UK telco giant BT has launched a threat intelligence service designed to help organizations anticipate and defend against cyber-threats.
BT Assure Threat Intelligence is based around a knowledge bank built with round-the-clock global monitoring and assessment of cyber-threats. It has strategic partnerships with nearly 2,000 security practitioners and professional service consultants worldwide, and analyzes data in 14 follow-the-sun security operations centers. The goal is to provide insight into future real and potential cyber-threats so that customers have time to address any vulnerabilities and lower their risk profile before an incident happens.
“We want to provide our customers with the peace of mind that comes from knowing what to look out for and how to create an effective defense against cyber threats. Timely and accurate cyber intelligence reporting is central to this,” said Mark Hughes, president of BT Security, in a statement.
The service also provides customizable intelligence reporting, and remediation advice if vulnerabilities are exploited, or in the case of a distributed denial of service (DDooS) attack.
According to a recent BT survey, more than half of respondents (59%) said that DDoS attacks are becoming increasingly effective at subverting their IT security measures. Also, 40% are not convinced that their organization has a response plan to effectively counter DDoS attacks. Failure to secure an organization from attack can lead to data loss, as well as significant business disruption and costs, reputational damage, legal proceedings and possible fines.
BT Assure customers are offered a range of pre-defined intelligence reporting options, along with bespoke options. The latter include a face-to-face workshop to identify at risk assets, any additional intelligence requirements, advice on how to efficiently deploy resources and new technologies to meet current and developing threat vectors, plus the defining of processes around how the intelligence is used and shared internally.
“As a global network operator, BT is in a position to identify emerging and potential threats wherever they may come from,” Hughes said. “We can draw on a huge amount of intelligence from a variety of sources, both human and technical and draw conclusions on risk and threat to help organizations survive, thrive and keep ahead of emerging issues.”