Why MSPs Keep Taking the Fall
If you are an MSP owner or operator, here is the hard truth. When your client experiences a cyber incident, you are going to be blamed. It doesn’t matter if the breach happened because of a phishing email, a weak password, or an internal mistake. To your client, their leadership team, their insurer, and even regulators, you are the one holding the keys.
The problem is that most clients do not have a cyber playbook. They don’t know what to do, who should speak, what needs to be said, or how to prove they acted responsibly. Without an incident response plan and without ever walking through a tabletop exercise, even the best technical response falls flat. That’s how you end up being the scapegoat.
The Hidden Gap in Client Readiness
Every breach that makes the headlines reveals the same weakness. Technology may have failed at some point, but the real damage comes from how unprepared the organization was to respond.
Often businesses discover they do not even have updated contact information for the people whose data was exposed. They cannot notify them on time and quickly fall out of compliance with state and federal requirements.
Leadership ends up arguing over who should communicate externally. Sometimes no one wants the responsibility, and other times multiple people send mixed messages.
When regulators or insurers come knocking, the business cannot show evidence of what was done, what was documented, or who made the decisions. That opens the door to denied insurance claims and heavy fines.
These are not technology issues. They are planning issues. And they only come to light in the middle of a crisis if the business has never done a proper tabletop exercise.
Why Tabletop Exercises Matter
Tabletop exercises are like fire drills for cyber incidents. They bring the leadership team, IT, legal, HR, and communications together to walk through a scenario step by step.
The questions raised are the ones that save reputations:
- Who will notify clients, employees, or regulators?
- Where is the list of contact information for those impacted? Is it even up to date?
- Who has the authority to make financial decisions, like engaging outside legal counsel or calling the insurance carrier?
- What proof do we need to preserve to protect insurance coverage?
- If sensitive data is involved, such as Social Security numbers or health information, what reporting rules apply?
Running through these scenarios in a safe environment helps a business discover its blind spots before an attacker does.
The Playbook Every Client Needs
A tabletop exercise is only as good as the playbook it tests. That is why every client needs a written incident response plan.
An effective plan should cover:
- Clear roles and responsibilities. Who declares the incident, who leads the response, who communicates with the public, and who makes financial decisions.
- Communication templates. Pre-approved messages for employees, customers, regulators, and the media so no one is improvising under stress.
- Verified contact data. Accurate and current lists of customers, employees, and partners who may need to be notified.
- Decision authority. Guidelines for sensitive issues like ransom payments or law enforcement involvement.
- Evidence collection. Instructions for preserving logs, documenting actions, and capturing decisions to meet insurance and regulatory requirements.
Without this plan, response becomes guesswork. And when that happens, it is not only the client who suffers. The MSP is left with the blame.
Why MSPs Must Drive the Conversation
Here is the reality. If your client does not have a plan, your technical expertise will only highlight their failures when something goes wrong. You can contain the breach, restore systems, and protect data, but if they cannot communicate or prove compliance, you are the one they will hold responsible.
By guiding your clients through tabletop exercises and incident response planning, you flip that script. You position yourself as a trusted advisor who prepared them, not the vendor left holding the bag. You protect your own business by showing you did more than patch systems—you prepared their leadership team for real-world resilience.
This is also a chance to deepen trust and retention. Clients who see you helping them navigate liability and communication risks will not churn for a cheaper MSP. And it opens a path for new revenue streams as you add tabletop facilitation, incident response planning, and cyber liability consulting to your services.
Cyber Liability Essentials: The Missing Piece
Cyber Liability Essentials was created for this exact gap. It gives MSPs the tools to deliver playbooks that go hand in hand with your technical response.
You can hand clients ready-made templates that cover communication, documentation, and decision-making. You can run tabletop exercises that expose blind spots like missing contact lists or unclear authority. You can align your playbooks with theirs so when a breach occurs, everyone knows what to do and nothing falls through the cracks.
Even more important, you can finally get buy-in from executives who may not take security seriously until they see the risks for themselves.
Confidence Comes From Practice
Businesses do not gain confidence by hoping nothing bad will happen. They gain confidence by practicing how they will respond when it does.
When you walk your clients through these exercises, they know exactly who is in charge, what gets said, and how quickly notifications can go out. They know what steps to take to protect insurance coverage. They know how to deal with regulators and customers without stumbling.
That confidence protects both your client and your MSP. Without it, panic takes over and you are left with the blame.
Don’t Be the Scapegoat
Every new breach proves the same point. The technical fix is not enough. The real damage comes when businesses are caught unprepared.
Your clients need playbooks just as much as you do. They need to test them. They need to know where the contact information is, who speaks publicly, and how to document their response. Without that preparation, the liability lands on your shoulders.
Cyber Liability Essentials gives you the structure and resources to deliver those playbooks, run tabletop exercises, and make sure your clients are ready.
Take the Next Step
Invite your team to join our next Cyber Liability Training Session. It is the fastest way to get them thinking about their role in incident response and to introduce them to the solution that closes the playbook gap.
