Optus and FireEye will build a new Advanced Security Operations Centre in Sydney as part of strategic partnership across the Asia Pacific.
The two companies have launched a Managed Defence solution, powered by FireEye, and will build a new Advanced Security Operations Centre in Sydney, as part of a strategic partnership between SingTel and FireEye.
The co-investment, over five years, will involve building and operating Advanced Security Operation Centres (ASOCs) in Sydney and Singapore.
About 150 professionals will be trained to operate the ASOCs.
It is hoped it will also increase awareness and knowledge of next generation cyber threats through the bi-annual APAC-focused threat advisory reports by SingTel and FireEye.
Optus Business managing director, John Paitaridis, said with more and more Australian organisations experiencing advanced persistent threats, this strategic partnership enhanced Optus Business’ existing security portfolio and provided customers with increased and ongoing visibility and protection.
“The investment in managed defence solutions demonstrates our strengthening end-to-end ICT and managed services capability, with cyber security as an integral capability to support Australian enterprises and government,” he said.
It is the second major investment in security made by Optus Business this year, with a Security Centre of Excellence focused on helping organisations navigate end-to-end security announced in June.
SingTel chief executive, group Enterprise, Bill Chang, said it was a ground-breaking collaboration to enhance the cyber security ecosystem in the region.
"We are combining FireEye’s best-of-breed managed Defence capabilities and SingTel’s leadership in ICT services and infrastructure in Asia Pacific," he said.
"This will help enterprises better manage the increasing challenges of a new generation of cyber-attacks.
"With deep security capabilities, SingTel aims to be the preferred and trusted ICT services partner for enterprises.
"With more mobile devices consuming enterprise data and increasingly exposed to malware attacks, SingTel and FireEye will join forces to provide threat mitigation for mobile devices.”
Chang said the partnership was also aimed at strengthening the industry’s awareness and knowledge in dealing with cyber threats with a bi-annual Asia Pacific-focused threat advisory reports.
FireEye chairman and chief executive, David DeWalt, said FireEye was very excited about the partnership.
"Our managed defence capabilities deliver a level of protection, containment and remediation of highly targeted and complex attacks unmatched in the industry, and SingTel has the scale and infrastructure to help reach customers across the region,” he said.
“Many organisations realise the nature of attacks has fundamentally changed, but are unsure how to update their security infrastructure to respond to modern threats."
He said FireEye and SingTel brought a unique solution to the market, providing managed services that transformed customers’ security posture and helped protect their most valuable assets.
"With our two leading brands, we are looking to grow the business quickly in the Asia Pacific market.”
It will provide continuous monitoring, detection and the quick containment of malware and other perceived threats to enterprises and government organisations.
Based on the investigations in 2013 from FireEye’s Mandiant Incident Response Unit, advanced attackers go undetected for a median of 229 days before being discovered and the vulnerabilities remediated.
This leaves an organisation exposed to potential malicious activity for months.
The Optus Managed Defence Powered by FireEye focuses on both preventing threats from breaching a network as well as quickly alerting and remediating vulnerabilities to reduce the window of exposure, according to a company statement.
The solution detects and prevents most intrusion attempts against major attack vectors with patented virtual machine-based technology.
It montiors an environment 24 hours a day, seven days a week and analyses potential cyber threats using techniques based on over 100,000 hours per year of front-line experience.
The Australian centre is expected to open in Sydney in early 2015.
The ASOCs will be integrated with SingTel’s Network Operations Centres to provide end-to-end visibility across corporate networks and Internet traffic.
These centres will also connect to FireEye’s global network of ASOCs and have access to FireEye Dynamic Threat Intelligence (DTI), a global network that connects FireEye threat prevention platforms to provide a real-time exchange of threat data on today’s cyber attacks.
Australian Information Industry Association, chairman, Kee Wong, said more Australian enterprises were pushing into the digital space, relying on emerging technologies, cloud computing and mobile devices to be more productive and agile.
"Ironically, this has also opened the door to rising cyber-attacks causing business disruption, financial losses and customer inconvenience," he said.
"As a whole, the industry would benefit from a collaboration between SingTel-Optus, a leading and trusted ICT service provider in the region, and FireEye, which is a global expert in cyber security and protection.
"We will gain greater awareness of threats against Australian business interest and be better equipped to deal with such threats,” said Kee Wong, Chairman, Australian Information Industry Association."
According to FireEye’s regional Advanced Threat Report, countries in Asia Pacific, including Australia, are more likely to be targeted by advanced cyber-attacks than the world as a whole.
This has led to a higher demand for cyber security talent and a shortage of skillsets in cyber forensics, incidence response and threat analysis in this part of the world.
The partnership will help address this by bringing in global cyber security experts and growing the local talent pool.
FireEye has seen a significant number of advanced persistent threats (APT) targeting computer networks in Australia and incidents are increasing with an estimated 50 per cent of Australian organisations experiencing an attack.
By expanding the data available via the SingTel network, FireEye will build upon existing Advanced Threat Reports and work with SingTel to jointly produce regular reports focused on cyber threats in Asia, including Australia.
The threat report will deliver broader benefits to the regional security ecosystem by tracking the latest APT activities in APTs as well as the types of malware that are affecting different countries, according to a company statement.
