Choosing a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) is one of the most important decisions an organization can make. You’re not just outsourcing a task—you’re trusting a third party with your data, your infrastructure, your reputation, and in many cases, your regulatory compliance.
But not all MSSPs are created equal.
Many organizations get sold on marketing buzzwords, shiny dashboards, and “24/7 monitoring” claims that don’t quite match reality. The result? Missed alerts, slow response times, hidden costs, and a whole lot of finger-pointing.
To help you avoid common pitfalls, here are the Top 10 questions you should ask any MSSP before bringing them onboard.
- What exactly do you monitor, and what do you NOT monitor?
This is the most important question—and the one most organizations forget to ask.
Some MSSPs monitor only:
- Basic network logs
- A limited number of cloud integrations
- EDR alerts only
- A handful of pre-defined log sources
Knowing the boundaries upfront will help you avoid gaps that attackers love to exploit.
- Who responds to alerts—your team or ours?
Many MSSPs proudly advertise 24/7 monitoring but quietly expect your internal team to respond to incidents.
Clarify:
- Who triages alerts
- Who investigates
- Who contains the threat
- Who remediates
- Who closes the ticket
If their job is simply to forward alerts, you’re not getting real protection.
- What is your guaranteed response time (SLA)?
“24/7” means nothing without a Service Level Agreement.
Ask for:
- Mean Time to Detect (MTTD)
- Mean Time to Respond (MTTR)
- Escalation timelines
- Maximum allowable delay
If they hesitate, walk away.
- How do you tailor alerts and use cases to my environment?
Every business is different.
A good MSSP will:
- Build custom correlation rules
- Tune alerts to reduce noise
- Understand your critical systems
- Align monitoring with your business risks
A bad MSSP will hand you a generic template and call it a day.
- Do you offer real threat hunting, or just alert monitoring?
True threat hunting requires:
- Skilled analysts
- Contextual intelligence
- Proactive searches
Many MSSPs skip this entirely. If you want real security—not checkbox security—make sure it’s included.
- What visibility will I have into your operations?
A reputable MSSP should offer:
- Transparent dashboards
- Access to investigation details
- Audit logs
- RCA reports
- Real-time status of active incidents
If everything happens behind a curtain, you won’t know what you’re paying for.
- How do you handle incident response and containment?
Ask for clarity on:
- Whether they isolate endpoints
- Whether they block malicious IPs
- Who executes containment actions
- Whether they provide forensic support
Some MSSPs stop at “raising a ticket”—which is not real incident response.
- What tools do you use—and who owns them?
This affects cost, visibility, and vendor lock-in.
Clarify:
- Do you use our SIEM/EDR or yours?
- If it’s yours, do we lose access when we leave?
- Are tuning and maintenance included?
- What happens if we scale?
Never get locked into a proprietary system without understanding the implications.
- What are the true costs—not just the advertised ones?
Hidden MSSP costs can include:
- Log ingestion fees
- Adding new data sources
- Extra response actions
- After-hours escalation
- Compliance reporting
- Additional cloud connectors
Ask for a full fee schedule, not just a quote.
- How do you measure success?
A mature MSSP should provide:
- Monthly/quarterly reports
- Detection quality metrics
- Response metrics
- Continuous improvement plans
- Use case roadmap
If they can’t articulate their value, they probably aren’t delivering any.
Final Thoughts
An MSSP can either be your greatest ally or your biggest security liability. The key is to evaluate them not by the glossy brochure, but by their transparency, maturity, and operational capability.
Asking the right questions upfront helps you:
- Avoid wasted money
- Prevent blind spots
- Reduce risk
- Strengthen overall security posture
Before signing any contract, make sure your MSSP isn’t just selling a service—they’re delivering true cybersecurity value.