FireEye is partnering with telco giant SingTel to develop two security operations centers (SOCs) in Sydney and Singapore, in a managed security play that will see $50 million in investment.
The company also separately announced that it is combatting Apple-focused adversaries by extending its analytics with forensic analysis tools and network protection services for Mac and iOS products.
The SOCs will be integrated with SingTel's existing network operation centers (NOCs), to provide visibility across corporate networks and internet traffic. To boost threat intelligence, the SOCs will also connect to FireEye's other SOCs globally and have access to FireEye Dynamic Threat Intelligence (DTI) network. The two will also establish a data store in the region to house enterprise data locally.
Off the back of the SOCs, the two will launch a joint managed service, dubbed SingTel Managed Defence Powered by FireEye, which will provide continuous monitoring, detection and containment of malware and other perceived threats to enterprises and government organizations. The goal is to reduce the amount of time that advanced attackers go undetected on networks (in 2013, the median was a whopping 229 days, FireEye said).
The move comes amid a higher demand for cybersecurity talent and a shortage of skillsets in cyber-forensics, incidence response and threat analysis in the region, leading to an opportunity to fill the gap, the company said. And according to FireEye's latest regional Advanced Threat Report, countries in Asia Pacific are more likely to be targeted by advanced cyber-attacks than the world as a whole.
Meanwhile, Apple products are increasingly in the hacker’s wheelhouse, contrary to the conventional wisdom that Macs and iOS devices are inherently more secure somehow. Per Forrester Research, Apple products are supported by almost 50% of enterprises worldwide while they are used by 21% of information workers. Moreover, 41% of the Apple enterprise users comprise of executives and senior level workers.
“There’s nothing special about Apple platforms,” FireEye CEO Dave DeWalt noted during his keynote at MIRcon 2014.
In fact, FireEye Labs is seeing malware callbacks from Mac increase 90% month over month—a situation that’s framed by the recent Mac malware that uses Reddit to link up with its C&Cs.
Mac support is now incorporated into the FireEye Network Security Threat Prevention Platform (NX series), FireEye Forensic Analytics (AX series), FireEye Mobile Threat Prevention (MTP) and the FireEye Investigation Analysis System (IAS), and the FireEye Mobile Threat Prevention App for iOS will be available by the end of the year.