The Gately Report: RSAC 2024 Kicks Off with Debut of AT&T's LevelBlue

RSA CONFERENCE — The biggest news from day one of RSAC 2024 in San Francisco on Monday the launch of LevelBlue, formerly AT&T Cybersecurity, now a new, standalone managed cybersecurity services business.

Tens of thousands of cybersecurity professionals have descended on the City by the Bay for this week’s RSAC 2024. It’s where the industry convenes to participate in conversations about how to secure businesses, employees and customers.

LevelBlue is a joint venture with WillJam Ventures, an investor with cybersecurity industry experience, and AT&T, which announced the intent to create the standalone business last November.

In 2019, AlienVault combined with AT&T Cybersecurity Consulting and AT&T Managed Security Services to form AT&T Cybersecurity. AT&T acquired AlienVault in 2018.

LevelBlue's Launch During RSAC 2024 a 'Fortunate Coincidence'

Bob McCullen, WillJam Ventures’ managing partner, is LevelBlue’s chairman and CEO. He said launching LevelBlue during RSAC 2024 wasn't planned, just a fortunate coincidence.

AT&T is retaining a minority ownership stake and board representation in LevelBlue.

“If you look at AT&T’s history, obviously they've been involved in networks for 100 years or so, and cyber has always been an important part of networks and securing their customers,” McCullen said. “This business has grown to the size where it needed a focus and attention, and an opportunity for us to invest in it. I've had a relationship with AT&T for a long time, and I've been in the managed services industry for over 25 years, so this was like a perfect marriage.”

LevelBlue's Bob McCullen

LevelBlue offers managed security services, cybersecurity consulting, threat intelligence and continuous security operations center (SOC) support.

“I found out some time ago that AT&T was interested in a partner to help invest and grow their cyber business, and so it became an alliance between WillJam and AT&T as a spinoff for us to do that,” McCullen said. “So it's a great opportunity for us. It will be one of the largest startups in security industry history, so we're all very excited.

We also have the latest news at RSAC from Google Cloud, Cisco and Fortinet.

Scroll through our slideshow above for more on LevelBlue and other news from day one of RSAC 2024.