuity.

At Managed Services Australia, we offer a robust and comprehensive suite of capabilities to help businesses stay one step ahead:

• 🕵️ Real-Time Detection and Response
  Our security analysts monitor alerts and respond to threats in real-time, reducing the window of exposure and limiting potential damage.
• ✅ Achieve Compliance Requirements
  We assist with automated reporting aligned with industry standards such as PCI DSS, NIST, HIPAA, and more.
• 🔍 Vulnerability Network & Host Scans
  Our ongoing scans identify weaknesses like outdated software, weak credentials, and dangerous open ports.
• 📊 Situational Awareness and Reporting
  Stay informed with insights into your current cybersecurity posture, incident history, and emerging threat trends.
• 🧠 Analysis and Recommendations
  We provide investigative detail for any confirmed incidents, with actionable guidance to prevent recurrence.
• 🌐 Darknet Monitoring
  We scan the dark web for any signs that your organisation’s data has been exposed or sold.
• 🔐 Privilege Analysis of Network Accounts, Systems, and Groups
  We identify over-privileged accounts and clarify who has access to your most sensitive data—so you can lock it down effectively.

Our mission is simple: give you the insight, tools, and support to detect threats early and respond confidently.

Our job is to give you peace of mind. You focus on running your business—we’ll focus on protecting it.

Protecting your business is essential, but being prepared is what makes you resilient.

Detection and response are about staying ahead. They’re your insurance policy, your early warning system, your plan B. Every business leader should embrace the mindset that breaches are inevitable—but disasters are preventable.

In the final article of this series, we’ll talk about Recover—how to bounce back from a cyber event and keep your business moving forward.

If you want to talk about how detection and response can work for your business:

📞 Call us on 1300 024 748
📧 Email [email protected]
🌐 Visit our website at Managed Services Australia

Because managing cyber risk isn’t just about stopping the bad guys—it’s about protecting your future.