WatchGuard CISO on What MSPs Need to Know to Stay Secure in 2025

Security vendor WatchGuard has deep channel connections and years of expertise in network security, endpoint protection, and other specialties. WatchGuard Chief Information Security Officer Corey Nachreiner spoke with Channel Insider to discuss the emerging technology and impending threats MSPs must consider for themselves and their clients as the calendar turns to a new year.

Supporting MSPs and MSSPs through their complex needs

2024 was yet another year full of headlines about ransomware attacks and breaches across many verticals and industries. Channel partners remain focused on how they can provide the proper security solutions to their clients, and Nachreiner said he encourages businesses to turn to partners if they can’t address all of their security concerns in-house.

“Outsourcing your security to a trusted source, and the key there is trusted, is a great way to handle your security approach,” Nachreiner said.

WatchGuard focuses heavily on MSPs and MSSPs, which Nachreiner sees as “customers on steroids” in terms of their needs for not only their clients but for their own operations as well. WatchGuard offers a unified platform that Nachreiner said allows MSPs to scale their services while maintaining quality.

Platforms are nearly ubiquitous in the channel market now, but Nachreiner thinks as enterprise technology trickles down from large companies to become accessible in the small and medium-sized business (SMB) market, the platform as a tool is shifting upwards from SMB into enterprise tech stacks.

Nachreiner also offered advice for channel partners trying to best pitch their services to clients.

“You’ll do better if you don’t give them a choice in tools but rather, you determine which tools work the best for you and instead you give your clients a choice in the services you provide,” Nachreiner said, noting that MSPs and MSSPs can select the tech stack that works best for them as providers and build their offerings around the tools.

SASE primed for a 2025 resurgence

Nachreiner also has his sights set on the rising popularity of secure access server edge, more commonly known as SASE. The concept is not new, and many MSPs have already embraced SASE in their offerings, but Nachreiner sees the framework as potentially more important than ever.

“We’re far gone from the days when people were fully on-prem,” said Nachreiner. “All of these different environments where our work is all need the same approach to security, just with controls applied in slightly different ways.”

To best address the growing reliance on cloud computing, SaaS tools, and other disparate environments, Nachreiner said MSPs will have to help their clients develop policies and controls that can be replicated across various workflows. The scalability of an approach like this will likely require automated solutions and capabilities.

AI: as big a threat as it is an opportunity

Of course, no one can talk about 2025 without including AI, and generative AI in particular, among the trending topics. To Nachreiner, GenAI offers various opportunities but also comes with as many, if not more, risks.

“I do feel like we’ve been moving on AI without fully considering what we’re doing from a security standpoint,” Nachreiner said. “Next year, we really need to focus on helping business leaders choose the right tools and protect their data in the process.”

Among Nachreiner’s concerns over GenAI adoption is how much data leaking can occur when end users don’t have the proper understanding and awareness of whether a tool is public or private and how much information they should feed a particular chatbot or solution.

Additionally, as millions of people use GenAI solutions for benign office tasks, threat actors are also using the technology to build even more convincing phishing attempts and reverse prompting to deploy malicious attacks. Nachreiner said he and the WatchGuard team remain focused on helping MSPs, MSSPs, and their clients stay protected as the threat landscape widens.

AI adoption is unlikely to slow down in 2025, but security planning needs to catch up to, and in many cases come before further implementation.

Channel Insider offers top product recommendations to help MSPs make the best choices for their tech stack. Learn more about who we chose as the best network security vendors for 2025.