Updated 10.30 GMT 28/02/2019 to clarify that AlienVault brand is not being discontinued and AT&T Cybersecurity being established as a new division, not company.
AT&T, the US network and media giant, has launched a new standalone security division, AT&T Cybersecurity, which brings together 2018 cybersecurity acquisition AlienVault and its AT&T Cybersecurity Consulting and AT&T Managed Security Services divisions.
AT&T, which generated a massive $170.8 billion in revenues in 2018, will “uniquely bring together people, process, and technology through a ‘software defined’ unified security management platform”, AT&T Cybersecurity CEO Barmak Meftah said in a blog Wednesday.
“I am proud to unveil our new name. AlienVault has now combined with AT&T Cybersecurity Consulting and AT&T Managed Security Services to form a new standalone division, AT&T Cybersecurity!” he wrote. (The company later said it is keeping the AlienVault brand).
AT&T Cybersecurity’s launch follows a record year for cybersecurity mergers and acquisitions, with a record 183 transactions, many focussed on the area the new entity will be playing in: security services, powered by network visibility tools. The new division will offer an extensive array of cybersecurity services, ranging from SOC optimisation to compliance audits, incident response, network intrusion detection and prevention and more.
AT&T Cybersecurity has been set up amid a rise in dispersed networks, an explosion of data, disparate technologies and complex security operations that present cybercriminals with “seams” in their security posture, the company said.
It will be led by AlienVault President and CEO Barmak Meftah
AlienVault, founded in Madrid in 2007, specialises in network asset discovery, automated threat detection, incident response and compliance via its unified security management platform.
This taps the Open Threat Exchange (OTX) – the world’s largest crowd-sourced collaborative threat exchange with 100,000 participants in 140 countries, who contribute over 19 million threat indicators daily.
Meftah said: “Combined with its network visibility across the threat landscape, AT&T has been well-positioned to take a unique role in cybersecurity.”
He added: “By abstracting much of the management of individual security products, we are automating deployment and ongoing operations, and operating them as a single unified solution – much in the same way AlienVault had done with the critical capabilities required for threat detection and response.”
“This platform will use the technical capabilities and reach of AT&T’s Edge-to-Edge intelligence in order to deliver solutions as on-demand digital services optimized to help protect customers through their own digital transformation journey.”
