In this Q&A with Kevin Landt, VP of Product Management, Cygilant, we discuss the company's new partnership with Barac, and the intricacies of encrypted traffic visibility.
Tell me a little about Cygilant. What benefits would a company see by utilizing cybersecurity-as-a-service from Cygilant? What kind of organizations do you serve?
Sure! We’re a cybersecurity company focused on delivering solutions and service to small and mid-sized companies across the globe, which are traditionally some of the most under-served types of businesses – and often have to do the best they can with limited security or IT resources at their disposal. Our Cybersecurity-as-a-Service offering combines tools and personalized advice to counter this lack of resources and help these companies focus on what’s most important to make them secure. We provide a dedicated Cybersecurity Advisor to each customer, and they work with our Security Operation Centers (SOCs) to constantly monitor customers’ networks, using the latest threat hunting, detection, patch management and incident response technologies, uncovering and ranking potential issues and remediations.
Encryption is a double-edged sword when it comes to data privacy, compliance and security. Can you talk about the problem that you set out to solve with this new partnership with Barac?
Recent stats say that almost all web traffic flowing in and out of a business’ network is encrypted. That’s great for overall security and protection of our personal data, but no so great for those trying to keep networks safe and protected. If you break the encryption to see what’s in the traffic, then you may be able to block threats, but you’re also violating privacy regulations. If you let the traffic flow freely, then you’re potentially exposing your network to an attack, as cybercriminals have begun hiding malware and threats within encrypted traffic. With Barac, this problem is solved, as the traffic can be reviewed and approved or blocked, without decryption.
What made Barac stand out as a viable partner in this crowded industry? What set them apart?
Barac is very similar from a technological, cultural and philosophical approach to the way we operate here at Cygilant. It seemed like a natural fit. We both believe that security technology should make the lives of IT teams easier – and should alleviate time and stress from their day-to-day jobs, not add to it. Their encrypted traffic visibility technology is really market-leading – and we knew this was a growing concern for the size of customers we service. In researching the potential ways to solve this issue for our customers, we saw Barac again and again and knew we had to work with the best.
What does this partnership mean for your customers?
Understanding encrypted traffic isn’t a nice-to-have for our customers, it’s a have-to-have. Up until now small and mid-sized businesses have had an unwelcome choice – either decrypt to check what’s in the encrypted traffic traveling through their networks (and violate privacy regulations), or let that traffic flow unchecked, potentially exposing their company to breaches or attacks. Barac’s technology has improved accuracy for customers – with an average of only 2 false positives for every 30,000 Transport Layer Security (TLS) connections. This partnership gives businesses with less resources the ability to cost-effectively improve the accuracy and effectiveness of their security.
What are your plans for the future of this partnership?
As we work closer together with Barac, I’m certain there will be opportunities for our solution offerings to grow even more complimentary. We will look for additional ways to integrate the data from Barac ETV into our other threat intelligence and vulnerability data streams, creating a single pane of glass.
For more information about Cygilant's partnership with Barac, visit: https://blog.cygilant.com/blog/barac-partnership-announcement