Managed Security Services Blog

The Managed Security Services blog provides insight into how organizations can improve business continuity and enhance efficiency of security operations via a managed services model. Contributing MSS security experts will share their thoughts and experiences on how best to protect IT assets, people and information in the rapidly evolving threat environment.

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  Updated: GGeyer 23 Feb 2011

  Welcome to the new Managed Security Services Blog!

  Welcome to the new Managed Security Services Blog! by Grant Geyer, VP Global Managed Services Welcome to the Symantec Managed Security Services (MSS) blog!  As practitioners are fully aware, while more and more of our critical assets are moving online, the threat landscape is bad and getting worse as threats are stealthy and hard-to-detect, motivated by financial gain.  Now more than ever, having  real-time awareness of threats, vulnerabilities, and an understanding of the impact of security incidents are key to an effective risk mitigation program.  Through our MSS blog, we will provide insight into how organizations such as yours can improve security effectiveness and enhance efficiency of security operations via a managed services model.  Contributing Symantec security experts will share their thoughts and experiences on how best to protect IT assets, people and information in the rapidly evolving threat environment. ...
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  Updated: Tim G. 11 Mar 2013

  DeepSight NextGen Preview Portal is live

  The DeepSight Next Generation Portal Preview is live for all DeepSight Subscribers. https://preview.deepsight.symantec.com In the email that was sent there is a survey link that product management is using to collect feedback from users for continuous improvement. Please log in and take a look around.  The new portal will be going live soon, so be prepared for these changes.    
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  Updated: Mark Guntrip 12 Dec 2011

  Symantec MSS Positioned as a Leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant & Rated Strong Positive in MarketScopes for Europe & Asia/Pacific

  Everyone strives to be the best they can, whether that’s in personal or business life, but it’s always nice when someone gives you a pat on the back and confirms that you are at the top of your game – and that’s just what has happened to Symantec Managed Security Services (MSS), not just once, but three times! Symantec MSS has been positioned by Gartner Inc. in the Leaders Quadrant of the 2011 Magic Quadrant for Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) North America report1. In addition, Symantec received “Strong Positive” ratings in Gartner’s MarketScope Reports for Managed Security Services in both Europe2 and Asia/Pacific3. The point to take away here is that Symantec MSS is the only vendor to take the highest level of appraisal in each geographical report – the only vendor with a global leadership position. Symantec Managed...
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  Updated: Spencer Parkinson 19 Oct 2011

  Symantec’s 2011 Threat Management Survey: Staffing Challenges Creating Security Challenges

  Nothing has the full attention of IT today like the need for security. Cybercrime is becoming simpler and more lucrative, encouraging more criminals to participate, and threats of all kinds are on the rise. Combined with the expanding list of initiatives, such as cloud computing, and the need to support mobile devices, IT’s resources are being stretched thin. To see how they are responding to emerging threats, Symantec commissioned a survey of enterprises worldwide. The survey, entitled the 2011 Threat Management Survey, was announced today and revealed the following key findings. Finding 1: Enterprises lack confidence in their security posture, mostly due to staffing issues As cybercriminals continue targeted attacks against enterprises, IT finds itself facing a continuous stream of security threats. The poll revealed that more than half (...
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  Created: Clint M. Sand 25 Aug 2011

  APTs demand new threat detection and preventative test measures

  by Clint Sand, Director of Security Strategy & Advisory Generally we see most breaches are sourced from 3 distinct groups. Malicious Insiders, Well-meaning Insiders, and Malicious Outsiders. Each source, and their unique motivators, should ideally be emulated in a testing process to ensure the results match real-world conditions. Honeypots are useful for understanding the behavior of a Malicious Outsider and to some extent, the Malicious Insider. They are like attacker surveillance cameras. Organizations often leverage honeypots to learn about attacker behavior, deflect attacks to lower valued targets, and discover the new zero day vulnerabilities attackers are exploiting in a system. However, if you look at the attack phases of a typical Advanced Persistent Threat, a good majority of the high-profile breaches are the result of spear phishing. Well-meaning end users have become the most effective targets for attackers looking to penetrate your environment. Why...
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  Created: dstuart 17 Jun 2011

