As Kaspersky unwrapped a new release of its private security network for enterprises, the security provider referenced an earlier report it produced on human error’s potential to take down an organization’s digital armor.
Inasmuch as 57 percent of businesses acknowledge that their IT security will be compromised at some point, the “need for real-time security intelligence is growing rapidly,” Kaspersky said in pointing to its July 2017 The Human Factor in IT Security report.
One culprit may, in fact, be people, wrote Nikolay Pankov, editor of Kaspersky’s social media content, in a blog post, in which he introduced the report. “It’s entirely possible for a single person to negate the effect of an entire information security team.”
Kaspersky Security Network (KSN): 80 Million Sensors
In other words, an attack can come from anywhere at any angle. With that in mind, the vendor said the private version of its Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) aims to enable enterprises to speed up detection by access to real-time global threat intelligence from 80 million sensors. The solution enables businesses to enhance their security intelligence by adding to the Kaspersky Private Security Network customized lists of URLs and file reputations – with in-house sources and independent providers.
The overall idea is to provide quick verdicts on new malware specimens and to blunt threats rapidly. While that undoubtedly perks up corporate’s ears, it’s the fact that they can avoid sharing any data outside their corporate network that makes Kaspersky’s distributed cloud infrastructure appealing.
“The ability to stop the kill chain of advanced threats as early as possible is crucial for government organizations and enterprises in specific business areas,” said Alessio Aceti, Kaspersky’s head of enterprise business. “However, these organizations often can’t fully leverage cloud-based threat intelligence due to security policies and restrictions – something that gets even tougher with the growing pressures of government regulations.
Up-to-date threat information arrives from KSN by one-way synchronization, meaning that no data is sent from the corporate network to the cloud, he said.
Kaspersky Security Network (KSN): Key Features
Automation features/tools of the new release:
- Scalable for networks of up to 500,000 nodes.
- Add customer-defined data to their Kaspersky Private Security Network, including file reputation by hashsum (SHA256 or MD5); and URL reputation.
- Whitelist customers’ files to eliminate false positive detections.
- Special interfaces for external threat intelligence feeds that allow cybersecurity teams to upload information about file and URL reputation directly to Kaspersky Private Security Network without any intermediate steps.
- The data diode (unidirectional gateway) protocol for newly supported operating system CentOs allows companies operating with no internet access to collect real-time threat intelligence through the KPSN gateway without any data leaving the corporate network perimeter.
- New web interface that improves threat intelligence management.
Kaspersky: The Alleged Russia Connection
No doubt, Kaspersky continues to aggressively push its R&D efforts. But the company continues to face questions about alleged ties to Russia's government. Kaspersky has repeatedly denied the claims and even offered to show its source code to the U.S. government.
Some channel partners -- particularly Kaseya -- have voiced support for Kaspersky amid the controversy. But another major partner -- Best Buy -- has halted sales of Kaspersky's consumer software.
