Before the Guadalupe River surged 33 feet in Texas this past July, the alerts were already out. Phones buzzed. Radios screamed. The National Weather Service had done its job.
But still—people died. Why?
Because the local response was delayed. The evacuation orders didn’t come until hours after the danger was clear. By the time action was taken, it was already too late for many.
As an MSP, you’re in a similar position when it comes to cybersecurity. Your tools are firing off alerts. You’ve layered in detection, EDR, logging, firewalls, and backups.
But if your clients haven’t been trained to act? If there’s no clear response plan? If no one’s been shown what to do after the alert?
They’re stuck waiting for floodwaters to rise.
You’re the Floodplain Manager for Their Cyber Risk
Let’s be honest—most small business clients have no clue how to respond to a cyberattack. Their “plan” is usually something between “call the IT guy” and “hope it doesn’t happen.”
That’s a recipe for panic, liability, and finger-pointing.
You’ve likely seen it before: a ransomware alert pops, and suddenly everyone’s scrambling. Who talks to the lawyers? The clients? The insurance carrier? The FBI? Who even has the policy numbers?
It’s chaos.
And the worst part? You, as their MSP, get pulled into the mess—whether you were responsible for it or not.
Tools Are Not Enough—They Need a Playbook
You’re already protecting your clients with great tech. But the real disaster comes when there’s no process for what happens after the tech does its job.
What’s the point of all the alerts if no one knows what to do when they fire?
That’s where Cyber Liability Essentials (CLE) comes in. It’s your opportunity to take the first step with clients—to give them a real plan for handling risk before it becomes a lawsuit, an insurance nightmare, or a career-ending event.
Check out the CLE program here.
CLE is built to do three things:
- Start the conversation about cyber risk with clients who’ve been avoiding it.
- Give them a simple, digestible foundation for disaster readiness.
- Position you as the expert advisor who isn’t just fixing problems—you’re preventing disasters.
Playbooks Turn Panic Into Process
Think of CLE like the emergency alert system—but with the evacuation route mapped out in advance.
It shows your clients:
- What to do when an alert hits
- Who’s responsible for what
- How to limit damage and communicate clearly
- Why documenting decisions protects them in court or with insurers
- How to prove they weren’t negligent
Most business owners assume their MSP has this covered. But without a documented incident response plan—approved by the client and built around their risk tolerance—they’re exposed.
And so are you.
MSPs Need This Just as Much as Clients
Here’s the truth most MSPs avoid: your own stack doesn’t mean you’re safe.
If a client is breached and your documentation is weak—or worse, nonexistent—you’re in the line of fire. Not because you did anything wrong. But because you didn’t prove you did things right.
Insurance lawyers love a blank space. Regulators read silence as negligence. And juries? They tend to side with the underdog—the small business owner—unless you can show you gave them every chance to do the right thing.
CLE isn’t just about helping your clients. It’s about protecting your business too.
You Can’t Outsource Trust. You Have to Build It.
Let’s say the worst happens. Your client gets hit. A wire transfer is spoofed. Ransomware encrypts every system. Or worse—a vendor compromise impacts them through your systems.
What happens next?
If you’ve done the work upfront you have a relationship built on shared responsibility and documented decisions.
You can say:
- “Here’s what we recommended.”
- “Here’s what you accepted or rejected.”
- “Here’s our response plan and how we executed it.”
Suddenly, you’re not the scapegoat. You’re the guide. You’re the lifeboat. You’re the reason they got out of the flood with dry socks.
Don’t Wait Until You’re Drenched
If there’s one takeaway here, it’s this: alerts aren’t enough.
Your stack will keep doing its job. But your value—your real value—comes from what happens after the alert.
CLE is the simple, first step to start that conversation with clients.
You don’t need a 100-page compliance binder. You need:
- A conversation starter.
- A framework to follow.
- A shared understanding of risk.
That’s what Cyber Liability Essentials delivers.
Start your clients with CLE today.
Because when the digital flood comes—and it will—the first thing they’ll ask is:
“What do we do now?”
If you don’t have that answer ready, someone else will be writing the playbook—for you.
And it won’t end well.