  Key Challenges Facing Security Managers

  by David Stuart, Manager of Symantec MSS Product Marketing Having just participated in an executive CISO Summit attended by nearly 70 CISOs from mid- to large enterprises, I’m struck by the many common challenges we face in the presence of a more sophisticated threat environment and dynamic business climate. General themes from the practitioner-speakers included: The consumerization of IT is leading to “boundary-less computing”.    At work, at home, at play - all are blurring.  iPads, iTV’s, smart phones, Androids….  Need to protect everything – not just a corporate network.   One CISO said they had “a thousand new devices enter their network on the day after the iPad went on sale.”  Consumerization of IT is real and it is driving fundamental changes in the way we think about securing “the enterprise.”  Certainly, a comprehensive, cross-correlated...
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  Created: uuallan 16 Jun 2011

  Developing a Social Media Security Strategy

  The current mantra from most business experts seems to be that your organization has to have a social media strategy.  They say you must have a regularly maintained Facebook Page, you must Twitter regularly and you should be using as many social media tools to reach your audience as possible.  If you Google the phrase “social media strategy” you’ll return more than 8.5 million hits.  What no one talks about is the necessary steps to ensure the security of your social media presence. It is not enough to have a social media strategy, you must also have a social media security strategy, and that security must be interwoven into every aspect of your organization’s social media presence.  The fact is, the more social media exposure your organization has the more your security risk increases.  Social media sites are a prime research vehicle and target for today’s attackers, and the more your organization...
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  Updated: uuallan 23 May 2011

  Likejacking and how MSS can help protect from this latest social media threat

  By Allan Liska, Senior Solutions Engineer for Symantec Managed Security Services Just about anyone who has a Facebook account has seen them: Innocuous-looking, yet dangerous links posted to the Wall of one of your friends inviting you to watch a video of a famous movie star caught cheating, the Osama bin Laden raid or any number of other topics.  On a bad day, you may see the same link posted on the Wall of several of your friends, each friend inadvertently passing on the infection to those gullible enough to click on the link.  This is what John Harrison, Manager of Symantec’s Security Technology and Response (STAR) team calls Likejacking, and it is on the rise.  According to the 2010 Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR), released in April 2011, web attacks were up 93% and social media sites are a big focus of those attacks.   The use of shortened URLs accentuates the effectiveness of these attacks; in fact, during a three...
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  Created: SDP 19 Apr 2011

  Changing Threat Environment Requires MSSPs to Adapt Their Approach

    Note: This is the first in a series of blog postings by Steve Parrott, Director of Product Management for Symantec MSS regarding the on-going evolution of the security marketplace and customer threat environment. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One of the things that I am always asked by customers of Symantec MSS is how the MSS environment will evolve over the next three to five years. While most CISOs understand the threat environment of today, what keeps them up at night is trying to understand the threat environment of tomorrow and all of the implications and risks. And customers are desperate to understand. They are literally being attacked from all sides, constantly, and with tremendous potential for ever greater losses of information, money or reputation. With risks being as high as ever, the question is often how can Symantec MSS help them...
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  Updated: Tim G. 30 Mar 2011

  Security alerts are valuable beyond the Security Team (part 2)

  In part one of this blog we identified that intelligence can be of interest to organizational groups beyond security; now let’s look at the benefits of sharing intelligence.    In contrast to traditional ‘security-as-an-island’ approaches, if we move the conversation from “block this, patch that” to something more meaningful to the business, and provide those other functional groups with insight into the state of the threat landscape, we can become more involved with the risk planning for our organizations and simultaneously enhance our “value.”   Now, let’s take this up a level.  Assume,  for instance, you are gathering security information about vulnerabilities and threats to your systems daily and want to provide an abstract to the various departmental leaders about what actions you have initiated, and why they are important.  A simple regular summary of the threats and...