Applying analytics to cloud security

For some time, close followers of the IT security sector have been known to bemoan the fact that one obvious and important target for the applications of powerful analytics tools is in security. This is particularly relevant to cloud services as the flexibility and agility inherent in cloud delivery is also its biggest potential security weak-spot.

Because contributions to a service – indeed to a single web-page – can come from multiple sources and service providers, keeping control over where malicious code might enter any system contributing to service, and corrupt every other contributing service, as well as end user systems, can these days only be achieved using real time monitoring and management tools couple with real time, powerful analytics to identify possible threats.

Filling this gap is now the target for Total Defense Inc and the latest update of its cloud-based security service, Total Defense for Business. With this release, end users, as well as the company’s Managed Service Provider (MSP) partners, can expect real-time security visibility into their dynamic IT landscapes.

“Our ‘big security data’ infrastructure enables the scalable analytics, threat correlation and reporting that are required to defeat today’s sophisticated attacks”

The system now includes the company’s most expansive analytics package to date. Its aim is to strengthen the security around web, email, data leakage and endpoint security assets by providing unified content and endpoint security service, available on-demand, via the cloud.

Unlike legacy solutions, Total Defense is massively scalable and flexible, deploying in hours compared to days or weeks of traditional security software vendors. Customers and partners can enjoy the benefits of a single cloud-based console and policy engine that reduces security complexity and costs. The company claims it can provide unparalleled protection by blocking threats in the cloud.

“Our ‘big security data’ infrastructure enables the scalable analytics, threat correlation and reporting that are required to defeat today’s sophisticated attacks,” said Paul Lipman, CEO at Total Defense. “We’re providing customers the only solution on the market that covers the three primary vectors through which malware can enter an organisation: email, Web and the endpoint. This provides significant benefits to our customers in terms of multi-vector and multi-layer protection, integrated security policies, reduced security complexity and superior total cost of ownership.”

The company claims the new release also provides MSPs with significant operations benefits, allowing them to streamline the delivery of their services by way of a single, cloud-based dashboard. This allows them to quickly go from a high level view of the threats facing the web, email, and endpoint infrastructures at their customers’ sites, down to the individual systems susceptible to those threats.

Delivering this capability as an always-on cloud service allows the company’s partners to support far-flung geographically distributed networks, as well as mobile and remote users. MSPs will be able to provide this data to their customers as either a customer accessible self-service dashboard, or as a managed service dashboard, providing end-customers insight into threats as an additional service.