Liongard CEO: ‘We’re Teaching MSPs To Become Managed Attack Surface Solution Providers’

‘We are showing them how they can monetize and really be the trusted advisers around delivering managed attack surface capabilities, which are necessary to avoid problems,’ Liongard CEO Michelle Accardi tells CRN.

Liongard this week unveiled its innovation road map and a build-out of its attack surface management platform to better equip MSPs to identify and stop attacks before they happen.

The announcements came at the Houston-based cybersecurity vendor’s inaugural RoarCon event in Dallas.

“We’re teaching MSPs to become managed attack surface solution providers,” Michelle Accardi, Liongard CEO, told CRN. “We are showing them how they can monetize and really be the trusted advisers around delivering managed attack surface capabilities, which are necessary to avoid problems. If you don’t know what’s changing and you don’t keep a good audit trail of what’s changed, who’s changed things and how they’ve changed, you’re ripe for problems.”

The attack surface management platform is needed to solve those problems, she said. It helps MSPs automate their IT asset inventory, understand what’s changing in configuration state and identify those vulnerabilities. It then maps into a cyber risk dashboard that shows the cyber posture for all of their customers that they can then share and monetize. Accardi said it gives MSPs the ability to offer a new service tied to an existing one they’ve been doing all along.

[Related: Liongard Launching Cybersecurity Posture Tool To Help MSPs Generate More Revenue]

The cyber risk dashboard now provides MSPs with critical details on multifactor authentication enforcement based on security defaults, which enable them to identify and mitigate any potential risks associated with authentication.

The company also unveiled its innovation road map that highlights resiliency, orchestration, automation and remediation (ROAR).

“It’s a comprehensive approach to cyber resiliency, and it’s designed to harden the attack surface,” Accardi said. “It’s enabling MSPs to take swift action and remediate issues as they’re identified, ensuring a proactive stance against potential threats.”

With ROAR, policy gaps are detected and addressed in real time, allowing for quick remediation and an enhanced overall security posture.

“This is the whole difference between left of boom and right of boom,” she said. “A lot of folks are focused on right of boom, like the attack has to happen. We’re trying to avoid that. We help you left of boom so the attack doesn’t hit.”

The platform itself provides resiliency, Accardi said. Through the orchestration piece, MSPs are being shown what needs to be patched and where things are coming from outside policy. With automation, MSPs are automating processes ranging from cybersecurity to on-boarding. With response, “it’s being able to allow them to be proactive in their response.”

Richard Harber, founder and CEO of Atlanta-based MSP Decision Digital, said Liongard has revolutionized his business management and growth strategies.

“The platform’s comprehensive data insights have enabled us to fine-tune our service offerings, uncover new revenue streams, optimize strategic acquisitions and reduce overall costs,” he said. “Integrating Liongard into our workflow has improved operational efficiency and increased profitability. Monetizing our data has given us a competitive edge and allowed us to deliver even greater value to our clients. Liongard is now an essential part of our success strategy."

Accardi added that Liongard’s features and capabilities are all under a single pane of glass.

“[MSPs] don’t want more tools, they want outcomes,” she said. “They want to know that they’re secure. They want to know that their attack surface is truly covered. That’s what Liongard is teaching them, to create that outcome for their customers so they can charge for it.”