BT has begun a partnership with Darktrace whereby it will integrate the latter’s Enterprise Immune System technology into its security portfolio.
The threat monitoring solution will be available as part of BT’s integrated cybersecurity offering, and also as a standalone option within BT’s wider Assure portfolio of services. BT will also be incorporating Darktrace into its own internal security program.
Luke Beeson, BT’s vice president of security UK, explained that “Everything we take to market we always use to secure BT. The security of BT as an enterprise is always our top priority.”
The move forms part of BT’s wider security strategy of enabling analysts to work with the most streamlined and sophisticated threat intelligence available.
Technology within the British company’s Assure portfolio allows live and in-progress threats, detected using advanced algorithms and behavioral modelling, to be fed through to SOCs after being filtered from the ‘white noise’ of wider potential threats.
This greatly reduces the amount of time spent between detection and analysis, enabling a swifter and more effective response to security incidents, BT explained.
The telecoms giant launched its Assure Threat Intelligence service in February this year. This came after company research that found 59% of respondent companies felt that the sophistication of DDoS threats is increasing, with 40% of organizations saying they lacked an effective DDoS response plan.
At a live simulated threat demo of the Assure portfolio, BT’s showcase manager John Major told Infosecurity that the solutions “bring together big data in a structured and unstructured format,” offering “real-time visibility of what is going on in the network.”
The ultimate aim, he said, is “delivering actionable data to analysts.”
This comes against a backdrop of difficulty in hiring sufficient quantities of skilled security personnel, Beeson explained: “We see challenges in being able to recruit talent. It is something we are trying to foster through recruitment of graduates.”
He added that BT is also an active supporter of Cyber Challenge UK, the finals of which take place today.