Managed Security Services Provider Morning News: 10 October 2017

Each morning MSSP Alert broadcasts a quick lineup of news, analysis and chatter from across the global managed security services provider, SOC (security operations center) and IT outsourcing ecosystem.

Here’s the lineup for Tuesday, October 10, 2017:

10. Russia vs. USA: Google apparently has uncovered Russia-backed ads on YouTube and Gmail, while Microsoft is exploring similar concerns with Bing. Facebook and Twitter have already disclosed concerns about ads -- allegedly funded by Russia -- that were designed to swing the U.S. presidential election toward Donald Trump. Russia has repeatedly denied any involvement in the alleged ad campaigns.

9. Russia Battles Encryption: Russia will block access to websites of exchanges that offer crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin, Reuters reported Tuesday.

8. FDIC Breaches: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) may have suffered more than 50 breaches in 2015 and 2016, according to a report from the Office of Inspector General. We'll share more details soon.

7. Kaspersky Hearing: A U.S. House of Representatives committee has scheduled a new hearing on Kaspersky Lab software as lawmakers review accusations that the Kremlin could use its products to conduct espionage, according to Reuters. Kaspersky has repeatedly denied the claims.

6.  Talent: Auth0, which specializes in Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS), has named four executives to key posts. They include: Joan Pepin, now chief information security officer; Lewis Carpenter, chief marketing officer; Kendal Callison, VP of people; and  Jeremy Freeland, general counsel. AuthO secures more than 50 million logins per day, and the company has raised $54 million in venture capital funding.

5. Boardroom Disconnect?: When it comes to IT security, a perception gap between IT decision makers and board members seems to persist. For instance, 48% of IT decision makers believe that IT security is still not a top priority discussion for the board, according to a Fortinet survey. But that figure doesn’t seem to affect budgets since 61% of enterprises spend over 10% of their IT budget on security, which is a high investment, according to Fortinet's findings. The potential takeaway: Spending on IT security is often a tactical move, while an overall cyber stance requires strategic thinking...

4. Artificial Intelligence: LogRhythm has unveiled CloudAI, an analytics offering that is available as an integrated, add-on subscription service for the LogRhythm Threat Lifecycle Management Platform. CloudAI is initially focused on extending and enhancing LogRhythm’s existing user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) capabilities.

3. MSSP Partner Program: Information Systems Integration (ISI) has joined the Balbix Velocity Alliance Program as an MSSP partner. ISI provides security and risk management for government affairs firms. Balbix has built an AI-powered predictive breach-risk platform

2. M&A - Office 365 Security: Marlin Equity Partners has acquired AppRiver, a major Microsoft Office 365 cloud security services partner that supports thousands of MSPs worldwide.

1. Cyber Conference:  The Carbon Black Connect 2017 conference is under way in San Francisco. We'll be tracking it closely for MSSP-related updates.