Equant offers managed IDS

IDG News Service - Network operator Equant NV said Tuesday that it is adding a managed intrusion detection service to its portfolio of security services.

Equant Intrusion Detection will use Cisco Systems Inc. IDS 4250 sensors to monitor customer traffic flow in real time, recording attacks and correlating alerts from various sensors, according to Steve Maslin, security product manager at Equant, which is based in Amsterdam.

When incidents are detected, Equant will provide customers with advice on incident handling and intervention, the company said.

In the area of security device management, Equant will oversee signature and software updates, store IDS (intrusion detection system) information and issue detailed reports on intrusions along with recommended fixes, according to Equant.

Equant is partnering with Ubizen NV to provide security event monitoring component of the intrusion detection service, Maslin said.

Consultants in Ubizen's security operations centers (SOCs) will use that company's proprietary State and Event Analysis Machine technology to weed out security events from a steady stream of IDS alerts. Ubizen consultants will then provide Equant Intrusion Detection customers advice on remediating security events using configuration changes or other remedies, Equant said.

The goal is to lower the cost ownership of IDS for enterprises that are interested in deploying an IDS service without sacrificing the "intelligent response" capabilities that come from security analysts reviewing the output from IDS sensors, Maslin said.

That will set the service apart from IPS or intrusion prevention services that rely mostly on automated responses, he said.

Service level agreements (SLAs) ensure a high level of service for the managed IDS customers, mandating response to the customer regarding intrusions within 40 minutes, Maslin said. Equant hopes to reduce the response time as the program matures, Maslin said.

By comparison, competitors such as MSSP (managed security services provider) Guardent Inc. of Waltham, Massachusetts, issue SLAs to customers promising notification within 15 minutes of identifying a security issue according to Jonas Hellgren, vice president of operations at Guardent.

As with other managed security service companies, Equant will offer a customer Web portal that provides event tracking, query management and report features, Maslin said.

Equant will also store up to 12 months of forensic data for use by the customer, he said.

Equant already offers a Secure Gateway service that includes managed firewall with antivirus and URL (Uniform Resource Locator) filtering capabilities, a Secure Authentication service that provides remote user authentication services for customer Web sites, and security consulting services, according to Equant.

After entering the managed security services business less than five years ago, Equant now

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