AT&T closes deal for AlienVault, appoints CEO as head of new cybersecurity unit
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AT&T closes deal for AlienVault, appoints CEO as head of new cybersecurity unit
Arroyo echoed this sentiment
“Whether big, small or somewhere in between, all organizations are now targets of the types of sophisticated cyberattacks that have bombarded large enterprises for years,” Arroyo said in a prepared statement. “AlienVault’s cybersecurity talent and threat intelligence capabilities, combined with our ability to deliver innovative threat detection and response solutions at-scale, will help enable businesses of all sizes to better defend themselves.”
There no definitive plans to implement AlienVault technology into the FirstNet initiative, which has its own cybersecurity team, but Meftah said the new AT&T cybersecurity unit will be available to provide any assistance sought. Meanwhile, addressing the cybersecurity needs of other critical-infrastructure entities will be a focal point for the new AT&T cybersecurity-solutions unit, he said.
“Critical infrastructure and industrial control systems have been a big focus of AlienVault even prior to the AT&T acquisition,” Meftah said. “With the AT&T merger, it’s become even more important, because AT&T cybersecurity solutions has great reach into that vertical industry. That’s one industry that we’re very obsessed about, because the ramifications of a breach in that industry are just incredible.
“This move toward the Internet of Things and making things extremely smart, when it comes to critical infrastructure, has a lot of advantages from an automation perspective. But, at the same time, it accentuates the need for security, because, [with] each of those end points and attack surfaces—should they be breached—the ramifications are going to be pretty bad.”