Verizon is adding services from security vendor FireEye to its Verizon Enterprise Solutions offerings to provide increased cyber-security options to enterprises that want to better protect their data and IT systems.
The two companies announced the addition of the FireEye advanced threat protection capabilities Oct. 29.
FireEye provides a virtual machine-based security platform that provides enterprise-class, real-time threat protection against a wide array of existing and still-developing cyber-attacks, according to the company. FireEye’s Mobile Threat Prevention (MTP) platform provides real-time, dynamic threat protection without using signatures.
The new fee-based services, which will be offered jointly by the two companies, will be available to enterprise users running Android or iOS devices beginning in the first quarter of 2015, according to the announcement.
“From working with thousands of clients around the globe we know there’s a need to update not only the security technology but how we think about combating today’s ever-evolving threat landscape,” Kathie Miley, executive director of global security solutions for Verizon Enterprise Solutions, said in a statement. “By teaming with FireEye, we’re able to offer clients the technology for detecting advanced threats, as well as the intelligence to provide our customers with the insight into the nature of an attack and a path to remediate before a threat becomes significant.”
FireEye’s MTP services are designed to provide near-real-time visibility into threats on mobile devices, which through the partnership will let Verizon clients gain enterprise-wide views into the security of their mobile device operations, according to the companies.
The MTP system collects threat data intelligence through millions of FireEye virtual machines that are installed worldwide to help provide the latest threat information, the companies said. “This intelligence will enable security teams to identify, block and provide context around the nature of an attack and potential attack groups to inform a more strategic response and remediation strategy,” according to Verizon.
FireEye’s monitoring tools allow enterprises to see where attacks originate, gauge the potential intent of the attackers and learn if attacks of all types have ever been seen before, as well as providing information on how such attacks can be prevented in the future, the companies said.
Under the new services, Verizon security analysts will then correlate the FireEye-spotted events with system-wide security alerts to enhance the threat-detection process and help enterprises increase their protection.
Verizon often works to increase its enterprise cyber-security product offerings for business customers.
In June, Verizon expanded a partnership with virtualization and cloud infrastructure vendor VMware to include mobile security and enterprise mobility management (EMM) services, including an EMM platform, combined with endpoint security, telecom analytics and desktop virtualization.
In April, Verizon’s annual Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) concluded that cyber-attacks nowadays often differ widely and can vary in intensity and targets based on specific industry sectors.
The 2014 DBIR received data from 63,437 security incidents of which 1,367 were confirmed data breaches. The attacks come through nine basic attack patterns that vary across industries, including point-of-sale (POS) intrusions, Web application attacks, insider misuse, theft and loss, miscellaneous errors, crimeware, payment-card skimmers, denial-of-service attacks and cyber-espionage.
For example, in the accommodation industry, 75 percent of all attacks came from POS intrusion. In contrast, when it comes to the health care industry, theft and loss was the top attack pattern, representing 46 percent of all data breaches. In the financial services industry, Web application attacks represented 27 percent of all data breaches, and only 3 percent of breaches were the result of theft or loss.
The 2014 DBIR found 198 total incidents during 2013 of POS-related data breaches, with the top affected industries being food services and retail.